Firstly your eyes open and confusion takes over as you stare at the ceiling wondering if you are dreaming or awake. A few seconds pass and you realise you have woken from your sleep with out feeling tired or if you have actually been asleep. You listen for any sound or a clue as to why you have suddenly woken up and that’s when you realise all you can hear is a static sound and high pitch ringing in your ears. At this point you sit up in bed and prepare yourself for the wake up call from the beast as you realise what has woken you. Then the pain begins, starting on the top of your jaw on the left of your face and above your eye just on the edge of your eyebrow. You jump out of bed frantically searching for your injection as you know what is about to happen.
The pain starts to shoot over the top of the head making the entire left side of the head and face become sore and painful. Your eye begins to water and close as your face starts to swell. You feel like there is a fire behind the left eye and no matter what you do it just wont stop. The pain begins to increase and your breathing becomes shallow as you begin to panic from the pain. All you can do is place your head into your hand and gently rub the left side of the face hoping that by massaging it will help to ease the pain but it doesn't seem to work. You begin to rub vigorously along the top of the head trying to ease the growing pain and you pray to god for it to stop. All this happens within a few seconds and you know its time you have to take your injection before the pain becomes so strong it will just over power any medication you take.
You stab the injection pen into your leg and press the button praying for it to act fast and ease the pain before it becomes too much. You sit with your head in your hands rubbing and breathing deeply trying to control the constant growing pain but no matter what you try it doesn't work. All you want to do is scream out in agony and smash your head on the ground as if to crack it open and release the beast but you know you can’t as it will just make it worst. You control yourself from screaming as it will just wake up the neighbours and at 3 am in the morning i don’t think they would be to happy. The injection starts to work and your chest becomes tight. You can feel your heart beat through out the whole of your body and your breathing becomes shallow once again. The ringing in the ears starts to decrease and then suddenly, as fast as it began the pain stops. It’s over!
This is how i wake up most mornings due to the cold weather first thing setting off my attacks. No matter how much i try and avoid having an attack and how warm i keep the flat it seems as if the head knows when it is cold outside. I feel as if i can sense the low pressure from bad weather passing over me. After each attack i am left with a feeling of pressure on the left side of my head. We call this the CH shadow and sometimes it can be just as bad as the attack itself. When having strong shadows i find it ends up setting off several attacks during the day and there is nothing you can do except ride the pain each time it happens. It always seems to leave me with a painful neck and every time i move my head i get sharp shooting pains travel from my neck down the left side of my back and a grinding feeling up in the neck. I can only assume its the nerve swelling up that causes this and have to wait patiently until the pain eases. I sometimes wonder how i can cope with having these attacks every day and how much more the body can endure.
