MoAlpha

Yep. Cluster or cluster variant. Any nose running or eye tearing, BillyD ?


Best symptomatic treatment is actually a local anesthetic dripped into the nose, targeting the sphenopalatine ganglion.

BillyD

I worry about the heavy liver warnings with the Tylenol, but it did a good job overnight with 6 solid hours of relief. I had to take an Ibuprofen 600 at 4:40 this morning and I was tempted to carry myself over to the ER for some stronger meds, maybe Tylenol w codeine, because relief during the day yesterday was only 4 hours per treatment. Instead, once this dose wears off I might go to urgent care. I'm not sure I need stronger relief, but I would definitely like longer-acting relief. I wouldn't mind if it went the **** away, either.

MoAlpha

You’re worrying about the wrong drug.

BillyD

Nothing unusual along those lines. My wife researched yesterday based on my description and found something called "icepick headaches", which describes the feeling precisely. It feels like jabs from an icepick in the top of the head, each jab lasting 3 or 4 seconds and separated by 10-15 secs rest before another jab. This will continue for hours if not treated. It's really intense, each jab is an 8 or 9 on the pain scale, over and over . . .

datlas 

Agree. See my previous posting. Tylenol is 100% safe if you follow the directions. Liver problems only if you overdose.

datlas 

Fun fact: 100% Oxygen works great. But good luck getting insurance to cover it. It's considered off-label. Sad!

MoAlpha

Oh, yeah. Definitely. Forgot that.

BillyD

Heading to the urgent care. Thanks, guys!

LAJ

Dang Bill. Hope it goes OK.

Bah Humbug

I sometimes get those when a plane starts its descent, before they announce it. No pattern to plane size, seat location, or anything else I can think of, just Russian roulette and always on my right size. Easily solved with coffee and Advil, but only once those are available.

MoAlpha

That's a sinus squeeze. Also fantastically painful, but a different animal. Coincidentally, we just had a learned discussion of that very thing before you resurfaced.

rjones28 

Good luck

Bah Humbug

It presents exactly as described, like an icepick digging around my right eye. The last time I went looking it was called a "barotrauma headache" and was described as a type of cluster headache, with no more information available. Is there anything you can tell me about how to prevent them? They're a large part of the reason flying is so stressful for me.

datlas 

Yes, as you know I had one on descent into Spain. It was very unpleasant.

Bah Humbug

Fingers crossed, sheriff.

MoAlpha

It is a barotrauma headache, which is not at all the same thing as cluster. Whoever wrote that was wrong. No one knows what the hell causes cluster. Barotrauma is simple, i.e., failure to equalize pressure between a skull space and the atmosphere. Happens all the time to divers. Prevention is a good whoosh of your favorite nasal decongestant spray. That reduces swelling around the little sinus openings and allows equalization.

datlas 

Someone on the internet was wrong?!? Unpossible.

MoAlpha

Understandable confusion, given that cluster is often associated with same-side nose and eye congestion. ...or so I read in some textbooks and Board study guides back in the 80s. I don't think I've ever witnessed an attack.

MoAlpha

Wimpy old OPM is sending gov't employees home because of snow. Hope the streets are dry by tomorrow morning.

indyfabz

Reading this page has given me a headache.

Velo Vol 

DougRNS for use with your "shovel"

MoAlpha

Come here and I'll give you an ass ache.

Velo Vol 

I don 't have much in the way of headaches, but my eye watering has been out of wack and I don't know if it's RA or something else. Sometimes it feels like I have pressure in my face.

MoAlpha

Cluster headache, like virtually everything else in neurology, has been treated with steroids...

datlas 

We have a new PA in our practice (first time) who is giving out steroids fairly liberally. I may need to rein her in. She gave them to a patient of mine, along with some antibiotics for a URI, and the poor guy developed a bad case of candidal balananitis. That was NOT pleasant. It's a yeast infection of the head of his penis/foreskin. Not posting pics. Nope. Not gonna do it.