Bejeeber

Here's what I said in a previous D3 topic I started: What may be bad about that is the more I see how things are progressing over at the original D3 topic at ch.com, the more it's starting to look to me like following the regimen to the letter may be important. Plus there's talk now about it potentially taking 3 weeks to kick in for some folks. Sorry for any misinformation I may have laid on y'all. :-[ :-[

Hey Anthony, here ya be: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=conference [Edit: but it looks like FunGuy supplied more direct links below] And here's a very important note about the urgency of booking yer hotel room immediately (personally I'm heartbreakingly still not sure whether I'll be able to attend, but I'm going to book me a cancel-able room in hopes....) :

It's Clustermammy's birfday??!! ;D Woop it up for us in large quantities! [smiley=birthdays.gif] [smiley=2vrolijk_08.gif]

Hi Thoro, I think your Norwegian compatriot tingeling just dished out the real good advice there. That's the same way I prepare and dose with RC. Alternatives for crushing the seeds are mortar and pestle or a pepper grinder. I also take them before bed and my main side effect is the same as tingeling's - a better than usual night's sleep. I do experience an extremely brief moment of nausea before falling asleep, not a big problem. I know that some people have busted successfully while on the calcium channel blocker verapamil, but it is more ideal of course to be completely detoxed from the crap they just try out on you. That SUCKS(!!!!) that your first order of RC got screwed up like that. > :(

Best of luck Anthony - I bet it'll be a good move!

Good idea about trying the oxygen Rob! Although CH is theorized to be hypothalamus borne, I've seen folks report onset or dramatic worsening of CH following a head injury, so personally I'm pretty convinced that it can be a factor.

Whoa! The official debut of the Fustercluckers! ;D At the OUCH conference with sooooo many guitarists stinking up the joint I was offering my theory to Giuseppi (guitar) and Brew (bass) that it's the nickel from the strings seeping into our systems that has caused our CH.Â

Hi Jules, Most of us find that the pill form of imitrex is just minimally effective, period. The injection form on the other hand is much more effective.

Personally I've always taken them right before bed, and I know many others do this also. With a 50+ seed dose, I often experience just about exactly *1 minute* of nausea, then I experience the one other very common side effect: A better night's sleep than usual. I doubt you'll feel jack with a little 25 seed dose, but hey maybe it's best to proceed cautiously while testing the waters and ramp up for any following doses.

Hi Rod, I've heard some say that busting can be possible while on verapamil, but I'm not an expert on that, not recommending it, just kinda trying to bring it up as a discussion point here. Of course what I'd really hope (but not go so far as to assume) is that you could get some prevention with the D3, and I'll just add that personally I'm going for 15,000 IU per day, which I think is reasonable. I'm going to quote the eminently quotable CHfather right now, because the D3 protocol sounds like a no brainer (or a no pain brainer? ) for you to try: "I'd urge you to consider beginning right now the simple, inexpensive vitamin D3 protocol that has helped many, many people quickly and also lastingly. Take about 10,000 international units per day of vitamin D3, taken with food; 2 or 3 calcium citrate tablets per day, with or without food (ideally, these tablets should also contain magnesium and zinc); and 3,000-5,000 mg per day of Omega 3 fish oil, with food. You can find these ingredients in a pharmacy or drug store. Many people find that a glass or two of lemonade or limeade per day with meals increases the effectiveness. Many people start getting significant relief within a day or two. The levels I listed above are the "default" levels--you might wish to adjust according to your own tolerance. These are not "megadoses"--all are within standard recommended daily allowances except the D3, which is high but not inordinately so. To read a great deal more about the D3 regimen, you could wade through the following thread:" http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1291969416/0

What CHfather said. Exactly. Yep if you haven't tried the high flow non-rebreather O2 (much more effective than how doctors ordinarily prescribe it), it could become a critical abortive for you, and along with the D3 could enable you to detox from the drugs. The high LPM O2 absolutely works for a very high percentage of us. The D3 I'm not sure how high a percentage because it's relatively new, but I think it's very worth trying because we're seeing more and more CH'ers - including chronics - reporting going into remission with it's use. My opinion as someone with a 30+ year history with episodic CH that has included a zillion prescriptions is that mushrooms are a much better long term solution than drugs including lithium, but you might as well find out what happens with the O2 and D3 first, then take it from there. Oh yeah, and more often than not doctors are completely clueless a-holes when it comes to CH. I've learned to never trust one as far as I could throw one.

Hi Christina, I haven't personally used welder's O2, but I did bookmark a web page about it's use for CH. Here it is - I hope it has the sort of info you're looking for: http://morrobayphotos.com/ch/O2primer.htm If you ever find that we're not supplying enough details on O2 here, it can be worth asking about in a post over at the sister forum http://www.clusterheadaches.com/wwwboard2/index.html, and there'll be a good chance you could get in email contact with the resident O2/D3 guru "Batch" there - he often PMs people who post on the subject.

