I think I may have registered for the board in the fall of 2003, which was my last cluster cycle. I consider myself lucky to only have endured 4 cycles in my entire life.

My name is Shane, from Saratoga Springs, Utah.
Demo/Geo - I am a 39yo male, a software developer by trade. Father of a family of 6 (almost 7). Ex-Military, educated.
Relevant Neuro Medical Hx - Have a fairly high pain tolerance. Have always dealt with ADHD, medicated for it with Adderall daily. I had a bad head injury at about the age of 6, a bump low on the back of the noggin resulting in LOC and a concussion, Same injury about age 14. I am totally colorblind, mono-chromacy.
Clusters - 1997, 1999, 2003, 2010. Always in the late fall or early Winter, Late September through December. Always last only 7-10 days (and for that I am fortunate).

Day 2: Saturday(Sunday)
12:13 am Sunday, I was expecting this one, and I'm better prepared for battle.
Im awake almost instantly. Quickly make my way downstairs, i know I have 3 minutes to get the injection going.
12:15 - Imitrex self injection, right thigh. Fully built out, pain at 10/10. Distraction comes in the form of Metallica at full volume in headphones, and menial tasks such as typing a log, and an old rubics cube.
12:18 - Imitrex side effects, God how I hate the additional feelings of heat, fever-chills, tremors, and loss of fine motor skills.
12:25 - Same symptoms have completely set in, nausea, sweats, tearing, sinus discharge. Add right sided face numbness.
12:29 - Relief sets in. Start toweling off, pain 1/10, face still numb, like dental Novocaine. Left with Imitrex side effects.
12:35 - Back to bed, did not fall asleep immediately due to the Imitrex side effects.

Hi Shane and welcome back, sorry the beast came knocking again.

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I'm betting on the combination of melatonin and verapamil helping you.

Sending PF vibes your way!

Well, I will add that the first night, I was unprepared for it, and it kicked my buns. Most of the time was spent sitting in my office, doubled over, arms wrapped around my chest, chin on chest (seated fetal position?) rocking back and forth sobbing. I did put in the original post that from what I have observed in others, and in my life experiences, I have a fairly high pain threshold or tolerance.

Example: I dont find it odd that my nose has been broken 7 times in my life, and the last 2 times when it was broken by my sons head as we were roughhouseing, I packed it with gauze and set it myself. It actually looks better now than it used to!

Example: in 1992, I broke my right femur in South America. I got a helicopter ride to a boat 30 minutes later, with no medication. On the boat, 3 hours after the injury, it was manually reduced and splinted, and I received minimal morphine, to prepare me for the 9 hour ride on a military cargo plane to a real hospital for surgical setting. That was the worst pain I have ever experienced before my cluster episodes.

The episode I was talking about here, is sitting with a clean-ex in hand as the tears stream down my face involuntarily, there's still some hugging and rocking and plenty of sobbing involved, but I know for me the key is just waiting it out. The beast is going to have his way with me, and in the end, I will win, he will leave. I do whatever I can to find-a-happy-place, and the key is distraction.

I'm not here really to tell war stories, sorry if I got it started. I realize that pain is relative to the individual, but everyone describes cluster headaches as the worst pain you've ever experienced, a true 10/10. I thought a broken femur was 10/10 until I had clusters, when I figured out, it has an 11! =)

Day 4, Headache 3. Was simply too exhausted to log last night when it was said and done.
Onset: 23:33
Duration: +22 Minutes
Scale: 10
Distraction: Field strip and reassemble your service weapon (unloaded of course!). Metallica - Frantic

I had one PFN Sunday night. Changed nothing in prophylactic treatments, and it came back as strong as ever. Nothing ever seems to decrease the intensity, for me it always seems to wake me up when it reaches a 4-5, and continues to always build to a full 10.
Imitrex has shown to decrease duration, usually cutting duration in half if I hit it fast enough. So, going by that, this one would have been 45 minutes of full blown 10.

Back to the distractions thing: It was just an idea I had on saturday morning after waking and realizing what had happened friday night, and what I had in store for the next 10 consecutive nights. I am sometimes able to focus my hands doing something other than clutching my head or wrapped in fetal position. Maybe its just a phobia I have, I have to prove to myself I still have some fine motor skills. A rubiks cube was just one thing, I didn't actually complete, mostly because I couldn't see it well enough. Just something for my hands to do, something to hold.

I wouldn't recommend last nights distraction to anyone who has not been trained to do so. I have been trained, and the idea came to me, because in combat situations, the adrenaline makes you loose your fine motor skills, much in the way a CH+Imitrex does. So in the way I was trained to be able to clear a malfunctioning weapon in the dark in combat, this was a fine example of that training. I cannot say I completed it, but it gave my hands something to do and my mind something to focus on besides the pain. Focus is something I have been working on all my life, having a terrible case of adult ADHD and being a triathlete.

I would also add that distractions are just something to do besides watch the seconds slowly tick by, because that just makes 22 minutes seem like an eternity.

Hang tough my friend. They gotta leave sometime.
the bb
Hangin tough for ya.

Too much to hope for, its 90 minutes ahead of schedule instead.

10:55 - 5/10 - Im f'ing awake now. Wife sees me get out of bed this time.

10:56 - Imitrex 6mg SQ right thigh. Start that burn. deep breathes. Just keep breathing, Enjoy the Metallica.

10:58 - Imitrex feels like: my skin has been frozen and set on fire. Like pouring and splashing ice cold gasoline from head to toe, then tossing a match in the middle of my back. It burns, spreading upwards and down and outwards from the base of my skull.

11:04 - Sweating, nasal discharge, pain 10/10. Distraction not as effective as a few days ago.

11:15 Nausea. Pain easing back a little I think.

11:16 Yes, pain starts to fall off. 8/10 now

11:17 pain slowly dropping off, It seems like I can literally feel the Imitrex and the Headache doing battle. that burning sensation that started at the base of my skull and engulfed my whole head has replaced the pain of the headache. They battle for my attention with the Metallica.

11:21 Pain 3/10. Left me again is a pool of sweat, with the imitrex burning. not going back to bed yet, Pain keeps stabbing up to a 5 or 6 here and there.

11:24 back to be and try and sleep off the rest.

Are you going to consider O2 if you don't end cycle in 10 days? And what am I missing? Have you tried O2 as recommended and it didn't work for you? If not, why not abort the pain as soon as possible. CHs do seem to increase the more they increase, if you know what I mean. Blessings. lance

btw: what were you field stripping?

I might also add this morning that there are no residual effects like there has been all week. No shadows, No facial numbness, no problems with vision.

What a vivid (and accurate) description of an attack.

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Holden?  You gotta be kidding, right?  I mean, you wouldn't actually drive one of those things, would you? 

I have a friend that lives out in W.A. and he comes to the states every couple of years to pick up a couple of Corvettes and ship them home.

Mike NZ wrote on Dec 18^th, 2010 at 2:13pm:


Hope you know I'm just teasing.  BTW, I got a couple of mates down your way--one in Christchurch and one in Rotorua.

bonkers wrote on Dec 18^th, 2010 at 9:13pm:


As with many things, what really counts is what works best for you, be it from shooting targets on the range to preventing CHs.

A good gunsmith can work wonders, totally transforming a pistol, but no matter what they do if the person holding it doesn't know how to shoot then it won't help too much.

Yes I know you're just teasing Dan. I've actually owned 2 Fords too, so I appreciate both (to a degree).

I got to agree on the Glock 27. Best back up weapon I ever used.