[updated]
So I've had these cluster headaches lately... just got a new job, and I had to go home my second day from this intense headache, watery eyes, and runny nose, followed by impaired hearing, difficulty breathing, and then a sore throat - all at the same time.
[edit]The first headache was probably not a cluster headache since there was only one. I didn't have any headaches for the next 2 weeks. I wasn't around bleach for these two weeks either, that I noticed. Then I was exposed to Rydlyme and bleach, after which, I had non-stop cluster headaches for 11 days total. This first headache was caused, I think, by just a whiff of bleach. I don't know if anybody else even smelled it. I was standing outside near some water cooling towers. They use bleach to keep them free of organics. I smoked half a cigarette and the headache came on within 60 seconds - it was insanely painful. [/edit]
I believe the effect was intensified by having drank lots of coffee that morning, and possibly by an allergic reaction to something (probably bleach). It felt like an allergic reaction at the time.
After two weeks I was exposed to a LOT of bleach and Rydlyme. The next headache came on instantly - as I was pouring the bleach into a box so that I could use the power sprayer with the Rydlyme first. This headache lasted 20 minutes after I took some aspirin and walked around. After work that day, I had a headache that lasted 6 hours and it was so painful - I wanted to kill myself.
I spoke with a forensic laboratory dude who suggested I create a blog to see if any others have had this problem.
So... even a short breath of bleach and a cigarette produced a 20 minute headache. Being enclosed in a cooling tower while spraying it with Rydlyme and bleach resulted in headaches every day for eleven days, and included up to nine in one day. Every other night I had headaches every 1.5 hours all night long.
Someone told me I might be hypersensitive to bleach... whatever that means.
Anybody have any comments?
For me, aspirin, advil/ibuprofen are useless. What does work is to spray my face with cool water until the pain goes away. If within 10 minutes it doesn't, then I jump in the shower and breath heavily through the cold water while it splashes on my forehead and sinus area. I have recently tamed even the worst headache (I haven't had a really bad one for five or six days), but if I lay down afterwards, I get another one in an hour to an hour and a half.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Bleach and Cigarettes
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4 comments:
Overexposure to bleach has given me headaches, and at its worst, a sore throat and a faint feeling.
Cigarettes taste very different for me after handling bleach- even for small exposures.
Yea, me too. Ask people around you if they feel noxious around the smell of bleach or if the smell is intense. I didn't realize that I was the only one who was made sick by it. I found out later.
I also suffer from clusters, but get huge relief from naturapath drops from a company called 'Robynn Morrow', in Townsville. Just tell them it is specifically for 'cluster headaches'. I too get runny eye/ nose, swollen sinus,I also experience all teeth on same side ache at once along with cheekbone & jaw.Oh,my goodness....am I pleased I found these precious drops.Good luck.
I started getting these headaches a few months ago, only later discovered that they were (likely) cluster headaches. Ibruprofen/Acetometaphin/Aspirin worked for awhile, but then I had to take so many that it wasn't safe.
I found certain things triggered them: mostly, alcohol (even 1 beer), too much coffee, and too much smoking (weed). I still get them from coffee since I drink a lot of coffee now that I abstain from drugs or alcohol. An ice pack or bag of frozen vegetables applied at first sign of pain helps a lot. Mine were bad enough that I would only be able to writhe on the floor and rock back and forth for about an hour.
I understand why they are also known as "suicide headaches", the pain is that bad, to where you actually think about killing yourself or drilling a hole in your head to alleviate the pressure.
Hope this helps.
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