The subject of headaches is always of great interest to me, I have been suffering with headaches since I was approximately 4 years of age. I remember this very well. I would complain that my head hurt and was promptly told to lay down. Once I started school, I started missing class on a regular basis due to my increasing headaches. At first my parents thought it was because my mother also had headaches.

My mother started working and I finally got some insurance and at age ten was tested for every kind of allergy in the world, or at least to a ten year old. At that age not crying when I got a shot was a major accomplishment. The most that I got was seventy six in one day. I still think that this is a barbaric way to conduct any kind of medical test. I don't know if it has changed. I hope for the sake of any child or adult who has to endure this, that it has changed.

I did have some significant allergies, but none that would give me horrible debilitating headaches. All the allergens were removed from my house, including my dog, Leroy. We had only had him a short time, but he was a long haired dog and made me wheeze. This cycle of removing objects, IE pets, carpets, dust, milk, you name it, and it went. I was in the ninth grade and the headaches returned with full force, the doctors once again said it was allergies and dismissed them without cause.

My family reintroduced a pet to the house and since he was a wire-haired terrier, I had no allergic reaction. He was with us for sixteen years. I seemed to outgrow most of these allergies, cats still bother me greatly, but do not cause headaches.

When I was fifteen, we returned to Massachusetts, my birthplace, city of Boston. The doctors in that city wrote my headaches off to being homesick for California, with no further testing at all. So much for being the best medical care in the United States.

Yes, I was homesick, but after a few months I had adjusted to East Coast Life. The change of pace was different, the weather was significantly different, but my headaches were worse than ever. And no one believed me. "You are just a kid," they would say. Nothing further ever came of that, no more tests, treatment, of any kind. A school guidance counselor suggested therapy, which for a medical condition really doesn't do a lot.

After a almost a year, my parents decided that it would be better for my father, he was ill with multiple sclerosis, and received no medical care in Massachusetts either, to return

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Testimonies: Living with cluster headaches?
We want to hear your view. Write now!