I had suffered a K9 at the dog park, and had already got back home and was recovering from it, when a friend of mine that I used to work with dropped in for a visit. He knew I had some sort of condition as I had always packed around my Maxalt pills, but was fortunate enough to never need them while we worked together. I managed to pull myself together and briefly explained what it was I was going through and actually showed him the Letter to Employers, as I find it well put together, and really sums it up. It kind of blew him away.

A few days later, I get a phone call from him. He explained one of his co-workers had ditched work early, and he was giving him a hard time about it. The co-worker explained his wife was having some serious headaches (her first series of them), and he had to bring her to the hospital. My friend then asked if they had ever heard of Cluster Headaches, which he said he hadn't. They pulled up some information on his cell phone, and lo and behold, he's 100% sure now this is what she's suffering from.

I gave him some information, including links to this site. Hopefully she gets through it, I'm glad I was able to help somebody realize what it is they are going through at the earliest possible time. I know I had to go through about 4 years before I finally went and saw a doctor about it.

Payin it forward, it's a beautiful thing. :)

Joe

Way to go, my friend!  We who have suffered from this beast know all to well what others are going through.  To be able to short-cut someone else's suffering is quite satisfying. 

Jerry

Great work on promoting awareness like this.

However make sure that they see the a headache specialist to get confirmation that it really is CH. There are several other possible causes for CH-like symptoms, some of which can be fatal, so this step really is important.

I still haven't met her, but I'll be sure to pass on for her to go get a professional opinion. She has done the research herself, based on my input as far as where to get proper information online, and she is 100% sure this is what she's going through. I remember my first few years undiagnosed, and I'm pretty sure I just sucked it up....somehow....as I had no idea that a headache could really be that bad. Had I had an early tipoff as to what could be happening, I could have saved myself a few painful years :)