Profile of a Cluster Headache Sufferer

When writing about cluster headaches, I've based my articles on solid research. I've been conscious, though, that all the research in the world can't compete with first-hand knowledge, such as I have with migraines and tension headaches.

Clusters are such a mystery, I figured it was nearly impossible for anyone who hasn't had them to understand. However, I contacted a man who has suffered from episodic clusters for 31 years, and he was kind enough to tell me his story.

Bob Pahlow is 49 years old, a husband and father who holds a responsible position at Cal Poly. Despite his history of clusters, he's worked his way up on the job and also made a good home life for himself.

For the first 20 years he had them, his clusters started every 8-9 months. Research tells me they are most frequent in spring and fall, but that obviously was not the case with Pahlow. Each cluster would feature 2-3 headaches each day for a period of 4-6 weeks.

They were predictable in that they would happen in early evening and about 1 1/2 hours after he fell asleep. Within 10 minutes the pain would escalate to a 10 on a 1-10 pain scale. Without medication each headache would last 2-3 hours and then disappear just as quickly as it came on.

His vivid description says it best. "Wind up rolling around the bathroom floor, vomiting, rolling some more." His headaches are always on the left, mostly in the left temple, but they expand into the jaw joint and over the left ear. "Gets to where I can't put an ice pack on it because it hurts too much to touch. Usually just sit in a chair with ice pack and tissues and last it out. Hard to explain the pain other than to say I can't imagine any worse."

At 40, Pahlow quit drinking entirely, and his clusters subsided to every 2 years, even though alcohol had only been a trigger during active clusters. The bad news was that the clusters began to last 12 weeks instead of 4-6 weeks.

He still has 2-3 headaches a day during a cluster, but his remissions have been getting longer and the clusters are getting shorter. Some experts claim clusters gradually go away as the victim gets older; perhaps that's what is happening to Pahlow.

The literature indicates that smoking is another definite trigger for cluster headaches. Pahlow has smoked off and on, but he says for the past 10 years he's only smoked a couple cigars a week. So once again he appears to be an exception to the norm.

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