Kicked in the Head: My Experience with Cluster Headaches

My First Cluster Headache

I was on a plane, headed across the country. It was a routine flight, and nothing special was happening on board. And then the headache began. It started out feeling like a particularly painful headache, located behind my forehead on the right-hand side of my head. It quickly escalated from there. My traveling companion looked at me and asked if anything was wrong. I said I had a headache. From the look of concern on my companion's face, I could guess that I wasn't looking particularly well. Without realizing it, I had curled up into a fetal position on my seat, gone deathly pale, and begun sweating profusely. By the time the plane landed, the headache was gone, and I was completely exhausted.

The next night, I told some friends about the headache. One of them, a radiologist, said that I should get my head checked out, just to be sure. That night, I got another headache, just like the last one. Over the next month I had about a dozen of those headaches, usually striking in the middle of the night, waking me up, and throwing me out of bed. A trip to a neurologist brought me a diagnosis - cluster headaches.

What I Learned About Cluster Headaches

Cluster headaches, I learned, can happen to anyone at any time, and no one knows why. Although the predominantly strike men, many women are afflicted as well. And although most people who have them begin to get them in their early 30s, cases have been recorded of children getting them and senior citizens starting to have them.

Cluster headaches are distinguished by two factors - their intensity and their periodicity. Cluster headaches are considered the most painful variety of headache one can experience. Generally they strike on one side of the head, and always on the same side. I can only describe the pain I experience as the equivalent of repeated heavy blows to the head with a blunt object. It is impossible to undertake any task requiring careful attention when the headaches strike. The idea of driving during an attack is laughable. Walking down a hallway is a challenging exercise, and necessarily includes numerous encounters with the wall. Conversations are extremely difficult. I find long sentences to be out of the question, and am limited to short phrases, usually along the lines of "headache. Bad headache."

Cluster headaches take their name from the fact that they do not occur at all times, but come and go periodically. Different people have radically different schedules for their cluster headaches, but everyone has a schedule of some kind. Personally, my cluster headaches strike at the end of the calendar year, and for about a month I am prone to getting them. Other people have them only every few years, while some unfortunates suffer them every month. During the period in which one is susceptible to cluster headaches, there are certain actions which may trigger a headache. Some common triggers for the cluster headaches are alcohol, smoking, and certain foods.

Treating Cluster Headaches

Treatment of cluster headaches usually encompasses a two-step approach. First, a preventative medicine is administered. Unfortunately, since the cluster headaches don't arrive on a precise schedule, it is difficult to know when to start taking the preventative medicine. Generally, one waits until the first headache, and then it's clearly time to start. This can be a drug such as Verapamil, which is actually a drug for high blood pressure, but which seems to discourage the headaches in some people.

Second, when a headache gets by the preventative medicine, one takes medicine to stop the headaches when they start. Different people have different luck with these headache remedies. For some people, simply taking an aspirin and acetaminophen combination like Excedrin is enough to drive the cluster headache away rapidly. Others rely on expensive prescription drugs designed for use against migraine headaches, particularly a class of drugs known as triptans. These come in tablets, in nasal sprays, and as an injectable solution. Some people find immediate relief through the use of pure oxygen, inhaled. The process is usually one of trial and error.

Personally, when my headaches strike, I will take a triptan tablet if I have one, or Excedrin I don't, and head into an extremely hot bath. I can't stay in bed with the headache, because I can't lay still when then headache strikes. I throw myself and contort myself in a vain effort to find a comfortable position. The bath is somehow soothing. I wake my spouse, though, to check the temperature of the water. In the past I have inadvertently burned myself, because my sense of pain is so consumed with my headaches that I had lain in water which is too hot and wound up turning red all over. I stay in the bath until the headache passes, and then I go back to sleep. And then I sleep well.

After the headaches, I experience a strange euphoria. All the day to day troubles and cares fall away during the headache, driven out by the sharp pain. When the pain recedes, the troubles are slow to return. I experience an unusual tranquility, a genuine peace, and a great need for rest. Until the next headache.

What To Do If You Think You May Have Cluster Headaches
If you think you may be suffering from cluster headaches, you should see a doctor, preferably a neurologist. Generally, the neurologist will want to do a brain scan, just to rule out unpleasant alternatives, such as aneurisms or tumors. Afterward, the doctor will begin trying different therapies on you, until you find one that is manageable. I've had cluster headaches every year since 2000, and always between September and January. And every year, I hope that they won't be back. The most amazing thing about the cluster headaches is that even when you're getting them, life goes on. You just appreciate the time without pain a little bit more