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Hey everyone. I posted earlier but I don’t think it went through. So I have been posting for years in this chat now about my fear of flying (in our out of cluster season). And I finally flew. It was a short flight, so I cannot comment further on length affecting a cluster. My flight there I had zero shadows or headaches during ascent or descent. I had almost a gallon of water leading up to the flight (the day before and that morning). I upped my verapamil dose by 80 mg and I loaded on the d3 regimen a week prior. I had a Red Bull at the ready, just in case. Also 2 500 mg Tylenol before take off and landing, and a ginger capsule. coming home: I went on no sleep the night before because my flight was at 5 am. This was dumb but I didn’t really have a choice. I was SURE this would trigger me, also it was daylight savings time. I drank about the same amount of water the day before and leading up to the flight. I bought a Red Bull, and I also prepped by taking 2 500 mg Tylenol. During ascent I started to feel tight pressure on my cluster side, no pain, just pressure. I chugged my Red Bull, and it went away instantly. I stayed hydrated the rest of the flight, and felt no further pressure during descent. I did not need to use any suma injection or steroid taper. I am not currently IN cycle, but I find with my clusters If I hit one of my triggers I will get an attack regardless. I am very VERY excited over this. My fear of travel has been depressing for the last few years. I hope this info helps everyone

@kat_92 you win the " best post on the internet" award for the day! DD

I get the formaldehyde mess. I looked at one place years ago Tony, with a 7 year old in tow. His eyes were bright red in minutes and mine were burning. Nope, cannot live here! I told my doc once that I needed something for my mold and mildew allergies. I was told 'Leave the planet.' So, that is a problem. I know that you think that in the dead of winter there can be no allergens. I used to think the same. When I moved from the deep south to the near north over 30 years ago, I had the idea that my kids and I would suffer less from allergies and asthma. I was informed that actually, that was wrong! I had moved from an area with one allergy free month to one with no allergy free months! It depends on the winds transporting pollen junk to you apparently. The winds can blow mess from the Sahara around the world. Do you have access to Trelegy for your asthma? It has been the biggest help for me over the years. It gets my O2 above 90% if I am up and moving around and that is a huge help!! It is good to hear from you again Dude!! Give the little one a squeeze from me.

Well this put a big, genuine smile on the big, genuine face this morning!

This is a delightful read for a Monday morning kat!! I am so thrilled for you. Enjoy your new found freedom!!! You have definitely earned it

Really feeling the love here guys! Thanks all again for the suggestions. Now I’ve been shopping for cute luggage online because I want to TRAVEL!!

If I have worse symptoms (like severe burning in my nose on the CH side) before or related to these allergy attacks, I usually start to track any items that are new or are presumably been exposed to outdoor molds. These are not always very clear or obvious. Last time it was a rug bought from a second hand store, before that a kitchen table friends donated (visible mold beneath the table) to us and even a garden statue that was bought as a new item at store. Dry air and dust may also be irritating factors in my case, probably the "nasty particles" spread more efficiently this way. EDIT: in Finland we have a nice combination of four seasons, very little sunlight in 3 of them and shitty building skills and use of plastic compared to how houses were built 100 years ago. The phenomenon of people getting sick due to bad indoor air is still very much denied and debated (especially by the responsible parties) https://yle.fi/a/3-11242805

@CHfather thank you to your continued support to myself and the community. It was an amazing time!!

"Liking" this post is inadequate. Great, great news. You should be very proud of yourself! Did you have a good time?

Registration for the first annual Clusterbusters U.K./European Patient Conference is open! Join us in Glasgow for what promises to be a memorable inaugural event. Register today. https://cbglasgow2023.planningpod.com/

I have this. For me it started to be a problem though as recent as 2017 and by that time I had CH more or less under control. So I am not sure have I had minor allergy attacks along with CH attacks when I was having lots of them and they still were brutal (CCH over 10 years ago). I think there are many factors in my past that have contributed to this; as a child my father built a house and then it turned out there was glue that contained formaldehyde that was too toxic for children to live in and we abandoned the house but my little brother already had lung damage from it (asthma like allergic symptoms). I have lived in apartments that have had more or less severe indoor air quality issues (mold, chemicals used in the past that have now been banned etc.). I smoked for over 20 years but do not consider that a big contributing factor but quitting smoking is another thing, having all that tar being removed from my pipes ! When I quit, pretty soon I started to have these allergy attacks, even without CH activity, then asthma broke. None of the antihistamines have never touched these. Now I usually get allergy attacks if I get CH activity but not every time. It depends have I had exposure to something in the air recently. I get these year around evenly, even when there's zero amount of any kind of pollen - like now, we are having -10 to -20 celcius cold period, snow covered ground, no pets. I also think that in my case this could be linked to my gut health to some extent. The healthier I eat the less I have these allergy attacks. Nowadays if I have to talk to doctors about this, I call it "non-allergic oversensitive rhinitis" because that is the most accurate match in finnish medical literature - although I do not think that's what this exactly is. Everytime I get told to use nasal sprays with cortisone, which I never do because they trigger CH and more of this all. I also have self-diagnosed rather mild multichemical sensitivity (MCS) related to this.