Yesterday turned out to be a nice day after all. The pressure on the side of my head disappeared around lunch time and apart from a couple of small attacks before that, i didn't get any more attacks during the day.
Mind you i did manage to catch up on my sleep as i must have fallen asleep just after lunch and woke up again around dinner time (5pm). Talk about turning lazy. It was nice to wake to a clear head, no pain and no sign of it coming back. I sat watched TV for a couple of hours and then decided to play on the computer. Whilst sat at the desk just browsing the web i had a horrible feeling come over me like i was feeling sick but not physically sick. Then i felt a sharp pain up my back into my neck and that's when i realised here comes the beast. The pressure started building again and the neck became painful and sore to move.
My first reaction was to grab one of my injections, but then something stopped me and i thought, “why waste it, maybe the oxygen would be enough to stop the attack”. So i decided to sit with my oxygen on full blast and just breath in and out as normal as i could (when you are in pain it is very difficult and takes a lot of concentration to breath normally). The pain carried on building for a few minuets and i thought i couldn't cope with just the oxygen, but just as i reached for my injection, the attack stopped and the head started to return to normal. The pain stopped and the swelling on the left eye went down. The attack was over as fast as it started.
Now this is the 3rd time i have done exactly the same thing! Used the oxygen and not bothered with the injection. I know it doesn't work all the time, and when you get the really bad attacks not even the injection is strong enough to stop the pain and the attack, but this now proves that oxygen definitely reduces the time the attack lasts and can stop the smaller ones all together.
Its crazy the amount of things i am learning about controlling the pain i get from these “Cluster headache” and why they call them “head aches” is beyond me. I would liken them more to a stroke than a head ache. Anyway, today seems to be another day sitting on my oxygen as i have had a few small attacks this morning but nothing, i would say, as painful as last night was. So fingers crossed it has reached its peak and i now get a couple of days pain free.
