I was just wondering how CH started for different people.

Al-tho I have only been having attacks for the last 5 months and only diagnosed for 2 months ( yes I know that's quick and I am soooo grateful for that )  I've been thinking about When it started .

5 months ago whilst at work on a stinking hot day I got a headache it was the most painful one that i had ever had, I put it down to the fact that i was working out side in the full sun and had not been drinking enough water. but low and behold the next day at exactly the same time another one just the same ,only lasted 20 minutes, but oh the pain . any way every hot day after that was exactly the same by 10 o'clock pain , and then they started getting more frequent to the point that i was waking up with a full on attack most mornings + 2 during the day it was at this point that my wife said " that's it your going to the doctors " , funny I always thought the last thing that i would go to the doctors for was a headache, dam glad i did tho.

After reading tones of stuff on this fantastic site about triggers of CH it got me thinking , about 3 years ago  I had stopped having my nice cold glass of beer in the evenings because within half an hour of drinking it I was getting a bad headache , could this have been the start of my CH ?

SO I Was just wondering if any one else has had similar  or whether it just came crashing in .

as for me I am now on verap ( at 40 mg per day due to side effects) which seems to be losing what little effect it was having as shadows seem almost constant (k 3-5) and I'm using imigran shots for when it gets proper bad.

yes its all a bit of an enigma ( may be i should lay off the word of the day toilet paper )

as for head trauma , I've lost count of the amount of times I've banged my head on scaffold etc in my 22 years of work , may be i should ware a hard hat more often but it has always given me a headache ironically enough, but still nothing i can pin down .

Nigel

Don't remember. There was certainly no cataclysmic event associated with it. First couple of years it was sinus infections, tooth problems, ear infections, etc.

Brew wrote on Dec 6^th, 2009 at 10:41pm:

This was pretty much me.  It wasn't until after I got married in 1998 that I was diagnosed.

No special event before-hand.

1987, Sitting on my living room floor trying to re-program my T.V. when it hit out of the blue.  I was fine when I first sat down...within mins. I was rolling on the floor in agony and wondering if I'd have time to see a lawyer and make out my last will and testment.

I will never forget my first attack...I was on a plane(early 80's) and they announced we will be landing shortly (went to the restroom to freshen up) when i got to my seat the beast introduced himself to me (full-throttle) one of the stewardess noticed me holding my head and trying to keep my eye from popping out with my other hand (she mentioned to me that this happens to alot of people with sinus problems) i was convinced that there was some type of radiation or some strange thing that was leaking in the restroom (i know that sounds dumb)just never experienced anything like that in my life....It finally left me after appr. 20 minutes after we landed

Mine started out with beer.
Drink a beer, get a headache.
Drink 2 beers, get a bigger headache.
Drink 3 beers and quickly learned that you cannot out-drink a cluster headache.
That was about 35 years ago.
Haven't had a beer in 2 and a half decades but still get the clusters.

Came on like freight train, went away for years then came back with a vengeance - wham.

Marc

For me, it started as tooth pain...for about a year. I would beg my dentist to just take it out....he adamantly refused..."not gonna remove a perfectly good tooth"....prince of a man. He got as frustrated as me and researched....he was the one who finally diagnosed ch.

Don't remember the first "real" hit...it's buried in the fog of thousands...do remember I thought I was a goner...stroke, aneurism, cancer, SOMETHING bad...and it IS...but it aint gonna kill me...I DID learn that....

Best,

Jon

At 19 I had oral surgery to extract all 4 of of my wisdom teeth. A couple of months later the hits began.

I thought of the possibility that during the surgery someone had stuck a tube up my nose and punctured something they weren't suppose to. Then the cycle ended and all was good.

Then it came back the next year...and the next year...and so and so.

Interesting some mention a plane flight. For two years I had to fly to Houston every week to work a project there. More often than not, on the flight back to NO, I would get hit.

The flight attendants would take notice and asked if I was alright. I felt like saying that all they had to do was simply crash the plane so I could get to the damn oxygen.

Steve G

I was 10, 1978, playing with my dolls when all of a sudden the worst pain I ever felt hit me right in my right eye.  I started screaming my head off.  My brother picked me up and he, my mother and I headed to the E/R - 30 minutes away.  I vomited and fainted in the taxi.  By the time I got to the ER it was as if I had dreamed it all.  They were clueless.

I was finally diagnosed at age 17 by a pediatrician who was treating me for a thyroid condition, but was later told by many doctors (and negative cat scans of the brain) that they were migraines.  It was when I found this site that I realized the first dr. was correct - I had clusters and thus began my return to sanity as I read and informed myself and then told doctors what I wanted as treatment.

Langa

After reading a couple of stories about people getting first hit while flying; I'm reminded that while flying into Newark in 1963, I believe, I was hit suddenly by what felt like a cluster in exactly the same spot but lasting only 5 seconds or so. The pain was just as bad but then I chalked it up to pressure and of course it didn't return until 1969. I wonder if was a precursor?

Charlie

Just an observation .
some people are talking about getting attacks on plains and others on this site about changes in weather triggering attacks
I was just wondering if changes in atmospheric pressure is a known trigger.