Bejeeber

COOL. 8-) Nice photo of y'all hangin' with Jay Leno too.

Happy birthday Matty, and hope to see you in Chicago in September for the convention.  [smiley=birthdays.gif]

"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute -- then it's longer than any hour. That's relativity!"Â Â - Albert Einstein

DAM. I'm afraid all manner of headbangers may be delayed at airport security on their way to the CB convention when their prednisone induced hip replacements send the metal detectors into full tilt (if the hips are being replaced with some sort of titanium or other metal...?)

Thank you for piping in about that Ajax - I know I needed the reminder, as I've been hearing good things about it from you and others, but it slipped me brain. This is getting interestinger and interestinger.

That's a heck of an interesting angle you have there with the small doses of trex in proximity to busts, Ricardo. Question: Do you recall ever going a full 5 days detox before a bust? I (and if so was the bust any more effective than usual?) And chrisw, is it safe to assume you're just injecting "partial" but effective doses of trex in the 2mg / 3mg range, not what amounts to a completely unnecessary overdose of an entire 6 mg syringe per abort?

Hi Jubal - glad to see you're getting info here about the O2, busting, etc. that has gotten many a headbanger off the prescriptions and and enjoying some serious pain free time. Ooh I admire a lot more expensive guitars than I own, but if any of those you've acquired are "vintage" I bet you've actually made some really good inve$tments there. 8-) -Jeebs, member of the Fuster Cluckers, gigs pending at the Bomba Shack. ;D

That is clearly a seriously fecked situation you're in Chrisw, I just hope that after you run the detox gauntlet this week you get some good busting relief. Certainly there are headbangers who have been in a similar severe situation, but have somehow made it through, and are now so glad they managed to stick it out. Please listen to Cman59/Johnny who has made it through 40 years chronic, and is enjoying some good life now. I read your previous posts about how cafergot can work for you when you're on the seizure meds, but vit M is blocked, and I can see why you became interested in paper. I know we're all racking our brains here trying to think of some ways for you to deal with the upcoming week. Ordinarily I'd bring up melatonin for those night hits, up to 21mg, and trying an energy shot/drink along with the O2, since some CH'ers report it can make the difference between O2 working or not, plus they can somehow go back to sleep despite the caffeine blast, but I figure that's all probably old hat stuff to you..? The only other thing that's occurring to me at the moment is whether you're hyperventilating super high flow O2? If anyone should be using a full on O2 demand valve system right now, I'm thinking it's YOU. Hell I do know from experience though that in a crushing high cycle even the huffing of high flow O2 can be iffy for the major wake up hits. :'( Just know that you have a helluva cheering squad here and we're pulling for you in a major way to get to that Friday busting goal.

Super glad to hear you have a good UK pal personally coming to your assistance now. [smiley=thumbup.gif]

I think that actually should've been a major CH indicator for any doc with a passing familiarity with CH. Speaking of which: I'm going to try to go one further here and suggest you specifically seek out a headache specialist type neuro, since garden variety neuros often don't know enough at all about treating CH. Kudos to your second doc for doing homework enough to make the CH diagnosis. Sounds that way to me too, and I think you'd be hard pressed to find any headache specialist prescribing it that low. This could be an instance where an injection form triptan (imigran/imitrex) would likely trump the nasal spray and be able to abort the attack. Another advantage to injectors with an accessible syringe is that you can stretch your doses out and make them last, which is critical for so many CH'ers, and I see it is for you too. I guess you'd want a combo of imigran inhalers and injections so you could still inhale while teaching....? Here are details on how to stretch injection doses: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/imitrex.html I believe your research results there are spot on. You may also want to look into the vitamin D3 regimen which many CH'ers believe has helped them with prevention, and IMO you'll DEFINITELY want to learn about "busting", which is a much more effective preventative than any prescription RX, and is something many of us CH vets who have tried and eventually sworn at every med, now swear by. Here are what I consider very important (and also very engaging) links for an easy overview of busting (OK you're a teacher and you don't need easy, but with CH attacks tearing through your grey matter, maybe even you could use a break from the researchy technical stuff). 8-) A Newsweek (major mainstream US news magazine) article about busting and CH: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2009/10/14/the-psychedelic-solution.html A National Geographic episode on CH and busting, profiling one of our forum members, the now movie star "Hipshot" who regularly interacts with us here (you'll meet him and LeeAnn when you come to the Clusterbusters convention in Chicago in September. Hey MG from the UK is attending ). Dan's feature begins in this video at around 30:50.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjteSZu_JqM A video talk by the founder of this site, Bob Wold, on busting and his long experience with prescriptions vs busting: http://vimeo.com/10918637

That's just un-fecking-believable. Now I REALLY can't imagine... :'(

I can't imagine anyone going through about 35 years (after subtracting your PF interludes) of being chronic, and how on earth you were able to withstand that. So sorry that had to be you C59, but dam happy that you have a remission in the works again. PHEW. Now down to details:

Those moments are so special!! Reminds me of when I had to ask to use the bathroom in a small pharmacy so I could quickly jab meself in the leg with freshly purchased trex after having completely run out. The unique part was that this was not so much a pharmacy, but a farmacia, in TIJUANA. (I lived in san Diego at the time, and it was more economical to pop over the border for med$). Oh well at least that bathroom was actually clean, so you still got me beat b.g.Â

Hate it when the beast returneth like that. > I bet you'll shut him up with the next bust or 2.

