Have your cluster headaches always been the icepick?

[akbars]

Simply put, I've got some kind of headache that keeps coming back and I was curious if they might be the beginnings of cluster migraines. It does seem to be getting more powerful over time. It'll start with losing vision in one or both eyes either a small piece or the whole eye(s). The headache always starts in the frontal lobe and then spreads to the temples, making me have a bad day, everyday for up to 6 months. My performance at work has taken a real hit this time around and I really want to know what it is. I've heard tension before, and I've heard cluster. 

 

Have your cluster headaches always been the icepick pain through the eye or did they start as a more manageable pain? I've always had a high pain threshold but I would not describe my current headaches as an icepick, I would describe it as an overheating head with a steady pain coming from the top of the frontal lobe... causing all kinds of other fun stuff like sensitivity to light, sounds, other people, and an incredibly vicious demeanor as my friends and family would correctly say.

[CHfather]

Doesn't sound much like CH.  Does sound kind of like ocular migraine, except that in that the vision loss is only in one eye. http://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/guide/ocular-migraine-basics   My advice is to get to a headache center ASAP.

[akbars]

Thanks for the quick reply. This is something I've been dealing with since I was 10, the visual disturbance like looking into a bright light, followed quickly by the headache, for months at a time. I have found wasabi to provide some level of relief from the headaches (1-2 hours), so I was also wondering if it could be something sinus related. The wasabi makes it more of a numb throb than a steady pain. I've taken MRI's, CAT scans and all sorts of MRA's and nobody has come up with anything actionable. The duration of these episodes alone leads me here to cluster headache territory (2-6 months), but something is definitely off. That's why I was really curious if the cluster migraine was always the brain splitting icepick or if it started off as something less powerful like what I'm describing. 

[ThatHurtsMyHead]

Akbars,

 

I'd second CHF's post.  Your symptoms don't sound much like CH.  You should get to a doc or headache specialist for a proper diagnosis.

 

J

[CHfather]

akbars, for whatever it might be worth as you look for an answer, which I hope you find, there is for all practical purposes no such thing as a "cluster migraine." The are cluster headaches and there are migraines, but a proper neurologist or other diagnostician can differentiate one from the other.  I'm only telling you that so you don't waste any time looking for something that doesn't exist -- I know it's not in any way a helpful answer to your questions.

 

Have you tried any migraine meds?  Verapamil as a possible preventive, for example, or maybe sumatriptan to try to abort them?  I guess it seems to me that some doc would at least have tried them.  I don't think you have a hemicrania, which is a kind of cluster headache "lookalike," but the drug Indomethacin treats that condition very well, so it would be easy to try.

[akbars]

CHF, thanks for clearing that up. Basically, its not a cluster headache because I would know, i would feel it. I heard that.

I'm on a devils elixir of medications so most anything they hit me with something im already taking prevents em from being able to give it to me. They did try to give me sumatriptan and i checked the list and even that had an interaction with something i am taking, namely bloodthinner/coumadin. The neurologist put all this migraine talk on the backburner when i had my first and only seizure at a ripe age of 24 while at work. That lead to more meds. Now a few months later my seizure whilst still in the back of my mind, is not the most pressing thing. These headaches or migraines have gotten bad enough where it's affecting my perf at work.