Leaderboard

I love my family... All you guys and gals here. I've been more away than here lately. I just had to say I actually (like really) got a tear in my eye reading the thread. Titan, You have the rock stars of CH on with you! You'll get some pain free time soon. Keep hanging in there. Sleep deprivation really sucks... J

Titan, one thing that I found to help with my first attack of the evening was to have a cup of coffee before it arrived. That would hold off the first one. But, like you, once I hit the bed, the hit arrived in 10-15 minutes. Not even a lousy 45! Prone and sleep always kicked off a hit. Additionally, I found that when the cycle was winding down, I would still wake at the appointed' time with no hit! Most disturbing. The pattern took weeks to stop. I would just take a bathroom trip and go back to sleep. As for the Prednisone, it works for me until I go below 30mg/day. Three 10mg pills and I was golden. Two and I was not! That still holds to this day and it has been decades. Since you took the initiative to stop the injections except in desperate need, it seems like the cycle is winding down? Am I correct there? Training your brain to not wake at those CH dictated times might be helped by the use of Melatonin and Benadryl. As in take the Melatonin at bedtime. Not sure what your 'dose' is, but up to 25mg is considered safe. I took 30mg many nights before I learned that, so not sure why the limit, but feel that you should know. Anyway, take that 30 -45 minutes before bed. Then, when you wake later in the night, say after 4 hours, take Benadryl then for the sleepiness factor and the anti-allergy benefit. That helps me ditch the 4 wake up calls every night post cycle. In about a month I am free of those wake-ups. Your doctor gave you an injection of Dexamethasone, not a course of Pred, which is the norm for a Clusterhead. That would not have the same effect of Pred in pill form and taken over several days. So, just drop that med from consideration. A dose pack of Pred - taken for about 5-6 days in decreasing dosage each day may help a lot. Or a course of Pred over 2-3 weeks that has a taper at the end. You taper, not just stop this medication. I am pretty confident that you will be CH free in a day with Pred. But it is a double edged sword and always remember that! You use it judiciously and perhaps a dose pack 2-3 times a year and a long taper say twice a year. You want to avoid the necrosis it can cause and have your hips replaced from it. As for the D3 Regimen, year round is best. That way your body is prepared if your head decides 'Oh, lets have a cycle in January this year!'. Which it can do!! It is healthy and good for you. Additionally, I have seen some members who only take it a month before and during their cycle, forget to start it and the cycle now comes. Not good!! Hope this helps a bit.

Thanks CHfather! And yes I have checked out the "new users" tab at the top. Just obviously difficult to source that treatment but it's on my list. Spiny's suggestion of caffeine and hot shower followed by cold rinse seemed to provide some relief this morning for my CH which was great.

...sorry, that musta been a one off article, pre hit o2 breathing is not recognized in clusterville as a successful practice ('81 on my case). O2 is an abortive (along with injectable triptans, THE most effective of the traditional aborts. DMT and, for some, ketamine the newer and less studied but reportedly effective). O2 inhalation effects are transitory in nature..... the effects do not accumulate. it is not a preventive. no harm in trying, if for no other reason than to prove to yourself what effect it does (or sadly, doesn't have). i've always figured there is only one way to find out for yourself for any method discussed here...try it...in this case ya got nothing to lose but a little gas..... ...if the melatonin does not work (and you should experiment with dosage) diphenhydramine (Benadryl in USA) is worth a try...was my go to for allergy flare ups (which i suppose might have been cause for 1 hr wake ups, (discussed below)...but i didn't realize at the time)...Quercitin is another option others are more familiar with so i defer... ...for these nightly wake ups, which were only an occasional odd cycle for me when ECH....i sorta quote myself from previous, mostly applies "... staying on for a few mins after the hit aborted is frequently helpful. Also used to get hit hourly at night (in high cycle)...for whatever reason the O2 worked better than the usual 15 min (only 3- 5+)...but back again in an hour. What I did was: learned to wake up as soon as hit started (and no idea how I did that)...with my rig all set to go....just had to slap on mask and open valve. Left lights off, only swung knees off bed and stayed sitting, eyes closed, none of the usual movement, anger, angst, swearing...NO thoughts other than breathe-breathe-breathe-breathe (almost like a mantra). Never really woke up and could get back to sleep almost immediately. Usually got 5 or 6 hrs of sleep a night... which I was eternally grateful for because the alternative was NO sleep. Turned out my ATTITUDE about what was happening was just as important as the tools I was using...literally changed my life."