Posted by Stephen Brown (209.53.88.131) on September 02, 1999 at 20:22:04:
Hello friends... It's been a coupla weeks and a half or so since I last posted.. I had just returned from the Neurologist.. ranting and raving at the wonders of Sansert, Imitrex, and my "Get in Hospital Fast" note.... Well.. the Sansert was indeed cramping me up in the knee joints, and strangely in my thumb joint as well..... I was swelling up and eating like a horse..... and it seemed to be making me bumble and fumble and stumble...not a pretty sight when you're a letter carrier for the Post Office!! And Sansert was not in fact preventing the Monster from finding me and causing me grief.... In fact, on day three of using it, I was having a lovely quiet dinner at my brothers home, about five minutes from my home.. and wouldn't you know.. the last bite of dinner was coincidental with the "twinge" that says.. "Here comes trouble". I had none of my meds with me at the time, so I took 6 extra strength acetaminophen tabs with codiene..... I sat calmly, trying to explain the onset of significant pain to my brother and his wife until thirty minutes later, when all I could do was drag my ass to my car and limp it and myself home..... that was 7:30 p.m. My sister in law saw that I had left something behind and she drove over to my house to return it. She found my doors wide open and the place was dark, ( I had just stumbled in and died!!!) and she heard me crying and whimpering in pain as I lay rolling around and tossing about in bed. I never knew she was there or I'd have asked for a ride to the Hospital. It was the WORST one I remember in a long time. It lasted until 3:30 a.m.!!! At least, that's the last time I remember seeing on the clock before I passed out from exhaustion and pain. 8 full blown hours of excruciating agony. Sadly, because of my using the Sansert, I was not able to give the Imitrex the benefit of a good try that time. But by the same token, on three out of four occasions when I used the Imitrex, I may as well have just thrown money to the wind.. I get little relief or satisfaction from that medication. It really zombifies me the next morn if I've used it at night....awfully frustaring to feel you've armed yourself against the Beast for naught.... Anyways, I will be getting the Oxygen in the next coupla days, but so far, I must say... the pain is the tiniest bit more appealing than the pain and the meds effects combined...I have been off the meds for a week, and other than some 5-6's and a bunch of Shadowing, I've been relatively low episodic, and relatively high functioning.
It seems that when I have an extremely busy life, I have slightly less numbers of attacks...
As well, it seems.... that if I consume chocolate, drink coffee, eat ice cream, smoke like mad, (simply try to "invite" a headache on) and generally keep busy... I don't get the attacks as noticably... dunno why.
Now, the reason for the "But there's hope!!" A friend has suggested that we might consider trying hypnosis!!
Imagine!!! What a concept!!! I was astonished at the suggestion, as it really kinda makes sense to me... What if it were possible to reduce the amount of pain suffered during these CH's through a series of sessions of hypnosis??? Do any of you think that the mind could be manipulated to recognize the Cluster Headache attacks, and reduce the amount of pain recognized by the brain??? I am still in awe of the suggestion, and I sure would like to know if any of you have ever considered this course of treatment or not.
Please let me know your thoughts
And margie..... WWW!!!! Thx.