first of all, sorry i didn't search the forum to see if something similar has been posted- i am having a really awful headache right now and didn't want to look through.

my mom was diagnosed with cluster headaches a few years ago.

i am a 23 year old male.  for the past 3 weeks i have been having excruciating headaches 1-2 times almost every night.  usually one between 10pm-12am, and then one at 5-6am.

no precursor like nausea or sensitivity to light.

they are on my right side only
i feel a lot of pressure behind my eye, like it's being pushed out.  the pain radiates down to my neck/shoulder sometimes.
it makes my eye droop a little bit, and i tear up.
but i don't feel like it's a knife in my head like a lot of research has told me.  it's more of a constant pain, not terribly sharp, doesn't pulsate or throb at all...  it gets really bad shortly after onset, and then peters off over the course of the next couple hours- but it stays at a constant level until it's suddenly gone.

i don't get the nasal stuffiness that i have read about with CH- though sometimes it feels a little numb, but still breathing through it.

i usually have to hold pressure on my head, or put ice on it, or take a hot shower...and i do pace around.

but after watching youtube videos of cluster headache sufferers, i don't feel like my pain matches theirs.  i can usually work through it...it does make me moan, but i dont rock back and fourth and get loud about it.

i used to get a lot of ear infections as a kid and a doctor has said i have a high tolerance for pain after looking at a particularly bad one when i didn't even feel any pain.

what do you think?

my mom referred me to her CH doctor and he is going to run some tests in a couple weeks when i return home for college break.

   WELCOME TO THE FAMILY JOSH!

  PLEASE READ UP ON THE O2    IT KILLS THE PAIN FOR MOST OF US.
  AND KEEP US POSTED ABOUT YOUR PROGRES .
       LORAC

Hi Josh-
It sounds like the apple didn't fall far from the tree!  Through the generations, there have been 10 of us in my family with clusters, though some are still young and not in a pattern yet.  It has been interesting to watch the similarities and differences among the family members.  Someone should study us!

I'm so sorry this has to be your fate, but it sure sounds like it.  My daughters worry about it, too, though at ages 23 and 26, they still have no indications (fingers crossed).  You have an advantage, as I did, by growing up with it (your mom) and knowing what it is and that it won't kill you.  I can't imagine not knowing anyone with clusters and being hit with them!  It must be terribly frightening!!!  We use to fuss at my mother (teasingly) about what we inherited from her family and her response was always the same, "The only thing I could have done differently is just not had you."  So there...

Read on this site!  Get to a specialist!  But you already know this. 

Good luck!
Joni

Welcome aboard, Josh!

I would echo what Helen said.  The only thing I would add is to look into O2, and be ready to tell your Dr what you want to do about it when you see him, and don't take no for an answer if his DX is CH.

I don't generally have nasal stuffyness either, although my sinus tends to drain down my throat during a hit.  I also don't tend to rock and moan, and rarely pace.  Most of the time I curl up within myself, mentally at least, and make myself as small as I can.  On the higher level hits I will sometimes end up on the floor.  All I'm saying is that there is no typical response to CH.  None of us get hit the same way, so none of us can react in the same manner.  Don't let that be a determinate factor.

Keep us posted on how you get on.  We're here for you anytime.

Jerry

so, the worst i've had is what seems to be a 7 on the kip scale.

got one right now at 1:18am

think alcohol is my trigger.

my roommate has a stimulant he gets for ADHD, which is a vasoconstrictor, but i don't really want to be up all night.   

Josh I can drink two cans of red bull and go straight to sleep. A hot cup of coffee will have me snoozing before I finish it at night! I don't know if I have a huge tolerance to caffeine or if its a "CH" thing.
I do know I'd sooner be awake and painfree than go to sleep and BOOM..

I have to echo what Guiseppi said too - alcohol is an almost universal trigger when in cycle. There are people who can drink in cycle but it's a minority. Sticking to pepsi will help in more ways than one!

At the beginning of this cycle a can of Red Bull would have me up for hours.  Now I can sleep pretty soon after downing one.  I guess I'm getting used to it.  Coffee never keeps me up.

