If this post sounds like a rant at all, it wasn't intentional. What I mean to do here is bring attention to a condition that is mysterious and until recently was relatively unheard of. I have the condition, and it sucks. Cluster headaches are very severe, painful headaches that come and go - some people have them once and never again, some people have them for a day, a week, a month, and then they go away for a while and then come back. Some people have chronic cluster attacks for years. Hence the name "cluster headaches." If you ask me, the word "headache" is a misnomer in this case. It is a pain in the head, but according to doctors, they are one of the most painful things a person can endure; worse than migraines; some women who have had them claim their clusters were more painful than childbirth.
Cluster headaches are not only more painful than migraines, they are more intense in that few methods will reduce the pain of a cluster attack. A migraine can be made less severe by lying quietly in a dark room. Clusters are not affected by sound or light one way or the other. There are medications and treatments, but finding one that works is a process of elimination. None of the pills doctors have prescribed me have worked; at this point, I have to inject myself with Sumatriptan to make cluster attacks subside, or else endure the pain (which is bad enough to make me cry at times) for up to three hours. I am thankful that the injections work and that my mediocre insurance covers everything, as clusters are incapacitating, and if I had no way to treat them, I would have to go in disability.
Cluster headaches have the charming nickname "suicide headaches," as the pain is so severe that it can drive one to suicide in a desperate attempt to escape a cluster attack. The thought has crossed my own mind a time or two. The pain is unilateral and tends to be concentrated mostly in the sinuses around the eye, in the temple, and in the jaw. In my case, they also cause pain in my shoulder and neck. Many of us find that the eye on the affected side will droop and tear up, and the sinuses congest and the nose runs. Various people have their own descriptions of the pain - one that I recall is that it feels like "being shot in the face." For me, it feels like someone is taking my eyeball in their hand and squeezing it very tightly, while "tentacles" writhe around in my temple and a "bubble" of pain repeatedly travels from my nose, down the side of my head, to my shoulder and neck, and back again. A typical attack for me fluctuates between a 7 and a 9 on the pain scale. The absolute worst ones, the ones that make me legitimately cry, are, of course, a 10.
My reason for bringing it up is that, while cluster headaches are a pretty rare condition, some people have them and are frightened because the pain is so severe, although clusters are not life-threatening. Another reason is that the condition is so rare that still some doctors are not familiar with it and misdiagnose their patients with migraines, sinus infections, tension headaches, and the like. So, if anyone has headaches like these, I hope they will be able to discuss them with their doctor and receive an accurate diagnosis. More strongly do I hope that no one, including myself, has to suffer from clusters ever again.
Cluster headaches are not only more painful than migraines, they are more intense in that few methods will reduce the pain of a cluster attack. A migraine can be made less severe by lying quietly in a dark room. Clusters are not affected by sound or light one way or the other. There are medications and treatments, but finding one that works is a process of elimination. None of the pills doctors have prescribed me have worked; at this point, I have to inject myself with Sumatriptan to make cluster attacks subside, or else endure the pain (which is bad enough to make me cry at times) for up to three hours. I am thankful that the injections work and that my mediocre insurance covers everything, as clusters are incapacitating, and if I had no way to treat them, I would have to go in disability.
Cluster headaches have the charming nickname "suicide headaches," as the pain is so severe that it can drive one to suicide in a desperate attempt to escape a cluster attack. The thought has crossed my own mind a time or two. The pain is unilateral and tends to be concentrated mostly in the sinuses around the eye, in the temple, and in the jaw. In my case, they also cause pain in my shoulder and neck. Many of us find that the eye on the affected side will droop and tear up, and the sinuses congest and the nose runs. Various people have their own descriptions of the pain - one that I recall is that it feels like "being shot in the face." For me, it feels like someone is taking my eyeball in their hand and squeezing it very tightly, while "tentacles" writhe around in my temple and a "bubble" of pain repeatedly travels from my nose, down the side of my head, to my shoulder and neck, and back again. A typical attack for me fluctuates between a 7 and a 9 on the pain scale. The absolute worst ones, the ones that make me legitimately cry, are, of course, a 10.
My reason for bringing it up is that, while cluster headaches are a pretty rare condition, some people have them and are frightened because the pain is so severe, although clusters are not life-threatening. Another reason is that the condition is so rare that still some doctors are not familiar with it and misdiagnose their patients with migraines, sinus infections, tension headaches, and the like. So, if anyone has headaches like these, I hope they will be able to discuss them with their doctor and receive an accurate diagnosis. More strongly do I hope that no one, including myself, has to suffer from clusters ever again.
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