The Support Group for ClusterHeads in Africa
If you suffer from this condition, I want you to know that you are not alone and that HOPE is out there.
Click on the "Message Board" Link on the Right
and join our community.
Oct 13, 2006 at 19:30 o\clock
Oct 13, 2006 at 19:27 o\clock
What is a Cluster Headache?
Cluster headaches are unilateral thus only affecting one side of the head. It has been noted that the headache can switch sides from time to time.
They start suddenly and the pain escalates fast into a severe pain compared to a knife stuck into the affected eye and near that temple.
The pain can last from a few minutes to sometimes 3 hours.
Cluster periods can last for a few weeks or months.
The eye becomes red and tears, the nose runs while congested, the face, hair, jaw and ear becomes sensitive and sometimes painful on the affected side.
The person experiencing a "Cluster attack" is agitated and cannot lie down or sit still. This results frequently in banging the head restless pacing and rocking to and fro.
This headache is known to wake the sufferer from sleep at regular times in the night.
Oct 13, 2006 at 19:22 o\clock
Episodic or Chronic?
According to the International Headache Society:
Episodic - at least 2 cluster periods lasting 7 to 365 days and separated by pain-free remission periods of greater or equal to 1 month.
Chronic - attacks reccur over more than 1 year without remission periods or with remission periods lasting less than 1 month.
Oct 13, 2006 at 19:20 o\clock
Oct 13, 2006 at 12:55 o\clock
It is Friday night
Afro-Latin rhythms float lazily between the tall palm trees on a humid breeze, like the waves lapping the Mozambican shores. Every obscure little tavern becomes a hive of activity filled with sweaty human forms, swaying to the passionate beat under the starlit African sky.
Suddenly an eerie silence descends upon this small East African coastline. A total power black-out, again... it is as if the whole nation is holding its breath.
The minutes drag by. Then a faint cheer starts from the South and moves like a Mexican wave through the darkness to the North and in its wake, lights start to flicker on. The power is back… now Friday night can go on.
