Hi all I am Sarah. I am a SAHM to my 18 month old Hannah and a PAW (Proud Army Wife) to my husband Buck who is currently in Iraq. We are currently stationed in Baumholder, Germany. I suffered my first headache about a month ago and was lucky for it to just be once that month. Then 2 nights ago I had another and to be perfectly honest I feel one coming on right now. I went to the ER for the one a couple nights ago and the doctor immediately said that he thought that it was a cluster headache that was brought on by stress. Anywho, I am happy to find this board to hopefully get some more info and meet others who know what it is like.

Hi and Welcome Sarah,

   Please do read all of the links to the left of where you are reading this right now.  Especially the cluster traits and cluster quiz.   Then go here: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE   and read some more, and scroll down to the bottom of the page there and click on links.

It is very rare...actually I have NEVER heard of someone...getting only one Cluster headache.  Cluster are called so,  because they occur in groups...or clusters.  An episodic sufferer, for instance may have 3 or 4 or more headaches per day for several months and then be pain-free for several months.  

Please feel free to ask questions around here..that is why this site exists, as well as to give support to others who share this condition.


Linda

START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE
START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE
Here's some reading for you.
all the best and welcome
thebb

Welcome Sarah,

I hope the Dr didn't know what he was talking about, and that you don't have CH.  From our brief description of your HA's I'm inclined to be doubtful, read that HOPEFUL!  However, if it does turn out to be CH you have found a new home, and welcome.

I find that stress is not a causative effect, but rather prevents many of mine.  Mine come on particularly when I relax.  

Read the info to the left.  There is a lot there, and please feel free to ask questions as they come up.

Please tell your husband THANK YOU from us.  You are both appreciated more than you know.  My son just returned from a tour over there with the Marine Corps the end of August, so I have a feeling for what you are going through.

Looking forward to hearing more from you, and hopefully that it is something else.

Jerry

After reading some more about cluster headaches I am reluctant to agree with the ER. I will go into a little more detail of my ordeal the other night and maybe someone can provide some insight for me.

All day that day I had a very mild headache. It was on the front right side of my head and was more annoying than anything. I took a motrin but it didnt help. When my daughter went down for her nap I slept with her thinking that it would be gone when I woke up. After 4 hours, yes 4 hours of sleep it was still there and actually a litte worse. I jsut shrugged it off thinking it would go away on its own. My husband called that night and we talked about money, which I hate doing. (He grew up dirt poor and now that we are doing pretty good it is all he wants to talk about). I got off the phone with him a little stressed just because I hate to talk about money. Anyway, we did our normal night time routine which involves my daughter doing anything she can to not have to go to bed which irritated me. When I finally got her to sleep at 10 I went and layed down in bed to read a book. About 10:30 my mild headache became the most painful thing I have ever eperienced. Worse than labor in my opinion, right up there with kidney stones (I have had 4). I alyed in bed tossing and turning and crying and holding my head where it hurt. Two hours later I finally called a friend to come get me and take me to the ER which is a 40 minute drive. On the way there I threw up twice. My right eye felt droopy and my vision was blurred my right nostril was also runny. Once there they took me right back even though they had several people waiting, thankfully they were sympathetic to my pain and didnt make me wait. Like I said the doctor came in, asked me a couple questions like how long had it been hurting, where it hurt, had it happened before, and then he looked at my eyes and all the normal stuff. He then said he felt that it was a cluster headache and they started an IV and gave me some morphine. They also gave me fluids because he said that I was dehydrated. After about 20 minutes the pain was gone and I was ready to go to sleep so they sent me home with a prescription for Vicodin.

Tonight, I talked to my husband again and again we had an argument. This time it was because he hadnt called in 2 days because he has been too tired after work to call which I understand. But tonight he called his mom and my mom and dad twice before he called me and when I told him that hurt my feeling he told me to get over it. Anyway, about 45 min later I felt another headache coming on. Dull like how the other one started the other day so I took a Vicodin and now it is a few hours later and I still have a headache just not as bad as what it became last time.

OK saorry I went into so much detail some of which I am sure you didnt want to know LOL. But if anyone knows what else it might be I am all ears. Thanks in advance.

I'm sorry Sarah...if the ER gave you Morphine and then Vicodin and diagnosed cluster headaches they did NOT know what they were talking about.  Did they give you oxygen?    Anyone with any knowledge about CH would have done that first.

None of us are Dr.s here, so we sure can't tell you what you have, but a lot of what you describe...doesn't sound like it and as Jerry already said...that is a good thing.

You really need to get in to see a Dr.  Keep reading around here before you do so you can be well informed about what you may or may not be dealing with, o.k.?

Linda

Thanks Linda. I plan on calling the doctors office Tuesday when they open back up but I would like to be prepared. I appreciate your help.

Please Sarah....let us know what he says too.  O.K.?