Well I know from your previous experience that it can take a few bustings to completely snuff a cycle that's already gained a foothold, but it sure would be simply lovely if your bust last sunday was all ya needed for a good long while! I suppose if I were you, I'd be starting in on the contingency planning for a repeat detox/bust - just in case it becomes necessary. Here's hoping these shadows fizzle out and you do actually find yourself completely scott free!

Well the pred sure does kick your brand of journalism right into the gonzo category, and I have to say it is hyper-engaging. ;D This is entirely classic and should be enshrined somewhere ;D: Sorry to hear that it ain't working out so great in the CH dept. though. The chronic guy I know who had the recent success with pred? Years back he had pretty much sworn it off after he says he went cuckoo on it, and didn't sleep at all. The crazed insomnia is definitely known to happen to to some people, some of the time.

Sigh, I was hoping someone else might take on this elephant in the busting room. I don't have personal experience with busting in close proximity to a pred burst, but I've seen some o' the most credible CH folk warn that pred is a busting blocker that should be detoxed from. :'( Maybe CHfather will chime in on that issue. On the more positive side, chrisw's post reminded me that there have been occasions when my CH has simply returned at it's original intensity after a pred taper, so hey maybe that's reasonable to expect. Sorry about all the possibly overdone "returns with a vengeance" alarm bells. :-?

Woot, woot is right! [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif] [smiley=thumbup.gif]

May your beast rest in peace! Heavy shadow lifting right away does seem like a good sign alright. That is interesting that last time the score was RC: 0, paper: 0, Mushrooms: jackpot! Especially since paper is considered by some to be the most likely to succeed. Hey maybe the RC and/or paper weakened the beast enough that the vit M finished him off for the year...?! I dunno, maybe not, this process can be kinda cuckoo and mysterious, can't it? Well thank gosh you were so tenacious and determined.

Hey Ricardo - I can tell ya I've done the spaced intervals of pred like that without encountering any issues with effectiveness. Issues with attacks coming back with a vengeance after the taper, yes, but as common as that unfortunate phenomenon is, it is fortunately not 100% assured that it will occur. I know a chronic headbanger who recently resorted to a pred burst in a desperate bid to get a break from being hammered. It worked. The huge surprise was that after the taper he still wasn't getting hit. And He's STILL not getting hit several months later (????!!!!). Man that sort of thing is SOOOooo rare, and he had done pred bursts before without lasting results. Here's hoping you could be the next one in a million who somehow gets lasting relief. For others reading this - beware, the "CH hits return with a vengeance " is a MUCH more common after effect of pred. Also Ricardo, be aware that flashes of personality changes can absolutely result while on the high dose. For me and some others an uncharacteristic mercurial hot tempered-ness can manifest. Not quite 'roid rage, but a hot button that can be easily pushed, causing you to tell the wife off replete with expletives, then a few seconds later feel perfectly calm, happy go lucky, wondering why the wife is acting so offended.

Forgive me if we talked about this as part of your strategy last year and I've now forgotten, but some headbangers who drink the strong coffee when trying to abort an attack are also popping a taurine pill at the same time so they'll get that caffeine/taurine combo that's considered to be the thingamajig that makes energy drinks effective.

Now that you mention it, it would be tuff to find any WORSE place for head swappin'.Â

Insane indeed. Jeez Donnie, you must really be asking the big WTF???!!! To have the attacks intensify right at the time your valve/regulator goes on the blink, that's un-freaking-believable. > It definitely sounds to me like time to graduate to a higher LPM regulator or demand valve system anyway (if you're still on a 15 LPM), since your results at that relatively low flow are waning, but to have yours actually not working now is thoroughly un-thinkable. 15 LPM doesn't do jack for me and some of our other head banging compadres BTW. Hang in there somehow , very sorry to hear of this journey through hell, and best of luck getting to a higher O2 flow really quickly.

YAY!! [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif] [smiley=vrolijk_26.gif] [smiley=thumbup.gif] [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif] BOO!! > :'( :-? That's pretty incredible that a chronic could get over a year remission Green Eyes (!!!). Um not that that will do you any good tonight though dammit. Ya been maintenance busting? I imagine you're preparing to really go at it and seriously bust like a fuster clucker once again?

UGH, really sorry to hear that. :'( Understood where you're coming from there, as a whole bunch of us busting folk (I'm guessing most of us) kinda ran the gamut of conventional meds before getting down to the busting. Here's to some serious beast busting for you!