Hello
I am a 37 yr old male. I started out with a fairly severe cold that lasted for weeks on-and-off around the time of my 37th birthday. Shortly after the cold had ended I ended up waking up one thursday morning with a slight background headache but other than that I felt great! Somewhere in the range of 9:30-10:30 am that little headache grew very rapidly. The pain was bad enough that I could not do anything but hold my head in my hands, elbows on my desk, eyes squeezed shut. My nose was suddenly running like a faucet on my right side and my right eye felt like it would explode and was watering and stinging. Except for the severity of the headache, these are very common cold symptoms for me. Very rarely in my life had I ever had a headache and there was probably only one or two times I could count that I had a headache even half that bad. I went home within an hour and was prepared to set in for an evening of being sick. After I got home I got undressed and got into bed. By then the headache was severe enough to cause me nausea. After I laid there for a while I was in such pain that I was feeling disoriented and very sleepy. I did not fight it, I went to sleep. When I awoke a few hours later I felt fantastic for a guy with a bad cold! I was slightly fatigued and achy, like I had been mildly beat up. I chalked it up to the cold taking one final nasty shot at me and everything was fine. Fine until the next Thursday morning, this one. Everything followed the EXACT same pattern with uncanny timing. I didnt know what to think, except "this is very weird". I was talking with my best friend about it, wondering if I had developed and allergy. Something that was the same for wednesday nights/thursday mornings but nothing remotely made sense. I was still on the phone with my friend, in bed and half passed-out from the headache and neckache when she asked if maybe it was a migraine. I found the question to be and interesting one but that that it could not be it because the symptoms were very cold-like. But after I woke up and popped right up out of bed a few hours later I was very curious as to what it was I was dealing with. No medication seemed to be working at that point except, perhaps, naproxen. So I spent every free moment after that browsing for solutions. After looking into migraines, I began to wonder if that could be it after all. Most of the sites agreed that most of what I was experiencing was quite like migraines. Then I found another site that asked your symptoms and then suggested possible causes. It was the mayo clinic website, I think. It suggested possibly migraines and it also suggested cluster headaches. When I looked at the description of cluster headaches I knew that this is the likeliest possibility for what I was experiencing.
I am out of sick days and vacation and my insurance, like most peoples, is quite unaffordable to use. The process of diagnosis seemed time-intensive with many visits to the doctor and many tests and trials of different medications. My thought is to get a relatively good guess on what is going on and treat it with lifestyile and dietary alterations. I am thinking of finding home treatments and otc medications to help get me through any possible further attacks without lost-time at work and scaring the people I love. After doing a little research into cluster headaches and reading some of the testimonials on this site I find myself questioning if this is really what I am dealing with. I do not get restless, but rather I get very groggy and sleepy and a bit disoriented, and my pain does not appear to be on the same level as many of the people on here seem to discuss. Does this thing first manifest like this? Am I at the onset?
I will admit that much of what I have read scares the **** out of me.
I have experienced extremes of pain before, in my life, and I am not at all eager for more suffering of that magnitude.
From what I have read of the possible causes and triggers, I am wondering if thorasic outlet syndrome may play a part in it. Some years ago I was diagnosed with that by an e.r. dr. when I went in because my right arm had gone weak and numb while at work. Simply explained, it is like carpal tunnel of the neck. My headaches have been on the right side as well and my neck was aching and hurting quite badly during my episodes.
Does anyone have any input concerning my situation? If I am not experiencing cluster headaches then I do not know what next direction to take my research in. I appreciate all the help and input I can get into dealing with this thing.
Thank you for listening

Caution: Self diagnosis is risky at best, deadly at the worst. Have you taken the "cluster quiz" on the tabs at the left side of this screen??

At anywhere above the lowest levels a Cluster hit will not let us sleep and often awakens us from the pain.

There are other disorders that mimic CH so being sure is important, treatments differ and can be dangerous if mis-judged.

Good Luck, Don

Very kind & wise words by Jennifer...100% agree w/ her!!!