And I'm only half kidding... (long story follows) The last two weeks I've been getting hit with some horrendous headaches. I've had migraines for the last 20 years, and these were on a completely different level. Amplifiers to 11, curled on the floor crying, skull rending pain that I didn't even think was possible. The scariest thing about them was that they would strike with little to no warning, level me for anywhere from 15-60 minutes and then just as suddenly as they appeared they would disappear with little to no trace. It also seemed to strike around the same time each time, usually around midnight and in the mid-late afternoon. The other part that had me wondering was the fact that the pain was extremely localized each time, and never radiated. It was always the right side of my face, about a two inch wide swath from my nose to my cheekbone, and from my eyebrow to the top of my teeth. Anything within that boundary became Hells new playground. The pain went beyond anything I've ever known, and when I got my mind around the level of pain to try and cope, it just seemed to increase. It was like Chuck Norris heel stomping both the inside and outside of my face without the sweet release of death that would follow. I finally broke down last night and went to a doctor. I had gotten hit with about 8 of the attacks within two weeks. I was hoping it would be something sinus related, as I've had a cold lately and thought it might just be a severe sinus infection. The doctor seemed to think along the same lines, but the severity of the pain concerned him. We agreed that if it happened again then I would head to an emergency room so I could get a CT or MRI done and get a better idea of what was going on. Cue Satan's wakeup call around midnight (for the third night in a row). I had Jess drive me to the ER and ended up spending around 3 hours at North. I figured anything from a sinus infection to a brain tumor was in the cards. At least with those there's a light at the end of the tunnel one way or another. Instead, the diagnosis was pretty spot on from what I can tell: Cluster headaches. Also known as suicide headaches (and believe me, when you've got one of these things it's not a half bad looking option), these are one of the more painful medical conditions out there. Some females who've had them equated them as worse than childbirth. The real bitch of it is that there isn't a known cause for them and treatments for them tend to vary patient by patient. Regular painkillers don't even make a dent in them, but some unconventional methods like breathing pure oxygen and running can alleviate the symptoms. They're known as cluster headaches because they'll come in bunches for up to a couple months at a time, and then will disappear for months or even years only to surface again. Unlike a migraine, light and sound don't make a difference in the pain level. It can also make the eye affected harder to open. Does anyone else on here get these and if so what do you do when you get them? I'll take any and all advice on getting rid of these or at least minimizing the pain involved.
time to break out the foil hat again Brian... View attachment 13949 on a serious note... dude that sucks...
Brian - that sucks man. My younger brother suffered from those until early adulthood and then they subsided. They were completely debilitating when they set in. He more or less "grew" out of them in his early 20s. I hope you get better and I'd be happy to run down his doctor contact info if that is of interest to you.
I would be very interested in that. At this point I'm willing to put the lotion in the basket so I'm not getting the hose again.
let me start by saying you are one damn good story teller! also i feel your pain, i am not a chronic victim of headaches and have only had a migraine once, i thought it was about the worst thing that could have happened to me. that being said i can only imagine how these suscide headaches might feel, and i would suggest popping a **** ton of pain killers and hitting the sack early to avoid these midnight re occurances (hopefully they arent happening now :/) but as you stated above pain killers are completely imcompetant with these massive head ouches! the only thing i can suggest to you and hope for is very cliche but good luck Brian and hopefully they will die off permanently soon.
Thanks! As far as the painkillers and going to bed early, they're not working. Everything I've ever learned and used for migraines is completely useless against these things. Hot showers, ice packs, hot packs, pillows over the head, temple massage, neck adjustments, caffeine, etc. I've got my migraine routine down pretty well depending on how early I can catch them. These clusters defy every single one of those methods, the only thing I can do is hope that it's over quickly. The midnight ones actually woke me up after I'd been asleep for a couple hours. I asked Jess if she'd be willing to break my kneecaps with a crowbar to take my mind off my skull next time I get one. Sean, just shoot me a PM when you've got info. I'm willing to buy JJ's in trade
I had/have a similar problem. It turned out that they thought it was a sinus infection, well it kinda came back and my eye ball starts acheing and my teeth hurt soo bad. I should go back and get it checked.
Brian, Wow that sucks! I got headaches for a while then they went away, then id have them for a while again, but nothing like that. I've had some killer headaches and migraines in the past and feel your pain. I hope you find something that helps. Its always nice being pain free.
