Everything bad happens in the Dark...
...Indeed it can do, but it can also have its little upsides as well. As some b3tans know, I suffer from these bastards which can occur in 2-3 month cycles usually twice a year.

The worst part about having them is when they wake you up in excrutiating agony at night. In one of the last series of 'attacks' they woke me up at 2:10am on the dot every night (yes, every night) for a little over 9 straight weeks. Of course, at 2:10am it's generally pitch black and every night I'd have to scramble my way around trying to find my medication, even when it was put in the same place every night I'd still not be fully able to concentrate through the pain to remember where I'd put it. Putting the light on in such attacks is a complete 'no-no' as well, as the sudden intensity of any light can make things much much worse.

So, for approx. half the year I'll be waking up at exactly the same time every night in pitch darkness, and usually the only sounds are me whimpering in pain like some demented spirit from the other world, and the only bumps are generally me either hitting my shins/arms/elbows on nearby furniture trying to find the medication, or indeed (in the worst case attacks) me 'bumping' my head against the wall repeatedly to try and eradicate the pain.

Thankfully, the latter doesn't happen every time, and I have little recollection of it the morning after, save for - you guessed it - a splitting headache where I was bumping my head, and my better half telling me about how she dealt with it to try and calm me down.

Not a funny post in the slightest, but the Dark can be a good thing (believe it or not) as I generally get between 8-12 'attacks' during a 24 hour period, and the medication always kicks in and works better when it's pitch black, sometimes as much as halving the time it can take for the symptoms to ease, and for that - at least - I'm very thankful for the dark.

Nightmares be buggered.

/And for those wondering what all the fuss is about, or interested, here's a link to a well-known sufferer of CH called 'Chuck' having an attack. It's not pleasant and it is as painful as it looks :(
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzpcPeoPnW0
It's safe for work, but uncomfortable viewing

There will now probably follow a funny story about the dark from someone else which might be a bit cheerier :)
( The Great Architect is still waiting for his account to be deleted on, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 11:05, 7 replies)

Man I feel for you
Those look incredibly awful. Glow in the dark stickers on your medication? :)
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 12:38, closed)

that's not a bad idea fella :)
Very often the pain is so intense I end up screwing my eyes up tightly, or indeed end up crying with it (They don't do prescriptions for 'man the fuck up' on the NHS ;) - sadly) so something like that might make it a little easier to spot through the blurry haze of pain.
cheers :)
( The Great Architect is still waiting for his account to be deleted on, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 13:17, closed)

Wow..
I couldn't possibly feel more sorry for you mate... I tend to think that i have a decent tolerance for pain, but i had some teeth broken a few years ago and didn't do anything about them (due to me being a dentophobic and an all round numpty).

All this resulted in horiffic dental pain and me stealing tramadol and other high-power drugs from my step-dad, who had recently had spinal surgery.

Anyways, it's sorted now, went to the dentist and had him knock me out before i freaked out big time, (me - 6 ft, 17 stone of ex ice hockey player.. him - 5ft9 and about 8 stone wet through, he was hardly gona be able to restrain me if i lost it..) and did some damage.. that 2 months or so was not necessarily the most intense pain i ever experienced, but it was definitely a worse experience overall because it was persistent.. it was just constant.. i imagine that your pain must be like that, but times a hundred.. have clickies for the bravery.
(InkyFingers, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 13:05, closed)

Toothache is very much a persistent pain, and one I enjoy 'possibly' even less than the clusters
Had a wisdom tooth out a few years ago, and after complications, took nearly 4 months to heal (they never closed the gum up properly after ripping it out, so my jaw was exposed for a few weeks - the tooth also shattered inside my mouth as well during the extraction) The pain was - as you rightly say - not so much the worst, but because it's constant, it drags you down worse than anything else. Nothing deals with it effectively.

With the clusters, it can be like that, especially when you don't keep busy, you just wait for the next one. However, once you've gone through the 'attack' and come out on the other side, the relief afterwards really is a blessing. Trouble is, you never know how long the 'attacks' will last. The shortest one I've had has been for around 20 mins, the longest going in at nearly 4 hours.

What a pisser
( The Great Architect is still waiting for his account to be deleted on, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 13:22, closed)

Fuck
That is one of the most distressing things I've seen and I don't even have sound (and this is the internet we're talking about here).
( Throat And Ice Pie I see dem tatties dere., Fri 24 Jul 2009, 13:21, closed)

crikey
If there's a hell on earth, I'm sure this is'nt far from it.
(danniekavanagh did nothing constructive on, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 14:50, closed)

My dad used to have those...
(Strangely, they went away when he broke his neck.)

We'd drive him to the ER twice away so he could be fully titted up on drugs and thus doze through the attacks. The reasoning? He was in such godawful agony that it was enough to make a grown man kill himself.

I can't imagine it, and you're only the second person I've heard to suffer from these.
(TheSnark oh, c'mon, like you didn't see me coming, Fri 24 Jul 2009, 16:36, closed)