Dingopom-7534AF905B's profile
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| Location: |
Sydney |
| DOB: |
Tuesday, 19th March, 1946 |
| Site: |
Not Entered |
| Facebook: |
Not entered |
| Status: |
Not currently suffering :D |
| Joined: |
19th January, 2012 |
| Posts: |
3 |
I'm 65 yrs old and have been suffering from cluster headaches since 1981. I'm not currently in a cycle having "finished" the last
one in July 2011. I retired from the international medical assistance business a couple of years ago and now teach and direct the
game of bridge being President and Director of my local bridge club in Randwick in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. I play golf
and have a wide range of interests which keep me active both mentally and physically. One day, perhaps, "the beast" will go away
and not return (chance would be a fine thing!).
I have just rediscovered this excellent site after a gap of three or four years. I have just finished my latest cycle which lasted for
three years and was my longest ever and probably the most severe I have ever experienced. At the height during the first six
months or so of 2013, I was getting up to ten a day! I am fortunate in that sumatriptan injections work for me but, as everybody
will know, Immigran injections are not on the PBS approved list (although the tablets and nasal inhalers are) and cost around
$40 a pop. You do the arithmetic! When I couldn't afford any more, awaiting the arrival of the next installment of my pension,
I just had to go through it. The longest lasted 10 hours and 20 minutes and I'll tell you all a secret that I have not told anyone else
(because you will understand). I came very, very close that night to ending it once and for all All the psychological tricks that I
have taught myself over the years had not worked and I became convinced that the pain was not going to stop this time.
Somewhere around 5am and in the pitch dark, I had somehow left my house and was half way across the golf course and
heading towards the cliffs (a 25m drop) when I must have tripped on something because I fell heavily and knocked myself out.
When I came round, I was soaking wet as it was raining and very cold but the pain in my head seemed to have eased a bit so I
concluded that this marathon attack could be ending and realised what I had been contemplating. So I stumbled and crawled
back the way I had come and somehow reached home, promptly collapsing at the top of the stairs. In fact, the attack did not end
end for another couple of hours but I was too exhausted to return the way I had just come. Finally at 8:13am the pain finally went
away. After that, my body must have just shut down because the next thing I remember was waking up at 6:30 that evening still
huddled in a corner of my bedroom where, presumably I had remained since the pain had left me in peace. Thank you Medicare!
I went through that and other similar but not quite so severe episodes because you simply do not understand (along with most
of the medical profession) just what we "clusterheads" have to go through! The position has now changed, I am pleased to report
in that the hospital I attend has finally concluded the obvious and realised that it is cheaper to provide me with enough injections
rather than sending me on endless rounds of specialists, scans and other procedures which I (and they) know are not going to
work. For this, I am profoundly grateful even though it has taken me nearly twenty years to convince them. I hope that my
experience may be of use to some of you but, to those of you for whom the sumatriptan injections have no effect, my deepest
sympathy as I really do understand how much you suffer.
Incidentally, I came across a piece of interesting research carried out by some people at the Harvard Medical School (so the
research has a decent pedigree) that found that sub-hallucinogenic doses of LSD and certain varieties of "magic mushrooms"
had very high success rates (better than 90%) of not only, aborting a cluster headache but actually preventing them from
occurring in the first place. Now, this would seem to me to be the "holy grail" of our little community but, of course, there is as
much chance of finding adequate funding for a proper research study of this nature as there is of me opening the batting for
Australia!
Good luck to all of you - especially your "other-halves" who have to put up with "the Beast". I have lost two permanent partners
because they just could not cope any longer. I understand why only too well but it still makes me very sad as there is
absolutely nothing that I can do.
I hope that, at least, some of you will have a pain-free 2017. For those of you who will continue to be harassed and tortured by
"the Beast", hang on in there and don't let it beat you. There is life on the other side although it doesn't seem so at the time.
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