That sounds like my symptoms. I can actually feel the roots of my teeth throbbing and it feels like my eye is getting squeezed in every direction. Clusters are also known for being accompanied by a runny nose and the eye affected will water like crazy. Was there anything you found that would help alleviate the pain?
I found that two sudefed (sp?) of the non drousey kind helped for a little while, now you mention it I remember mine coming on a certain times as well, not as severe as yours just more often, like four to eight times a day and then they'll go away for a bit and come back. I've tried nasal sprays and those didn't do a dang thing.
I've been doing the Sudafed Sinus Headache stuff with limited success as well. Usually they're gone before the drug really has a chance to take hold.
Let me tell you something from experience. I get these. I get all of the symptoms you are describing, aside from the quick in and out of the symptoms. Mine are more like migranes, they last all day, sometimes two or more days. The short lived ones (and by short lived I mean 12-14 hours) I would call suicide headaches. Countless times I've laid in bed, or wherever my body decides to give up fighting, and imagined the pure bliss of running a corded drill with a decent sized bit into the side of my head or cheekbone (depends on where the pressure is localized) and letting whatever it is that is causing me to feel like exploding from the inside to rush out and relieve me of the pain. Like you, my jaw, cheekbones, teeth, eyesockets, forehead, top of the head, temples, bridge of the nose....all of it feels like it is under skull crushing pressure. At times, my nose will run with what feels like pure water. My eyes will be watery, bloodshot, and glazed over (watery and glazed are two different things). With a distant stare, which stems from the fact that everything I can manage to look at takes on a hazy aura, the edges of my FOV become blurred, and depth becomes distorted. Typically I get dizzy, and nausiated. Sounds, lights, changes in elevation (elevators are insta-puke if I can even manage to navigate to one.) I feel the need to clench my fists and pull muscles tight. Serious pain. I can't descibe it. Now, for what fixes it. I know this isn't really your thing, and I'm not saying to do anything illegal. But here is what I know can fix mine, usually within 30min - 1hr. Find a dark room. Turn off all the lights. ALL OF THEM. The LED on the DVD player will not help you any. Turn them off. As someone that doesn't use marijuana often, it usually takes me 2 drags off of a pipe of some sort to get some relief. It doesn't fix all the symptoms, but the gut wrenching pain and your body's reaction to it is dulled enough that you can likely pass out and sleep through the rest of it. Even better, take two Excedrin Migrane first, or four 200mg Ibuprophen. Do this BEFORE you smoke. That way once the smoke is doing its thing, the pain killers wont be far behind. This is my ONLY cure so far. I've been on some drugs. If the doctor recommends Cafergot, walk away...no, run away. Good luck buddy. I've had these since I was about 8. So, over 20 years now. They have no frequency that I can see, and as much as I try to find triggers, I can't. I've blacked out on occasion from pain. My suggestion to you, if you drink soda or coffee, stop. Take breaks from computer screens, especially CRT displays. Keep the lights on in your office to reduce eye strain. And get a microwavable hot pack for around your neck, and a gel eye mask to toss in the freezer. Use them together for max effect. Something about confusing the senses. My heat pack smells like jasmine I think. Couldn't tell you for sure what's in it. But the smells, the warmth and the cold eye-wear seem to help when I'm doing the Excedrin/MJ/dark-room thing.
Damn, wish I had some advice for ya, but I've got nothing. I'd say mind over matter, but I'm sure that'd get a big haha from you. Although, hypnotism is a route. There is useful meditation and hypnosis that does train you to ignore pain. The hard part is attempting to not focus on the pain when it is happening. Redirection like readymix pointed to is an aid, but the meditation/hypnosis stuff actually is more of a training method to completely ignore the pain information altogether. The gist is that your brain receives the pain information from the body sensors. You have the mental choice to "read" this information or to ignore it. It would be kind of akin to normal operation versus post traumatic shock. In a traumatic situation, you could break your leg and walk on it without knowing it was broken other then you walking kind of funny. It's sort of turning that passive system into an active one through mental exercises and training, actively choosing to ignore the pain information being received. I'm afraid I don't have any fancy links to show you or anything. It's not something I've personally looked into. I've simply seen it in the past. I also have no personal experience with heavy headaches. The closest experience is with an old neighbor of mine. He used to specifically get migranes directly from riding the bus to school and back. He never had them any other time. Eventually, he sort of grew out of it though. I find it interesting that these are time dependent events you're having. One would think it would coinside with some bodily fluctiation or environmental fluctuation that would normally occur around these times. Mental stress also plays a roll. I get mild what I'd sort of call headaches from bodily tension. They'd last over a day at various levels if I didn't physically loosen myself out, i.e. physically stretch and relax the body. I have a normal stretching routine that I do prior to exercising that's about 30min in length. I don't excersise as regularly as I should. :laugh: However, at times, I do get these headaches and the only way they go away is through physical stretching. I do that and poof, gone. The body has a goofy way of redirecting events to other parts of the body. Do you do any stretching/exercising on a remotely regular basis?
