One effective way that I found that has helped me personally with my cluster headaches is by putting my bare feet in cold water. If I felt the headache coming on or if the headache was full-blown, I have relieved and shortened my headaches many times. I would go to my bathtub, run the cold water, take off my shoes and socks and just stand in the water, I would walk back and forth in the bathtub to keep that cold sensation flowing well around my feet. Sometimes the pain went away immediately, sometimes it would take a little time, also sometimes it would not go away but it would feel far better than it would have felt if I hadn't put my feet in the cold water. I would only need the water to reach up to about my ankles. Also, while I would be standing there in the water waiting for my headache to reside, I would turn on the shower and let the cold water just run over that throbbing vein on the left side of my head by my temple, I would hold my head there until the cold water would give me that icy burn, then I would pull my head out of the cold water and absorb the icy burning feel, it hurts but not as bad as a cluster headache. I believe that by feeling that different pain, it might take my mind off of the throbbing vein pain of the cluster headache. I'm no doctor and I do not know if these methods that I have used are good for me or not, but hey these are suicide headaches and I personally will try anything to stop that annoying throbbing pain. I really don't think cold water is bad for the human body anyway. To all you cluster headache sufferers, I feel your pain, your fear and dread. You really do fear going to work, when you are going through those possible weeks and months of pain. You really do not want your co-workers, family, or friends seeing you in such a weakened state. So try the cold water remedy when you're near a bathtub. Or I suggest getting a foot bucket, filling it with cold water or buy bottled water and maybe some ice, when abroad. In your car, you can keep a cooler and buy ice from the nearest store and you can cool your feet inside your car with your foot bucket. If you don't have a foot bucket handy and a throbbing cluster comes upon you, I suggest just getting a bag of ice and laying the whole bag across your throbbing vein and back of your neck until you feel that icy burn, and do it again and again until that damn cluster headache goes away.

Terrence,

You mentioned "throbbing" five times in your post.  Cluster headache is almost never described as "throbbing".  Have you actually been diagnosed with CH?

Regards,
Jim

Terrence134 wrote on Jun 1^st, 2009 at 4:27pm:

Terrence,

Thank you for your suggestion, but I do not need to "look it up"; I know what "throbbing" means.  I also know that "throbbing" is typically not associated with CH, which is why I asked if you had been diagnosed with CH.  You answered the question.

Throbbing IS, however, typically associated with a number of other headache disorders, including complicated, hemiplegic, basilar type, and retinal migraines.  If you do suffer from any of these, and try to treat them with typical CH meds (e.g. triptans), you can end up blind, paralyzed, or dead, which is why it's important to know for sure what you've got.

Glad to hear that the feet-in-icewater treatment works for you - more power to ya!

Regards,
Jim

Many people here have used cold - my freezer is stocked with several of those gel things to apply when I wake up at 3 am.  I usually apply to the face, forehead, or back of neck, but maybe there is some reflex that is triggered by cold water on the feet.

I can't even focus my eyes when I have a moderate level cluster - one side is quite swollen, tears are flowing, it is red, hot and irritated.  Not sure how you can do housework when it is at its worse.  When I have it on the upper end of the scale, the pain is all consuming.

Globi believe me, I do get clusters, I know your pain buddy or I wouldn't be here. Migraines, nor any other types of headaches stick around for months and then go away and then come back again next year, it's gotta be clusters, unless it's some different form not known to science yet.
Man is put on this earth to deal with many situations, and I know you heard the saying "don't let nothing hold you down". Well, you can't let clusters rule you. Try, just try your very best to grab a broom one day when you are hit with a cluster. You're only on the floor because you put yourself there man. Being on the floor is not gonna make the cluster go away, standing up is not gonna make the cluster go away either. I tried to be productive one day when I had a terrible cluster headache, my eye was drooping, and hurting, my left temple pounding, I thought I couldn't think, but guess what? You can think, you're thinking about how bad you hurt and you're thinking, "please God, let this pain end". That day, I did some cleaning, I was stumbling, pausing, hurting, damn near crying, it took me forever to just clean one room but I kept going and before long the headache went away. It's mind strength, if you sit there and deal with the pain then that's what you're going to get "PAIN", now try not to focus on the pain, but something else. The mind is powerful man. It works for me.

Globi wrote on Jun 13^th, 2009 at 7:43am:

Hey, if it's migraines, then it's migraines, very bad migraines I might add. I've never met a migraine sufferer that has explained feeling the way I feel, mines feel like those guys you see suffering on youtube with the clusters but that's beside the point. I've been living with these cluster-like headaches for years now and dealing with them naturally, if they are not clusters then that is great. I may check out a specialist one day, but what if you're in a situation where there is no specialists, like the end of the world, alien invasion, war or Katrina  and you get a cluster attack? What you gonna do then huh? No oxygen tanks, no prescriptions, but you get a CH. It may not be happening where you live, but somewhere in the world there is probably someone dealing with a CH who is in a situation where they cannot get the treatment, so they more than likely try natural remedies, like massaging the neck, and head, trying to rest or just plain bearing the pain, man . I believe your own mind can do wonders, you just gotta unlock the right door with the right key. It's good to have a doctor and his prescriptions and diagnoses but it's also good to be able to survive yourself, just because there could be a time when you may not have those conveniences. Be strong my friends, be strong.
I bet you if I do get a diagnoses the doc will say it's cluster headaches, cause they hurt like hell dude 

Terrence,

You will probably get continuing comments suggesting that you get a good diagnosis from a competent Neurologist. This is being done for the reasons that Kilowatt3 has already outlined – read it again – valid points.

I personally know two episodic sufferers that are fortunate and never get the real K9 or K10 monsters. They see others who do, read about the dynamics involved and freely agree that theirs are not like that. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have CH’s.

When reading how you deal with the pain, many of us will react the same as we would when someone says “take some aspirin, get back to work and tough it out”. I am not qualified to judge what is happening inside your head, but I will say that either you are the toughest SOB I’ve ever met, or you haven’t met a real K9-K10 yet.

And no, I’m not attempting to marginalize your pain – just pointing out the very real agony and “all consuming” nature of a true high level attack.

Respectfully,
Marc

Globi wrote on Jun 14^th, 2009 at 6:49am:


Globi do you have the credentials to do a diagnosis over the internet.

Terrence I agree with the others however that some of what you describe doesnt fit what most of us experience but that doesnt yet mean you dont have CH.
There are a few suffers here that the CH pain manifests in ways unlike the rest. There are also those who found ways to easily eliminate the pains they do have.
Its allways a good idea to obtain a good and competent diagnosis of CH before any kind of treatment goes on.

That said if you were to elaborate on your symptoms a bit more (ie; frequency, time duration, intensity, locations of pain, how quick it comes and goes etc.., the good people here can and will steer you towards a solid understanding of CH. As well as a few natural aides that work for many.
Some here have a vast understanding of other types of headache as well that can be very close to CH.

.....and the danger of all of this is that the "outside world" sometimes....many times has a wrong view on CH. People with stories like "if i get hit bad.....i do some work around the house"  do not help.

Maybe i am a bit to hard......i am having a hell of a time last few days. Even de imitrex does not seem to do the job well anymore.

So Terrence..... For sure you have head aches.  I just REALLY doubt that it's CH.  Your story just doesn't match up. So....go to a doctor and find out what is going on.

Hi guys,

My dad was diagnosed with CH last Friday and a vein on his right temple becomes inflated... I wanted to know if any of you experience something similar.

I don't want to think he was give a wrong diagnosis.

Thanks,

Natalie