Hi,
I'm a 32 year old male, for as long as I can remember I've suffered from normal headaches, still get them most days. I also used to get migraines on a fairly regular basis.
About 10-12 years ago, I started very rarely getting headaches which meet every symptom of CH except that they usually only happen one time, once or twice a year, a few years back I did have a spell where I got the headache maybe 3 nights in a row.
The last one happened 2 nights ago, like every previous time, it woke me up about 1am. They've all felt the same, like my left eyeball was being squeezed hard, red eye, pressure around that part of the head, unable to say still and it usually goes after about an hour or two. I've got a fairly decent pain tolerance but when this happens its almost unbearable, migraines seem tame in comparison.
Going from the CH symptoms I've seen online, the physical symptoms seem to match but the fact I only usually get a single occurrence doesn't seem to be normal?

Hi Lee and welcome,
It's always best to check in with a headache specialist when things like this occur, just to make shore theirs nothing else going on.

Hoppy

Got to be honest, I'm pretty terrible when it comes to medical stuff. I did visit a doctor years ago but didn't follow it up.
I think its about time i did get it checked though.

Hi Lee

The first thing to remember is that with CH, there is no such thing as normal.  Every one of us is different.  Every cycle, every episode and every individual CH can be different.  I have had cycles that lasted 18 months, I have had one attack that lasted 14 hours, and many single attacks that have come out of no where, and do not recurr for weeks.

There are many different "headache" conditions which mimic CH.  Same symptoms, but caused by different reasons.  They all respond to different meds, so it's vital to get a proper diagnosis, in order to get the right treatment.