Posted by Emily (152.163.195.201) on February 15, 2000 at 01:10:48:
My mother is pushing her 50th birthday the 24th of this month. She has been suffering with cluster headaches every fall through winter since she was twenty. I'm a senior in highschool and I hear her wake up at least twice every night with another painful episode. She cover's her left eye while pacing all around the house moaning with pain. Sometimes my younger sister walks on her back attempting to redistribute the pain, but it never help's enough. I sometimes massage her skinney back
and shoulders as hard as I can, but I can't seem to turn off the drill that digs into her left eye and
temple. It's easy for the family to sympathize with
my mother's pain, but no matter how hard we try we can't possibly empathize. I never understood cluster headaches. I never even knew anyone else who suffered with them. After reading other stories and experiences, I realized there are people out there going through the same misery as my mom. Most of them are middle aged men with drinking problems, but after hearing such similar details and stories I feel less alone and scared. After staying up all night with a lingering cluster, my aunt took my hopeless mom to emergency on another mission of relief. At the hospital she recieved a shot of some kind in the hip, which removed the headache almost immediately. They prescribed her with phenergan suppositorys and so far they have been easing the headaches and getting rid of them early on. My mom can't believe how quickly her pain goes away. It takes around ten minutes. The suppositorys are a mixture of phenergan and compsine(?). It is possible to get these in pill form. Because she is almost fifty, and they are supposed to vanish with age, we are hoping the cluster's will leave for good and never ever return.
I will alway's sympathize with sufferers.
Emily Reed, daughter of a sufferer.