Oh, one other thing...You said you laid in bed, tossing and turning?  Most, if not all of us could no sooner lay in bed or sit still or do anything but rock, or pace or something like that.  Laying in bed is not an option.

     

Your right eye drooping and your right nostril running sounds like it could be CH.  You are to new at it to be really sure, but I know for certain that I could not lie down with one.  Please keep reading, and at least know what to ask for if yo have to go in again.  THROW THE VICODIN AWAY!!!

If it is CH opiates will only get you hooked, and will do NO good for the pain.  Morphine doesn't touch mine.  The only pain killer that does anything at all is Demerol, and I don't want to touch that stuff.  Was put on narcotics when first diagnosed 25+ yrs ago.  All it did was that I got stoned.  STill HURT, but just didn't care, until I tried to get off of them.  Years later I still got the urge to take one.

If you have to go in again, ask for Oxygen with Nonrebreather mask at at LEAST 15lpm.  Suck on it like it is a lifeline.  Hyperventilating on it if possible.  Another thing to try is a Red Bull or other such energy drink.  Chug it down as fast as you can possibly drink it at the first sign of an attack.  If O2 or the energy drink break the attack within 15-20 mins that might be an indicator, but most of all, it gives yousome relief.  I also drink a lot of coffee during the HA's that you described as the precursor to the main hit.  (What we call a shadow)

It would also be helpful if you would keep a diary of your HA's, giving times of hits, duration of hits, and intensity, especially if you can show the progression of an attack, ie buildup, peak, and end.  Check the button on the left for th "kip scale".  This is a pain scale developed by Bob Kipple, a fellow clusterhead.  It takes a lot of the subjectivity out of the normal 1-10 pain scale by showing physiological reactions we go through at the various stages of an attack.

Hope this is helpful.

Jerry

Edit to add:  You mentioned the Dr said you were dehydrated.  That seems to go along with CH for some reason.  See the button "water x 3" on the left also.  Sometimes drinking a lot of water will help also.  Just makes me use the bathroom, but is helpful for a lot of others.

The first time I had a CH attack it didn't hurt at all. The only thing that happened was that my left eyelid went droopy and my left nostril got clogged up. This was in the daytime while I was at work. I thought it was something weird that would go away later, and it did go away later that same day. Of course I went home from work, ate dinner, played with the kids, and everything seemed normal... until I decided to have a nap after the kids had gone to bed.

That it is when the pain hit. I cannot remember how it felt (Left, middle, right), only that it was exrutiating. It kept repeating and I was trying all the ordinary painkillers but as you all know, that is just beast candy. Went to get a CT, and saw a ear/nose/throat doctor but nobody understood jack****. Finally I switched my regular doc, and this new doc actually took his time to look up the symptoms in a doctors manual hehe;-)  

What I am getting at is that maybe she is experiencing the birth of the beast, and that maybe it will take awhile before it manifests in the ordinary way...

I am pretty beat up at the moment. Been sleeping poorly last.. oh well... month :o

I just took the CH survey.  Luckily, I have been pain free for 2 years now.  Taking the survey made me remember how much I suffered during my first and only episode thus far, and I realize how grateful I am that my cycle ended and hasn't recurred.  I came back to the website, and even after only reading the topic headers, I began to cry with empathy for all of you who still suffer.  I remember the hopelessness I felt when I went from doctor to doctor who pretty much told me I was insane (and some subtly suggesting that I was just doctor hopping to get opiates), that it was a sinus infection, that I needed root canals, etc. until I finally learned that there was a diagnosis to explain the pain and suffering I was enduring.  My first one hit when I came out of anesthesia following surgery.  I cried and said that my head still hurt even after being administered dilaudid and the nurse said it was a caffeine withdrawal headache (what an idiot...I'll never forget that one!).  You are all in my thoughts, and I hope that relief will soon be in sight for each & every one of you.  I am one of the lucky ones, and each day I can only hope that it will never return.  I don't believe in God, but I think I might know now what hell is like.  After my diagnosis, I was talking about it with my Dad and learned that he had suffered when he was my age (I was 35 when I was diagnosed), and he, like me, only had one 4 month episode.  His haven't recurred, so I'm hoping mine won't either.  For those of you suffering, hang in there.  I wish you all peace and pain free days up ahead.

Love,

KQ (Jess)

MaxPayne wrote on Oct 13^th, 2008 at 8:57am:

Finally I switched my regular doc, and this new doc actually took his time to look up the symptoms in a doctors manual hehe;-)

Mine hit an hour after falling asleep, too...I quoted you because I forgot to mention how my GP first diagnosed me after he googled the symptoms and found them on WebMD.  I could have done that!  He he...

the nurse said it was a caffeine withdrawal headache (what an idiot...I'll never forget that one!)

Haha - First time I've heard that one. Man some people are just plain stupid!