We went to Headache School earlier in the year for the missus. There were a number of people there with symptoms like yours. Apparently, this seminar is a way into a treatment path with some uber-godlike-headache doctor. The seminar is a way for you to learn how to describe your symptoms properly to him, so you're both on the same page. Ah, Trish just walked in, let me ask for his details... Oh, good, that didn't take long. Dr. Frederick Taylor appears to be the chap in question. I don't get headaches (please don't hate me), but even I found the seminar to be remarkably interesting. Ultimately fruitless for us, as this wasn't really Trish's problem (she *does* have a brain tumour), but I think it has to be worth your time to attend. Stuart.
If you don't want to smoke marijuana, ask your doctor about trying Marinol for a short period. I'm not sure what the restrictions are. http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/ongoing/marinol.html
***This is Roon's girlfriend, Julie, posting, not Brian. I am quite the lurker and found a subject to comment on. Maybe someday if I keep lurking I'll sign up. I have these same symptoms, but have never had them classified as cluster headaches. I have some other problems, but mine are just as bad as these. I cry (which makes them worse of course), I can't watch tv or use the internet, I can't work (I work at a veterinary hospital, so I can't be around the dogs barking, phones ringing or the beeping of the machines), I get sick to the point of vomiting. These headaches/migraines are THE WORST pain I've ever had to deal with. I've never had a child, but I'm sure I'd take childbirth over these anyday. I've had one so horrible, I had to be driven to the emergency room. I had a MRI done of my head, and luckily, nothing was there. These migraines are still very recurrent, but another MRI may be in the horizon in case something has developed. I take Excedrin at the first sign of ANY symptom, and then, if the pain does not improve or if the pain worsens, I take a prescription drug called Maxalt. I've tried other prescriptions, but they don't seem to work -- and even the Maxalt hasn't always worked. The only thing I can do is sleep in such a dark room, and drink plenty of fluids. I'm sure you've been told this before, but just rest and water and more rest is what works best for me (with the help of drugs though too). I hope you find relief -- I can TOTALLY understand your pain! They suck, and now you know that other people know how you feel and that yes, these things really, really suck and are really painful!
Really, seriously, if you haven't been yet, I highly recommend the Headache School. That guy really seems to know his stuff. Stuart.
go to Australia... visit canberra... mary jane is legalized for 'medicinal' purposes... fact of the matter so is prostitution... not for medical reasons though..more for Political reason.. Canberra is where all the Public Servants and Politicians are mostly..
