Cluster headaches are back

The term blog is a shortening of web log… well, this blog post is a log for primarily my own purposes, though it may be of interest to others.

Seems the cluster headaches are back this morning.

They often return at the change of season, but I haven’t had them since about two years ago.

(That blog post went into some detail about them — and this point is particularly worth noting: no conventional painkillers are effective against them. Not paracetomol, not aspirin, not Nurofen. Nothing works. It is not the same as migraine.)

So, this time around, so far:

5:40am, for about fifteen minutes. Started to fade when I went outside for some fresh air. Thankfully at this time of year it’s light, not too cold outside.

7:30am, about the same length of time. Again went outside, which seemed to help.

9:10am, I thought another was coming on, but it only gave the warning signs (pain in starting in the nose and moving to the left hand side of my forehead), without the main event, the searing pain through the left side of my head, of the earlier ones.

This time around they seem to go for about 10-15 minutes — in the past it appears mine have gone for longer. It’s always a little hard to tell what is helping, or if it’s simply disappearing by itself. That said, oxygen is recognised by many as providing relief.

I’ve found in the past that consumption of caffeine and sugar (that is, a Coke) can also help. My GP long-ago prescribed medicine, and I’ve never really determined if it helps or not, but on the off-chance it does, I’ll be getting some more.

While I’m not afflicted by them as badly as other sufferers, the pain is intense, and When it fades, there’s a feeling of immense relief.

I’m hoping they don’t hang around for long.

(Past posts)

Update Sunday 1/12/2013 — Thankfully, no further recurrences… quite unlike previous episodes, but hopefully it was just the two yesterday and that’ll be it for now.

Update Tuesday 3/12/2013 — …however, I have had another, more conventional headache, since Sunday night. Not clear if it’s related. It’s not as strong, but it’s almost constant.

Update Saturday 7/12/2013 — One again this morning, 7:15-7:30. Helped by fresh air outside. Could it be that after a few days of winter-like weather, the turning back to spring/summer today helped spark this one?