Posted by melissa (4.4.121.167) on December 15, 2001 at 08:12:47:
In Reply to: My Very First Cluster posted by Jack on December 14, 2001 at 17:56:04:
It was in 1992 when I first experienced an attack, lasted for 1 week, I was waking up every night with pain that felt like my brain was trying to explode. Because my mother had very painful migraines, I had watched her use heat to help them, so, thinking this is what they might be, I would go into the bathroom, turn the shower on hot and plug the tub. I would sit in the bathtub, with the shower on, and let it pour down on me for a good half hour, moaning and crying, rocking my body until it would finally go away. They came back again for 1 week in 93, and I coped the same way, with a lot of crying, and thinking I was going to die. In 94 I became pregnant, and completely missed my cycle, didn't phase me at the time, for my life was preoccupied. (I was 19, unmarried, and scared) Wasn't until 1995 that in my own appartment, my daughter being 11 months old, that they hit again. This time for 2 weeks long, mom came over, took one look at me sitting there in the bathtub, and insisted we go to the ER. Well, they tried a shot of demerol, did nothing, so then they gave me a shot of morphine, which ended up making me heave my guts out. Wasn't until after that, that I felt better. Then, made appt. with our G.P.(who thought it was sinus probs), who referred me to an ear, nose and throat specialist, who of all people, diagnosed me with cluster headaches, and put me on prednisone, some antibiotics, and amnitryptiline, I never took them again, just rode through the pain the best I knew how. I found this site in Sept. of 2000, when I had my last current cycle. I hate taking meds, because I seem to get every side effect known to man, so I ride them out with a ton of strong hot coffee, O2, and dramamine. This year, I seemed to have skipped my cycle, don't know what happened, wondering if it has something to do with the trauma I went through losing my mom in April.
PHEW! Haven't written that much in a long time, thanks Jack for making me remember.