I like the direction this is going in (miniaturization!). Even more hopeful for CH I think is the new technology testing is supposed to begin on soon that Goadsby touched on at the July OUCH conference, which involves NO implant. You just position a little hand held device near your trigeminal and it emits some technological wave of something or other that aborts your attack, with benefits supposedly lasting for more than one attack. Could this really be possible? Can you imagine what it could mean for CH'ers, especially the small percentage whom busting doesn't work for?

Christina, the link Dereksgirl shared with you for stretching the imitrex doses is a critical one IMO while you're still needing to use imitrex. I've certainly used this approach more than a hundred times in the past (before I was busting) and found it to be invaluable for those times when I couldn't get to the O2.

I was at The OUCH conference last month with a bunch of CH'ers, many of them middle aged and older, and they were such a sharp bunch that I practically felt like I was at a Mensa convention (but without the the egotistical nerdliness I imagine you'd find amongst the Mensa rank and file ), and that eases my mind about lasting damage from CH. So I will go ahead and hang onto my hunks'n chunks. Good thinkin', Fun Guy. ;D

Hi Christina, CHfather is right - Sumatriptan is imitrex, and it is considered to interfere with RC/busting, sorry. This is one of the reasons we're driving you cuckoo by pushing the O2 so rabidly - it's the effective abortive that won't interfere with busting.

Whenever someone ends up in the ER I know they're getting hit really hard. Very sorry to hear about that Christina. At least there was that good news above from CHfather about the RC - yep you could order them now and potentially have them Wednesday, ready for consumption (after crushing them and soaking them for 2 hours - no growing required), as long as you haven't taken any meds that would interfere. $70 a day for a tank does sound just crazy exorbitant, way overpriced - I don't know what they could be thinking. >

Hi Christina, What Jeff said. I would just add that personally I think of RC (Rivea Corymbosa) seeds as being an easier, more foolproof option than HBWR because of their ease of preparation, with no risks other than a dud dose, if not prepared correctly. Here's a good link about the O2, put together by CHfather, who with any luck may be along shortly to put his O2 $.02 in  : http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1299901790 If you have access to mushrooms I'd also say by all means, after reading the warning here: http://www.clusterbusters.com/warning.htm seriously consider them - they are a power packed, very effective beast fighter for a very high percentage of us.

I had been describing the incident in question as the falling poster having given Ed a *hug*, but your description of it engulfing his head is more accurate Sandy. And it has more zing.Â

I've read that the older a person is, the less likely they are to be able to absorb crude'n cheap calcium carbonate, because oldsters tend to have less of the required stomach acids for breaking it down than a young'n has.

;D That oughta flush him out. ;D Looking forward to any responses. ;D Thank God for CHfather, that's all I have I have to say. OK that's not ALL I have to say, but I sure am glad to see CHfather giving you such good, targeted advice, Yan. Besides the critical info about the increased effectiveness of high flow 100% O2, it's also good to know that many find that the taurine/caffeine combo of an energy drink chugged at onset of attack will help the abort from O2 last much longer for some reason. Sounds like you have a good job Yan, so assuming you can afford one, a demand valve system for your O2 might improve your results even that much more. This is anecdotal, but I know one guy who can routinely abort impending high Kip hits within 5 minutes with the E tank/demand valve he carries in the car. And most importantly, it's paramount to know that many people do still listen to 'Jimmy' Hendrix, and it's actually spelled 'Jimi'. ;D

Yes, never strapping an O2 mask on - just holding it on with the hand - is the foolproof and widely adopted standard practice that makes falling asleep with a mask on a non issue.

Wow so the whole defective hypothalamus theory is just flying right out the window? The atrophying hunks and chunks of brain do correspond to my feeling of having been left with a damaging brain burn after a whopper CH has ripped through. I use terms like 'hunks and chunks' because the parts of my brain that would've come up with the correct terms have atrophied.Â

Yes, sorry, it's about the most unappetizing thing I've ever seen. <insert *barfing* emoticon here>Â

The way I'm interpreting the insert image button thingy is that you have to paste in a URL - the internet address - of where a pic currently already exists somewhere online. I just went and right clicked on a pic on a website, then selected "copy image address" (In Safari) in order to copy the URL for that image, which was: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JTlvJtHeG-A/SbqM3G8gczI/AAAAAAAAAAU/X6c57zzdfpE/S1600-R/clusterfudge+banner+cropped+copy.bmp Now after coming back here I'm clicking the image button and selecting 'paste'. Then upon 'Refresh Preview', voila, the image appears: So I suppose for personal pics, you'd have to have them on an online photo storage site like photobucket or something and link to them there, but unfortunately you can't simply just upload them from your computer. Someone please tell me I'm wrong and there's an easier solution. I hope this means we'll get to see some tall ships and Indian musicians now Tingeling. ;D