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  1. If you are stuck without an abortive, here are some things (taken from another document) that might help: Caffeine/taurine. For some people, caffeine alone can help to stop an attack or lessen the severity of the attack. Some folks keep strong coffee on hand for that purpose. Some folks use caffeine pills, and some people take taurine pills along with caffeine pills. They take those pills at the first hint of an attack, or a couple of hours before a predictable attack time. Many use energy beverages. Because some ingredient in energy beverages in addition to caffeine is believed to help with attacks (believed to be taurine), many people use those. I recommend energy shots (such as 5-Hour Energy) at first sign of an attack. Shots are quick to drink down and they have more caffeine than energy drinks, such as RedBull, that are much larger. Many people say the shots work best for them when they are as cold as possible. For many people, energy shots/drinks don’t keep them up even if they drink them at night. In addition to all the “standard” energy beverages, some people like “V-8+Energy” drinks. “Brain freeze.” You can drink ice water through a straw aimed at the roof of your mouth, with the objective of creating “brain freeze,” or hold something cold, such as frozen juice concentrate, against the roof of your mouth. Some people find that taking melatonin at bedtime helps (not wise to take both melatonin and Benadryl at night.). Melatonin is depleted in people with CH during their cycles. Some people find that it helps to supplement it. You could start with about 10mg, and go up or down as appropriate. Some people get into the high 20mgs, or even low 30s, before they reach a level that helps. Needless to say, you have to find what works without making you dysfunctionally groggy. Several people have reported that DMT is an excellent abortive for them. You can read more about that here: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/7444-dmt-first-time-finding-an-effective-abortive/ Feet in very hot bathtub. There’s a theory that this moves blood from your head to other parts of your body. Some people find that putting their hands in very hot water also has an effect on attacks. People have reported that going from feet in a hot bathtub to a cool room and back to the hot bathtub helps the effect. Some people don’t just stand in a very hot bath but will sit or lay in the hot water. Ice packs help some people. Cold air. One study showed that inhaling cold air was nearly as effective as using oxygen. Air conditioning vents in the home or the car are good for this. If it’s cold outside where you are, you could try that. Vigorous exercise. Some people find that vigorous exercise (running; doing jumping jacks, etc.) will stop or slow down a CH attack. Lime/baking soda. One fellow said that this helped his attacks: the juice of a lime or two along with a teaspoon of baking soda in a cup of filtered (non-tap) water. Sex. Some people have reported that sex stops their attacks. Other people have been amazed that it’s even possible to consider sex during an attack.
    4 points
  2. Gosh....I hate to say I have no clue....but I don't. I'm really surprised that your provider doesn't offer 24 hour / 7 day service or at the very least a back up tank or 2 for power outages and emergencies. The only advice I can offer is what I'd offer for any device. Check the obvious (ie power, internal fuses, filters, etc) which I'm sure you've already done. If your insurance or your wallet can pay for tanks, that's what I'd look at going forward. Malfunctions with those are easier to deal with and as a bonus you get 100% O2.
    4 points
  3. Aww.. too true! Honestly he has been a huge part of helping me through having CH and in many many ways he is indeed medicine! I'm just trying to avoid the "Hony take you clothes off, you need medicine"
    2 points
  4. I think if your both kinda getting into it so to speak. The heart rate elevats which is something that has given me many a break (not the sex lol. The heart rate).. not for long but better than noda.. No I will not be showing this section of your post to my husband as all the sudden he will be identifying himself as medicine!
    2 points
  5. Hey all! I've just finished another joyful cycle of episodic cluster headaches, and during some downtime i've put together a headache tracker / pain logging app. It's extremely bare-bones at the moment, and when i say app - its a web app that runs in browser. This is a personal open source effort to help other sufferers, not a commercial project and all data is stored locally in your own instance, no cloud, no central hosting. Without getting into the technical details at this point - would anyone else find this useful? Im looking to get some feedback or requests for the app - as i've built out what i find useful, but im sure others have differing experiences and I want to build something that caters for as many of us as possible. The project lives here: https://github.com/OliPassey/headache-tracker/tree/Mongo (Including screenshots) Im working on a fork of the original code i wrote a while ago (and is awful), and i don't recomend trying to install this just yet. Im happy to help you set things up if you're interested in having a version running, but you will need a certain level of tech knowledge to get it going at the moment. (Docker, MongoDB, Caddy) On first run of the app a setup process will ask a load of questions and allow you to configure nearly all aspects of the app. Medications, Abortives and Symptoms are all custom to you, the app starts with none and asks you to add everything. The app is also designed in dark mode only, due to photosensitivity issues, customizing the colour palette is hopefully coming soon. The workflow of the app currently is; On first signs of an attack, click "Start New Headache" This will log start time, pain level 0 (for graph cleanliness) and issue a headache ID for tracking You should then log your pain changes as often as needed on the 0 - 10 buttons. There are then sections for logging Medication, Abortives & Symptoms. Medication will likely move out of this section as its intended as a med log on a daily basis outside of an individual headache Abortives allow you to monitor how effective each method is, and report on Oxygen Tank status (On/Off currently) should you use it. Symptoms allows you to log your common symptoms as they happen. Once the attack is over, pain is down to zero and if using oxygen, Oxygen Off has been logged - click "End Headache" A report is instantly available, that looks like this; What i'm working on currently; Improving graphing & reporting. Export for Medical Professional option - will detail who you are, and summarize data as well as providing raw output. Carer's Realtime dashboard. inc. Pain Level, Symptoms, Abortives, Oxygen Status etc. Future Goals Potentially notifications or email output to aid in removing data from the system Making set up as easy as possible, as close to 1-click as possible. Packaging all components together to reduce setup complexity (MongoDB, WebApp, Front-End) Warning: If you do try and get this code running, do not make it available to the public internet! It is not a secure app in its out of the box config, and should only be available on your local network or via VPN / ZeroTier etc. That ended up being longer than expected - thoughts?
    2 points
  6. Good on you for taking the time (precious pain free time) to try and help others. I bet if you read and research more on this site that your medication and abortive fields will grow quite a bit. Thanks for what your doing
    2 points
  7. ...we got a wonky hypothalamus.....google "hypothalamus and immune system"....
    1 point
  8. I've never met him, but I feel certain he will be shocked to realize that he is not....
    1 point
  9. I don't think I've seen a detailed study on the immune system with regard to CH but it has been reported many times that a weekend immune system can or has opened the door for a CH attack. For instance many of us have had random out of cycle attacks while or after being sick..
    1 point
  10. Instead of resurrecting a 5 page deep 1 year since last post, post decided to start another. So I will start with these 2 that have helped me through some really hard times. Make that 3
    1 point
  11. had something similar done by my neuro a mix of lidocaine and a corticosteroid in the back of the head (occipital area), deep with a long needle. felt as if it was injected in the center of my head so to speak, i could hear the liquid being pushed into my brain, was a weird sensation. didn't kill the hits but made them a bit more bearable. the back of my head was numb for over 2 weeks, felt kinda funny.
    1 point
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