Posted by Bob Johnson (12.19.49.2) on February 06, 2001 at 08:40:29:
In Reply to: Re: Cluster support - Sue:^) posted by Tim on February 05, 2001 at 12:37:39:
Two thoughts: 1. Like Sue, I find that sound--but most especially light--causes me the most exquisite pain. The only comfort I take is that my CH are usually in the evenings hours--a most important fact when living in a solar heated house which is flooded with light during the day!
Unlike the textbook descriptions of CH, I find that movement increases the pain, each foot step setting off waves of pain in my eye. My best response is to sit upright in the most neutral position I can muster (i.e., muscles relaxed)--in the dark--and get my brain into the best meditative detachment that I can develop. If all the pieces fit, I'll often fall asleep, still sitting, after the CH ends.
2. My point being: my experience of CH is different from many others'. But what this points to is that all medical descriptions of any particular medical problem are a kind of "best picture" model. Physicians expect that each case will not have all the elements of the description present, in the same degree, sequence, etc. This is often why making a diagnosis is difficult or even missed; there is enough variation, from patient to patient, to confuse the picture. You may recall the studies which have been reported here to the effect that many clusterheads often see 3-4 docs and have several false diagnoses before finding a physician who gets it right. Some of that is due to lack of information and/or experience on the doc's part but it's also true that some of the symptoms of CH can arise from other problems and so mislead the doc. (My own experience is that it took five-years before my attacks took the classic CH form allowing easy diagnosis.)