Is It CH or Rhino-Facial Pain?

I suffered severe "Cluster Headaches" from '77 until '97 when I finally used intranasal lidocaine spray to STOP them, cold, in less than 5 minutes.

We discovered I did NOT have CH, but that I had episodic "rhino-facial pain" from nasal tissue being compressed periodically, depending on the many in- and external factors that cause the tissue to swell and shrink.

My ENT did an MRI and some simple nasoplasty (repair of a deviated septum) and I haven't had a CH since. He said about my case, "It's not in your head, it's in your nose." By JB DeMotte

Last modified: 2002