Thanks for the responses everyone It sounds like my migraine ritual is pretty similar to everyone else. I will take a dark room with pillows on either side of my head. I'll stick an icepack at the base of my neck and one on my forehead if needed. Sometimes those work, sometimes I'll go with heat packs instead. As soon as I feel them coming on I'll take 4 Excedrin migraine and 1 or 2 20oz bottles of Coke. If I catch it early, then I'm usually ok. If not, I just sleep in the bathroom because I won't have the energy to get to the bathroom otherwise. I've had them to the point where I've had to be taken to the hospital because I couldn't keep anything down and the pain was unbearable, my vision also can be affected by them. It's just something we've all learned to live with. I've tried every single trick in my inventory for these things and not one has done anything, for better or for worse. The strangest thing for me is the lack of reaction to sound or light. I'm used to wanting to die if someone turns on the light, but it doesn't have an effect on these. Normally I can get my mind adjusted to a level of pain and at least cope with it, but I have yet to do that with these. It seems as though when I get adjusted to the amount of pain it just increases more and more. Some docs think these may be related to something in the hypothalamus because of the regularity with which they occur. I keep to a pretty good stretching and workout routine, and I'm probably eating healthier than any other point in my life. I've cut back on the pop (gradually, caffeine withdrawal is a pain in the ass) and stresswise things have been at an all time low. This has done wonders for my migraines, but the clusters don't have a known trigger. Jason, I'd get checked for these if I were in your shoes. Your symptoms sound just like mine, and the treatment regimen for these seems to take a different route than migraines do. I'm tempted to head to the station next time I get one of these and try the O2 method to see if it really works. Edit: Almost forgot, yesterday was the first day in almost a week that I went without one. I'm still living in fear of the next one though
Why go that far (besides Australia being one of the few places I would kill to visit) when California is right down the road. http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/ongoing/calimarijuana.html :biggrin:
My last visit to a doctor was in the Navy. That's when they prescribed the Cafergot. That was the worst medication I've ever experienced. It's comprised of two parts, Caffiene and Ergotamine. Caffiene is obviously exactly what you think it is, as found in coffee or whatever. Ergotamine is an alkylid and a component of LSD. Both of them have properties that constrict blood vessels in your brain which can relieve the migrane symptoms. (contrary to what you may think, migrane pain is caused by your blood vessels being wide open, thus lowering blood pressure to the brain...well, at least that's part of it). Anyway, you start to feel a migrane coming on, you take two of these little orange pills. 30 minutes later...take another. 30min later...yep, another one. You do that until you've taken 6 pills maximum or until the headache stops. In my time taking that crap, it never stopped the headache. Not once. But what it did do to me is exactly what you'd expect large doses of caffiene and ergotamine to do...it made me want to rip the hair out of my scalp hand over fist, and it made me tingle all over and felt like the ground was moving, and my hearing became more acute and the lights became brighter. It was the most nerve racking experience. I'd equate it to having a huge, skull busting migrane, and wanting nothing more than to just fall asleep, but instead of being able to fall asleep, you spend the next 6 hours with sweaty palms twitching on a couch with the sensation like waiting for LSD to kick in fully with the anxiety, and not being able to get any relief from the lights even when they are off because even the tiniest light seems amplified, and the tiniest sounds seem to echo in your head. If they prescribe this to you, tell them NO.
Usually when I've gone in for treatment on the migraines I end up with either Imitrex or morphine. If the doc does mention Cafergot I'll kick him in the balls until he promises never to mention any combination of those syllables again.
I have/had these same headaches. My spell lasted everyday for six months and was usually the same time each day. I was afraid I had a brain tumor as well and ended up going to the doctor. My mom works at the Mayo Clinic in the neurology dept. So she spoke to the doctors she works for and they had me come in and do all these tests. I also got a MRI to make sure there were no tumors. ( I got to see the pictures of my brain! ) They ended up giving me these pills. I know that Topamax is a headache medication that they usually put people on for this sort of thing. If the pills wouldn't have worked they were going to do botox injections in my head to relieve the pain. The pills I was given broke my 6 months worth of headaches the first week I starting taking it. The perscription lasted two weeks. About a month later my headaches returned. I am too fearful to get botox injections in my head and do not wish to go back to the doctor! Also try the suggestions that Readymix has offered. They will help. If you keep getting them I would reccomend going to the Mayo Clinic. Keep a journal of your headaches and write it all down. I did this and it helps the doctors actually see how bad it is. Don't drink tea. It is worse then coffee and pop together! Best of luck to you. I was told mine are stress related. I'm a huge worry wort! I just make sure to get enough sleep and eat a healthy dose of Chocolate! When I feel one starting to hit I usually take excedrine and try to sit down and take a breather. I feel your pain. Headaches are the worse.
*Brian's girlfriend posting again* I've used Topamax before, but my intended use was not for migraines -- it did NOT help in the prevention of my migraines. I've also used Imitrex, and that drug had many side effects for me. Topamax is actually an antiseizure medication and also used for the treatment of bi-polar disorders. Both the migraine preventative and the mental illness treatments are off-label use for this medication. I guess the best advice really is to return the your health care provider and see if they can do anything more for you. There are several different medications available, and although some people are against using so many medications, if it is what relieves the horrible pain, it's something that should be looked into. I also agree with Rexarew about the migraine journal. I've been told several times to do this (although I admit, I'm not good about it). The doctors really rely on this information to determine the course of action for treatment.
my brother has MS and gets head aches much like this, he started smoking weed and his foul moody nature changed, not saying weed is an answer, but it works for him. I understand how painfull these can be from what I have seen my brother go through, I hope things get better.
