Posted by Ueli (195.162.170.214) on February 19, 2001 at 09:56:56:
In Reply to: spinal records posted by Wesley on February 19, 2001 at 06:04:24:
It is true, the peripheral pain signals are collected in the spinal cord and then passed on to the brain. However, the cluster pain takes a direct path to the brain, without detour over the spine. (And that's the reason for opiates to be of great help for general pain but of not much use for clusters).
As anybody can relate, bruising the skin of any bone does hurt for quite a while. But the only nerves in the coccyx are some pain receptors; the nerves used by our ancestors of a few thousand generations to wag their tail are long gone. I'm convinced that stubbing your tail bone has about as much connection to cluster as hitting your thumb with a hammer (OUCH).
PFNAD's, and join OUCH,
Ueli