February 29, 2000 :: 12:30 a.m.

Got one at 12:30 a.m. Was helped by 10 minutes of the thumper; he could get back to sleep after a while. Said he got another at work in the afternoon, but took some Aleve and it didn't get too bad. But the rebound from the Aleve came at 10:00 p.m. He finally got in the bath at 10:30 after the Thumper proved fruitless.

It is now 11:08 p.m. and it's still going strong. The bath didn't help. He's now pacing the living room, which he hasn't done in a few cycles. CRAP!!! This one just won't go away. He is now chanting "This sucks ass" under his breath.

-- Cannot seem to locate "The Spot" a all, although general rubbing in the neck area seems to occasionally help somewhat, this whole cycle.

-- Doc says that because of hte Aleve and the Thumper, and that he's been trying to suppress them, it has tonight come back to fuckin' kick his ass.

-- His ability to imitate cartoon and rock star voices degrades when he has CH!

-- Pacing seeming to help a bit now (11:18 p.m.)

Doc mentioned how people in the Middle Ages probably would have thought he was posessed by a demon and just killed him. People who would scream and say unintelligible things and hit themselves in the head -- they weren't crazy or posessed, they just had cluster headaches! And 50 years ago he would have been lobotomized or electroshocked. Today, he just can't get his HMO to cover treatment.

-- He says the the bungee cord in his head just snapped (11:25 p.m.) and he suddenly went down a whole level of pain. It still hurts and he's still pacing, but the pressure's lessened.

-- "Throbbing Fuck Pain." Oh yeah.

-- Why doesn't he just pass out from the pain? Shouldn't his brain just shut off at a certain level of pain? Or is unconsciousness induced by trauma, and not pain alone?

February 27, 2000

We bought the thumper today.

Had some mild ones that it helped. Same tomorrow.

February 26, 2000 :: 3 a.m.

Wish we'd bought a thumper instead of just looking.

Had one at 3 a.m. -- not bad enough to wake me up for help, but bad.

Then ANOTHER one at 7:30 a.m.

What is WITH this cycle???!

February 25, 2000 :: 4:45 p.m.

Another fairly bad one at 4:45 p.m. as we were finishing watching "Pitch Black" at the theatre. This one turned from cluster to migraine on the way home in the car. So hitting his head made the cluster feel beter but made the migraine hurt. He slept for a while when we got home (took two Aleve) and it had lessened when he woke up.

We went shopping for "thumper" massagers and he tried one for a few minutes that stopped his migraine almost completely.

February 24, 2000 :: 11 p.m.

A REALLY bad one at 11 p.m. Bad enough to make him lose it for a few minutes.

February 20, 2000 :: 3 a.m.

Yet another 3 a.m. headache. He dealt with this one better -- it was as bad, but he was more prepared.

No 3 p.m. one today. Was yesterday's 3 p.m. one because he was napping?

February 19, 2000 :: 3 a.m.

OH YEAH -- ANOTHER CYCLE!
Has been having mild ones for weeks now.

Woke up at 3 a.m. with a cluster, outside pacing, head smacking. Woke me up to rub his neck. Very scary bad, maybe an "8"

Then at 3 p.m., another one, a "9". This was a bathtub one and he was worried that this would start happening at his new job.