Hi All,

Just wanted to share my experience of the past few weeks of hell and what (I hope) has now fixed it.

For the past 4 weeks I have been waking up almost every night with a terrible headache. At first I thought my right eye was causing the problem as it felt similar to when I flashed myself when welding years ago. However my brow and scalp were painful to touch and paracetamol/ibuprofen didn't do anything to stop the pain.

I went to my doctors who could see nothing wrong with my eyes and referred me to an opthalmologist for further investigation. These tests also came back with no obvious issue.

I returned to the doctor a week later who began to suspect Temporal Arteritis, urgent blood tests were performed and again no issues found. The doctor then suspected migraines and prescribed Naproxen. After a couple of days I realised this was not helping the pain at all.

At this point I googled my symptoms and came across the cluster headache! The symptoms matched! The relief I felt by not being the only one and that there was potentially an end in sight was immense. I returned to the doctors who agreed CH would seem the likely issue. They then prescribed Sumatriptan nasal spray to test.

However, when browsing the web, one of the CH triggers rang a bell. Solvents and perfumes. Around the same time my CH started, my wife bought a couple of reed diffuser type air fresheners to combat my slightly smelly dog. At first they smelt strong but after a while they calmed down until I couldn't smell them anymore. After reading about the triggers on the web, I threw the air fresheners in the bin. The next night I slept like a baby!

Now I'm no Poirot/Columbo/Sherlock Holmes! but I made the connection with the air freshener effectiveness (normally 4-6 weeks), typical duration of CH periods (4-6 weeks) and the link with smokers (likely to use air fresheners).

I know this doesn't match everyone's situation but it may help some people identify their triggers.

Sorry if I'm posting anything that's been said before :/

Cheers.

Tony 

Hi Tony and welcome,
Their are lots of CH triggers.
The trick is to find the ones that trigger your CH's and avoid them. It would seem you have found one. Good on ya. But..
be wary the beast is very cunning. 


PFD, Hoppy.

   

I'm glad you're headaches have stopped....BUT...and it's a huge but, I'd caution you against thinking you've eliminated your CH. I do not mean to be a Buzz Killer here, but let me share my experiences:

I "cured" my CH's by giving up my morning coffee. Then I "cured" CH by giving up using Q-tips in the ear on the affected side. (Oh stop laughing all of you, many of you have done dumber!!! ;D) It's not until many years later, I began to see the cyclic nature of my CH. And my giving up these supposed triggers coincided with when my cycle was due to end anyways.

For those who suffer from CH, avoiding triggers can REDUCE but not eliminate attacks. I'm hoping whatever headache type you suffered from is gone forever. Pain free time is what we're all searching for. If it was CH, it will come back. I'd strongly suggest you continue to educate yourself on CH so if it does come back, you're prepared.

Joe

Hi Tony and welcome

From the way you described your interactions with your doctor I suspect you've just been seeing a GP. Headaches are actually a pretty complex area with many, many different types plus non-headaches that result in headache symptoms that can make getting an accurate diagnosis pretty complex.

Giving Naproxen to see if someone has migraines is not a great diagnostic test as can be seen from what this can treat according to Wikipedia - START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

Quote:

Naproxen is commonly used for the reduction of pain, fever, inflammation and stiffness caused by conditions including migraine, osteoarthritis, kidney stones, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, gout, ankylosing spondylitis, menstrual cramps, tendinitis and bursitis. It is also used for the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea.

Similarly for Sumatriptan nasal spray with it working for migraine, CH and other headaches too.

So do work on getting a referral to a headache specialist.

If it is CH then you've found a great place to learn a huge amount about CH that will make a huge difference. Keep reading and ask all the questions you can think of.