Hello and Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog! I am a twentysomething female who suffers from New Daily Persistent Headache and Cluster Headache. Even though I’m blogging anonymously, those who know me will probably easily be able to identify this site as mine as obviously my story is going to be unique to me. All I ask is that if you’ve found this site and you do know me, please keep me anonymous! Also, please leave a comment or send me an email at paininthebrainblog (at) gmail (dot) com so that I know you’ve stopped by! This blog will contain some of my own personal medical information, so even though I know I’m publishing to a public domain, I would appreciate it if anyone who does identify me would act sensitively in a way that you would wish to be treated, were the roles reversed! Thanks!

And now all of that aside – I’m very excited to be starting this blog! A little over 6 years ago, I got a headache that has never left that was later officially diagnosed as new daily persistent headache. And then a little over 3 years ago, a second headache type was diagnosed: cluster headache, which, as time went by, became diagnosed as chronic cluster headache. Both are rare headache types, but thanks to some very proactive people with clusters, we have sites like ClusterHeadaches.com, OUCH US, and OUCH (UK). (OUCH stands for the Organization for Understanding Cluster Headaches, although with a slightly different title in the US and the UK!) Unfortunately, aside from some brief descriptions and some journal articles, there is very little information out there about new daily persistent headache (NDPH). Hopefully by sharing my story here, I will especially be able to reach out to others with NDPH as they currently have no “home” on the internet.

Since it has been over 6 years from the start of my headache journey, I felt that perhaps now is the time to share my story in an attempt to offer help, support, and resources to others who are suffering. I plan to start at the beginning and post installments about my headache journey, and once I get the history caught up, I’ll obviously continue with my day-to-day life. I’d like to stress that headaches really are such a small part of who I am – the big picture of me includes so many other things – but since I started this blog expressly to discuss my headache journey, I won’t really be focusing much on the other things, except as they relate to my story! It seems like most of the time, I’m minimizing the role and impact that headaches have on my life, but this will be a place for me to focus entirely on that role and impact, and I’m actually looking forward to having a place to do that!

While it is merely a start, I’ve included some links that I hope are helpful. I’ve listed some of the major headache centers in the US, UK, and one in Singapore, and I’ve also created a links list of headache resources. I’m sure there are so many more links I can and hope to include, but this is just a start! For the time being, I’ve linked to headache centers as opposed to individual headache specialists, but as this blog grows and develops, I hope to include more resources, including individual physicians that specialize in headache. If you know of an excellent center, physician, or headache resource that’s not on my list, please leave a comment or send me an email. I will definitely consider all recommendations for inclusion on my list.

So I suppose that’s it for my welcome! Thanks again for stopping by, and I hope you find my story interesting and maybe even a little helpful! If you don’t suffer from headaches, then maybe reading my story will help you to better understand someone who does! Either way, I’m happy to be sharing this with you. Take care!