I must be the only person on earth that H occurrences affected only the left side of my face and mostly around the left eye. My 1st recall of it is around age 5 and it was much more frequent growing up. Until about the age of 11 just before puberty it would start as a tingle just under the left eye or temple area and sometimes spread along the entire left side of my face very painful, extremely unbearable itching to where my Mom would tie my hands down so I wouldn't scratch especially while sleeping. Then came the large watery blisters which would drain and scab and if a scab was rub off to soon left a scar. The breakouts were 6 to 8 a year. Then at about 11 they went up in occurrences once to twice a month but varying in severity. Sometimes lasting only a couple days and hardly felt more than the tingle, and it would be gone. But other times it took on an enormous swelling of the left eye area never in the eye itself, but around the outer eye. It would get so swollen I couldn't see out of it cuz it was shut tight from the pressure of the swelling. This was an all to depressing situation for a teenager ( like I didn't have enough I was going through at the time ). But the swelling type of H would start out the same as the blistering type , with a tingle some itching but never blistered, but the pain was tremendous and disfiguring. At 16 just before Christmas I had the worst breakout I had ever experienced in my life. The blisters and the swelling with presure hit me together I now liken that outbreak as being like the end of a fireworks show, everything exploding all at once it was the worst. But I say that because it was also the last time I ever had the outbreaks I had suffered for years with again. It was pain, itch, swelling, eye pressure. It gave me migraines headaches so severe and made me so sick I wanted to die. I don't think I could have lived with it anymore if that was how they were going to now be. But what I didn't know and why I refer to that episode as being like the end of a fireworks show is the explosive way it hit and then when it was over, it was truly over. I didn't have another for more than 2 years. That was the 1st time ever I had gone since I was 5 a whole year let alone 2 with out the trauma of H. As I got older the outbreaks lessend and I was free of them just like that with the last one at around 20 years old. I'm 43 now and the outbreaks are no more than the tingling maybe a very small spot or two that appear as no more than a mild blemish if at all. I have over the years tried to find articles, books, or anyone who had ever experienced anything like it and figured I must have been the only one.........

[This message has been edited by headman076 (edited 12-26-2002).]