I’m a 79 year old, retired man and have been married for almost 50 years.
One and a half years ago I was diagnosed with Horton’s Headache (also called cluster headache or suicide headache). A short while ago I was told that I also suffer from trigeminal neuralgia. Looking back I’ve suffered from this for longer than that as these problems started around four years ago.
My terrible pain attacks
During the most intense periods I had as many as 9 attacks of pain per day. These headaches lasted around three minutes and rendered me completely helpless. No matter what I did the pain was terrible. After an attack I needed about an hour and a half to recover. The pain was so intense that I broke the pain scale they used at the hospital. The experts had a scale going from 1 to 10 and after observing and talking to me they concluded that my pain scored 12 on their scale.
Before I was diagnosed with Horton’s Headache I was admitted to the hospital for pain treatment. I was prescribed several different painkillers. At one time I got such a high dose of morphine that my kidneys became overburdened and my whole body started to shake, but my pains were still just as intense as before.
The pain and the loss of functions it caused, forced me to use powerful preventive drugs, with negative and undesirable side effects but due to the pain I couldn’t see any other possibility than to take these drugs and suffer the side effects. Even with this strong medication I still suffered from several pain attacks every single day.
A better period
Horton’s Headache is a disease that is characterized by pain attacks occurring in clusters. It is possible to have better periods. Last summer I had a quite good period that lasted a little more than three weeks. During that time I had less pain attacks, but the pain was still terrible on the days I had attacks.
Tried qigong
Through my wife I was introduced to Zhineng Qigong after she attended a weekend Hold Qi Up course. She wondered if Qigong could improve my life quality and reduce the pain.
In January of 2012 I participated in a basic Hold Qi Up course in Hamar. Despite my age I was able to do the exercises without much difficulty. I felt that something was working inside my body and to my great surprise I didn’t have any pain attacks on either Saturday or Sunday!
No pain attacks anymore
Since the course (9 weeks have passed now) I haven’t had what I call pain attacks! A couple of times during the week directly after the course I felt similar to the way I used to feel prior to my pain attacks starting, but as stated no real pain attacks. It’s new for me to experience such long periods of time with so few symptoms, and I directly connect the Qigong training with the change in my state.
Quit the medication
After the course I even dared to reduce and around three weeks after the course completely stop my preventive pain killing medication. This has led to even more improvements.
Hoping for a better life
I used to feel unsteady when I walked and often had to take an extra step to the side to keep my balance. Now I feel steady while walking. I consider myself to be a sceptic, but I’m convinced that Zhineng Qigong is helping me. I practice regularly with my wife and join group training sessions as often as I can.
It might be unnecessary to mention, but my condition has affected my family and loved ones, as well as reduced my quality of life. Now I have great hopes that the training can help me get a better life.
Thor Sanne Gundersen