Posted 6/10/2013 6:40 PM (GMT 0)
Hi, all. I'm posting some information about cluster headaches at the request of straydog, forum moderator. I'm on the Prostate Cancer forum, but I have had my share of chronic pain. The below was posted in response to a post that had some misinformation about clusters. I hope that someone finds it useful. As I have had them since 1985, and am a high-information patient, feel free to ask any questions you may have on the topic.
Not true about the characteristics of CH. As I have had thousands and done a great deal of research, I can state the following are characteristic.
1. Pain is of much shorter duration than migraine. about 20min-1hr
2. Pain is specific to the region around one eye (sphenopalatine ganglion). It has been said that the pain of a cluster headache is the third worst you can have while remaining conscious. Others here may disagree with merit. I can only say that I won't have a gun in my house for a reason.
3. These are usually, but not always unilateral. Mine was always on the right side
4. Pain is usually described as the sensation of an ice pick stabbing the eye
5. There is always lachrimation (tearing) and reddening of that eye
6. Lots and lots of mucus during the attack
First, go to clusterheadaches.com for more information
Here are some things I found useful
• short course of Prednisone concurrent with Botox treatment to the forehead area. This is done by a neurologist, not a plastic surgeon
• oxygen at a fairly high flow and a non-rebreather mask. Have forgotten the flow, but you can look it up. This only helps CHs around a 4 or less on the KIP scale
• Imitrex injections. Always work. I think I took 6mg, but you can look it up. The pills and the inhaler were useless for me. The beauty of the injections is that they take effect in less than 10 minutes. With any other drug or method, the CH is almost done by the time the drug crosses the blood/brain barrier.