"It was a dreary Monday morning in September 2016, and I was working as a teacher, trying to settle a new year 7 class, when a sharp pain bloomed behind my right eye. It was followed by quick jolts, like electric shocks. As each class came and went, the pain eased and then returned with greater intensity. Four times that day I left a teaching assistant with worksheets and ran to the school bathroom to douse my face with cold water."
"Cluster headaches typically begin with sudden, severe pain around one eye that peaks within minutes and lasts up to three hours. Attacks come in clusters, daily or multiple times a day, and are accompanied by red or watery eyes, drooping eyelids or facial sweating. I have the episodic form, which arrives in seasonal bouts; others have chronic cluster headaches, defined by the absence of long pain-free periods."
A teacher experienced recurring, sudden sharp pain and electric-shock jolts behind the right eye beginning in September 2016, with attacks worsening through classes and requiring cold water and analgesics. The headaches recurred seasonally, worst in September–October and February–March, with predictable auras and morning onset. Neurological assessment led to a diagnosis of cluster headaches. Cluster headaches affect about one in 1,000 people, more often men, and present as unilateral eye-centered pain peaking within minutes and lasting up to three hours. Attacks occur in daily clusters with autonomic signs. Episodic and chronic forms exist. Reported pain averages 9.7/10 and high rates of suicidal thoughts occur during bouts. Greater occipital nerve blocks became the main preventive tool.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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