Posted by Tim M (152.163.204.188) on September 02, 1999 at 11:00:31:
Hi all. Glad you're here.
As some of you may or may not remember, a couple of weeks ago, I was prescribed sansert to add to my "prophylactic" regimen, as this cycle is long, nasty and relentless. At first, I was pleased and hopeful, as the episodes appeared to be becoming less frequent and less severe. That didn't last. I have been awakened every night lately by the s.o.b.s and greeted again in the morning. And now, I get an early afternoon visit at work. Fortunately, I return to the doc on Tuesday...and also fortunately, most CH's have gone away fairly quickly with the O2. My insurance was finally convinced that the imitrex was medically necessary, and that I wasn't using it to get rich on the black market, so I now have that back in my arsenal.
While fading in and out of pain and in and out of sleep, I've been thinking about the term Cluster Headaches, and what may be a legitimate and more descriptive term...I agree that "headache" just doesn't fit the bill, and minimizes in people's (doctors, too) minds the severity of the pain. Really, the term "pain" is almost a misnomer. Although I haven't come up with the "total package", terms such as " cranio-facial traumatic pain syndrome", or "Chronic-Episodic Traumatic Pain Syndrome", or something along those lines. It's too clear to me that the episodes are very traumatic, physically and otherwise. I don't know how best to make that clear, except perhaps "Chronic-Episodic Cranio-Facial Near-Death Pain Episodes"
That's all. I ramble when sleep-deprived and shadowy.