This is for the lucky CH'ers, like me, that get hit on both sides of the head.

Now, as anyone that has had these "wonderful" experiences for a long time, know, they change and morph over the years.  My hits, today, are VERY different than they were when I first got nailed.

For instance, I realized that I no longer feel any pain behind my eyeball.  I have no idea when it stopped, but I realized it a few years ago.  Yes, I still get extreme pain, but it is different, and hurts in a different way than they used to.

Now, for those lucky ones, are the hits the same on the other side, as your original side?  Are they as strong?  Stronger?  Do they start, progress, last, and go away the same on both sides?

I never know which side I am going to get hit on.  I am still, predominantly, a lefty, but of say 8 hits in any particular day, 2 or 3 will be on the right side.  The interesting thing is that they are identical in their features.

Once they started on the right side, they didn't go back to the beginning and progress as the left side did.  They started right in at where the left side was, in its metamorphosis.

The intensity varies.  Sometimes the left is stronger, sometimes the right is.  Like every hit, they vary.

Just curious with other sufferer's experiences with variable sided cluster hits.

Chuck

Holy crap!!!

I am sorry man.

Many PF wishes

I get hit on both sides too.  Mostly I'll get hit for a couple of weeks straight on the one side, have a day or two pain free then it'll start again on the other side.  Sometimes they will switch up for a hit or two in the little cycles but it'll go back to the side it started from.  

My right side seems to be the more severe side where all hell breaks lose - I get the 8's and 9's repeatedly.  When they start, it's much quicker  and the pain seems to radiate around more, I can feel it down into my teeth and ear.  And my nose gets instantly stuffed up to where I can't breathe out of that side.

My left side seems to be more of the shadow side with hits only getting up to about 6's. The pain isn't as wide spread - around my eye, down to my cheek bone and to my temple.  My nose doesn't get as stuffy on the left either.

Last year (and the only time) I got into a "high cycle" on the right side. At first I didn't know what hit me and then it dawned on me - it was on the WRONG side. For weeks I only got the hits on the right side. After that cycle broke - we went back to the same old lefty thing and it's been that way ever since....

There's just NO rhyme or reason to this damn demon!!!!

Hugs BD

BarbaraD wrote on Jul 29^th, 2008 at 8:42pm:

Last year (and the only time) I got into a "high cycle" on the right side. At first I didn't know what hit me and then it dawned on me - it was on the WRONG side. For weeks I only got the hits on the right side. After that cycle broke - we went back to the same old lefty thing and it's been that way ever since.... There's just NO rhyme or reason to this damn demon!!!! Hugs BD

SHEESH!!!

Typical cranky, senile old broad!

You never answered the question!  Were the hits on the right side, exactly the same, structurally, as the ones on the left side?

ANSWER the question, ya pain in the patootie!

SHEESH!!!  WIMMINZ!!!

Chuck

When I get hit on the left it is slightly less painfull than on the right, but more depressing.  I had only 1 lefty last week and at the beginning I was hoping it was just the occipital neuralgia but it was a 45 minute 7.

Even so, I am in so much better shape than when I first got here - the meds cover medium and low cycles.

My neuro finally gave me O2 in April.  He had never prescribed it before and sent me a generator, which by some fluke is slightly broken and goes up to 11lpm, which is good.  Kirk sent me a non-rebreather mask.  (Thanks, Kirk.)  I wanted to say the O2 also helps with the occipital neuralgia.

Charlotte

Chuck,

I’m a leftie too and during my last cycle I did get a couple of RH hits.  I didn’t get many although I would say they were exactly the same.

Take care Wildman!

Ron

Chuck,

I'm so glad that you brought this up, because on this cycle I've been hit on both sides.

Now, I've used to having hits on the left. Before this cycle, I've had only some mild action - shadows - on the right side. But no more. My "favourite" moment was when I killed a hit on the left side with energy drink and then got hit soon on the right side! ::)

So far, the hits on the right have been milder than the ones on the left, but for the past few days I've been hit more and more on the right side and I don't like it a bit! This cycle started normally on the left and I sure has heck don't want it to move to the right - but end... :(

Sanna

In my episodic past during one cycle it switched from right to left.
Other than being on the "wrong" side the hits were exactly the same.

Since I'm chronic the beast never switched sides again.
But that might - as we all know - change...

Oliver

The left side (not normal) I'm usually a righty, hits are not as painful, intense or as long as the right side ones.  And they do not happen in a "cycle", they are very random.  The pain on the right side (normal hit) is almost always behind my eye and in my temple, occaisionally it can hurt in my teeth, but that is very rare.  The left side ones are almost always in the temple area.

Even thought the pain is less on the left side, it seems to hurt more because I'm not used to it.  It always takes me by surprise, there are no shadows or warning signals, it just comes on "WHAM!" and can happen anytime, anyplace no rhyme or reason.

I've had two of the damn things this week already.

I usually get hit on the left side, but my last cycle i got hit on both sides at different times. However, my first CH of this cycle was on both sides at the same time. At first I thought "this isn't a cluster, I never had one on both sides at the same time". But it was the beginning of a new cycle. Frankly it was the worst experience of my entire life. But when I got hit on both sides, the pain wasn't quite as severe as it had been in the past... but honestly this entire cycle hasn't been as bad as usual. I have since returned to being a lefty again though, and I am thankful for that.

So when I had both at the same time the pain was the same, as best as I could tell. Frankly I wasn't paying much attention to the actual pain as I was paying attention to the fact that I wished I was dead. But my previous cycle's shifts were different. The pain was about the same, but where my usual lefty CHs lasted about an hour to an hour and a half, the rightys lasted twice as long BUT were more receptive to the Imitrex then the leftys. Imitrex does not in any way kill the entire cluster for me (I am fortunate to have foreshadows about 15 to 30 minutes before an attack and I can douse the pain a bit with the Imitrex) but it does somewhat dull the pain, and my right side attacks were significantly less painful then my leftys after the Imitrex started working.

Two cycles ago I was getting hit on both sides.  I am usually a rightie and was getting hit on left side too-  hits were just as strong, and to the best of  my recollection progressed the same on the 'wrong side' as the 'right side'   This past cycle only got hit on right side, but got shadows on the left which never progressed into full HA-  A couple of shadows on the wrong side scared me though-