Please stay away from alcohol during a cycle.  For me, MSG is also a trigger.  Both make my hits much higher on the Kip scale.

Jeannie

to mac I can drink durn my cycle and for me it takes longer than the 30 mins or less but the pain will come and it will come hard. As is the season where partys are a plenty I tend to stay away but as I say to each their own just be ready to suffer 

A point might be that if the OP finds 1 beer wipes his head out, then it might lead to knowing these are CH and not migraines...

When my season begins i may have a beer and before it is gone I can tell the trigger was pulled. If i stop drinking that beer I just might escape that night, but not for many days there after. It is a sign of what is forth coming.

I never have more than 2 beers on a given day OUT of season, so it isn't a big problem to go with out.

As to me, I like to mess back on the beast, even if I take a whippin'.

Jeannie, What, no sence of adventure?

I figure if I am gonna pay I might as well play. I don't do this every day, but I did on my birth day the 30th, as I hit 58 and am racing to 60 i guess from here on out.

I was gonna take the hit anyway, so why not...?

The beast wins one, and I win one and this is how it goes.

I am about ready to turn night into day, which the beast hates.. It likes to mess about in the night, and i will change my life habits and reverse the clock and the beast will loose more battles than it wins....

Being episotic allows for this in my personal case. Beats dancin around moaning any day, not that I never do that.

I take my beatings just like you do, but maybe I get angrier than you do. I treat it like some wild alien with in my body, and try my best to beat it as much as it beats me.

In the past here others have called me all sorts of things for doing this here, and so this is just my way to deal with it.

Quote:


Nope.  Not one ounce when it comes to the beast.  I am the most cowardly Clusterhead you'll ever meet.

Jeannie

Oh well.... maybe I am the last barbarian too..

Just once I'ld like to choke the bejeepers outta that beast with my own 2 hands.. 

These CH's just don't fit in my life style. In most posts I don't understand half of what is said in medical terms.

Reading here I learned how to kill the beast one battle at a time. Like I said, I win some and loose some. I can't quit, so I have no choice but to fight.

Like all the others there are times where I don't function well, but I stiill function some. Can't quit, can't stop, can't run, and can't hide, but I sure can fight back..

Mac,

We could argue till we're blue in the face about this alcohol debate.   I respect your opinion and hey, you aren't hurting anyone in choosing to drink in cycle. ( except yourself )

Let me just say though, that I don't quite understand your logic.  I could see if you were choosing to participate in an activity that made your pain worse but, in the long run, chased the beast away.  THAT would be choking the bejeepers outa him.  In my opinion, you are just fueling the fire.

In what ever decisions you choose to make, I wish for you  many PF days ahead.

Jeannie

Josh,  Sorry to hijack your thread.

bejeeber wrote on Dec 3^rd, 2009 at 11:56pm:


Uhh,,,,, sorry, I was just trying my best to not swear..... 

And to all, no don't take it as i set about sippin on a frosty any time I want. I did that once, and it was my B Day.

I figured I was going to take a hit or two and I figured why not just get on with it.

last night I stayed up till 2AM, because the demons have been coming for their vist then. Well they just came later at 4. I got up got dressed and went out into the cold north wind, walked to the barn and sat in a chair breathing 0² till it was over.

Then I went for a walk around the garden, or what is a garden in summer time in the moon light. After that i went back and did a bit more O², and returned to bed.

I feel kinda froggy today, but the battle ended in a draw.

The hardest part was trying to figure out 'How To' get dressed.. 

The new part was hyperventilating, which has just become my next new weapon.. 

So far for me the O² methods work and work pretty well so long as I can be movin' fast enough.

I avoid any and all drugs to abort, but have some on hand. I find that with me, taking these just adds weeks for my season.

LeLimey , yeah I don't always understand med terms so well. I am a long hair country boy at 58 years now going on 14. Just think of a cheap biker tramp and you peg me.

To earn a living I move metal one way or another. Cars, constuction, machines, even something called Trade Silver, which today is considered jewelery, but in it's day was money.

When something is broken I just go head on in to it, and it's no different with the CH head. Sheer Bull Ignorance.

Thanks I'l keep you in mind when a word comes up, I can't quite figure.