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It's not uncommon that a PA is more helpful than the doc. This is the original O2 study, fully consistent with medical research standards: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/185035 It wouldn't hurt to print it out and bring it with you. There is also some more recent research, less rigorous, showing that higher flows are better. All doctors and PAs have some kind of app that gives them core information about a condition. They will all show that oxygen is the #1 abortive (usually triptans are also #1). A commonly used app is UpToDate. You can ask the PA to look up CH. An O2 prescription should read something like this (write it down and bring it with you, because a lot of med professionals don't know how to write it): "Oxygen therapy for Cluster Headache: 12-15lpm up to 15 minutes with non-rebreather mask." There are abbreviations in there when it's formally written, but that's the content. You might also look here for a little more info about the other pharma things you might want. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6213-basic-non-busting-information/ The linked-to article under the heading Pharma is clear and helpful (and also states that O2 is the #1 abortive -- I guess maybe you'd want to print that and bring it with you, too). So, sometime people have a CH "lookalike" that is most commonly some form of hemicrania. You can look that up -- hemicrania continua, paroxysmal hemicrania, any of them. As BOF says, oxygen is generally not effective against hemicranias. There is, however, a pharma drug, Indomethacin, that is effective. Some medical writers have said that if there's any doubt about whether a patient has CH or a hemicrania, they should do a course of Indo at the beginning of treatment. (Indo is very hard on the gut, for most people.)

Hi, Alcohol isn't a trigger for everyone. Doesn't affect my clusters at all, and 9 or so shots of vodka will abort a migraine. So that's handy for when the pills don't work. This forum very much saved my life when my clusters were at their worst. I was literally putting a date in my calendar for when I was going to exit planet Earth. Then came here, created an account and it turned my life around. There be good people here. xx Mox

40mg 3x per day for the next few days, then up to 80mg 3x for 3 months assuming I can tolerate it. I have low BP generally so keeping a close eye on it. I had a painless awakening this morning - it was such a weird feeling. Trying to describe this to loved ones is so strange. My heart goes out to everyone who has dealt with this for years... holy crap it's bizarre.

FYI I know many have been concerned about Freud. He is currently in the hospital making a swift recovery. He will be back on line soon. Thank you for all the prayers and good wishes. Best regards to a pain free future for all, Freuds mom

Ricardo we had a member, Fabalicious who joined in 2014. She was taking a lot of trex. She detoxed and got PF. About a month later she stopped coming on the board due to a severe heart condition that had just appeared/been diagnosed. Jeebs or another member spoke to her last I think. She was not allowed on the PC until her condition improved was the report we received from her daughter I believe. We have not heard from her since. It was bad. Not a heart attack evidently. I have often wondered how she is doing now. I suspect that if she were better, she would be back. Miss her posts. Anyway, that is the worst case that I am aware of. Edit to add: Another member had taken two shots of trex and was hit again. His wife took him to the ER. They proceeded to give him two more knowing that he had already taken two in under 12 hours. Idiots abound. spiny