Bejeeber

Well that's a normal reaction to such a severe situation of course, so I'm glad you're now going to pursue the treatments that are more effective than what the failed medical profession has to offer. Yes! Around here O2 is considered a critical abortive to have on hand while awaiting busting results, so I hope that right after ordering the seeds today you can jump on getting the O2, either welding or prescription, with the high flow regulator and non rebreather mask.

Well I'm glad CHfather is being serious today and is really focusing in on the critical info/advice. I heartily endorse everything he just said. CHfather bo bother, banana fanna fo father.......

Hey it's a noob noob bo boob, banana fanna fo foob, me my mo moob, NEW-oob. Ahem...uh...sorry for whipping out the name game in lieu of a proper greeting, Lynn. :-[ Lynn Lynn bo bin, banana fanna..........ugh, must cut this OUT! > *vigorously slapping self in face*. OK hopefully I'm finally over that now, and I just want to say that I think you've come to the right place. I can't offer any helpful advice regarding how to proceed with the Zoloft, but I can say that 40 seeds before bed can be a good starter dose. Many of us experience a better night's sleep than usual as the main 'side effect'. And if a 40 seed dose goes down well, bumping it up to 50 for the next dose could be good. Minimum 5 days between doses is a good rule of thumb. I think a smart strategy is to at the same time also be working on procuring or growing mushrooms for your back up plan, because some of us have found that if the seeds don't work, or work at first then stop working, moving on to psilocybin will work, and of course it's nice to have it on hand sooner than later! Sounds like you're on the road now to some pain free-ness without the pharmaceutical horrors. YAY. 8-)

Ooh good catch CHfather - I'm going to add that one to my CH files.

Sorry, I'm pretty clueless regarding what you've been experiencing lately. :-/ :-? I do agree that it's not hard to know than most neuros, so I hope you will demand to see a headache specialist, because at least with an actual headache specialist there's a good chance of getting an accurate diagnosis of your recent symptoms.

I had a similar experience with seeds stopping working for me Jennifer. If I had it to do over I would crush them either with a mortar and pestle, manual pepper grinder, or the old "put them in a freezer bag and hit them with a hammer"Â method, since I've read here that those methods are supposed to be the least damaging to the active constituents. I'd probably try a higher dose than my usual 50 seeds too, not that I recall anyone actually recommending that here. Hoping and praying your mushroom quest will bear fruit SOON, because when I switched from RC to shrooms, the shrooms did work for me.Â

Ha, yes I know from protracted experience that the Bomba link is NOT easy to dig up. Agreed. > :(

Rest assured that your desperation is very much understood Jennifer. Have you considered yet ordering some Rivea Corymbosa seeds (legal to order and possess) to try busting with while you continue your search for reliable, non risky mushrooms?

Hi Jennifer, Here's the link to the Bomba shack topic that kindly Dallas Denny is rooting around for (I keep a hot link to it handy now 8-)): http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1297450426 The Bomba shack is in Tortola, which is across from St Thomas. Mushrooms are legal there and last I heard, available for purchase.

T'boy I wouldn't be at all surprised if your aunt has been prescribed low flow, rebreather O2, which was cutting edge in the 1970's. Unbelievably doctors generally are still stuck in the 1970's, not even realizing that the high flow, non rebreather O2 method of administering O2 is so much more effective. There are rare individuals for whom O2 doesn't do much, but I'm hoping your aunt is about to see a major improvement as she steps into the O2 big leagues. And if your mawmaw isn't getting that consistent of O2 results, hopefully the same for her too. There are chronics in your mawmaw's age range who have busted and gone into remission BTW. 8-) I think you're transitioning from feeling helpless to being extremely helpful.Â

Chris, I'm hating hearing about what you're experiencing , but glad to see the good advice CHfather is offering. Like so many others, after 30+ years since the beast first visited me, and a metric tonload of prescriptions over the decades, I have embraced busting as the most effective solution for prevention, and O2 as my first line abortive (I'm also on the D3 regimen now). I encourage you to seek out O2 and follow through on CHfather's other recommendations ASAP, but let's go ahead and talk drugs too since you're currently on the 'ol cocktail's worth. Imitrex. If it upsets your stomach, it sounds like you're on pill form. The vast majority of doctors prescribe it this way. The vast majority of doctors are utter a-holes when it comes to CH. Slow acting pill form is for migraine. Fast acting, more effective injection or nasal spray forms are for CH. Meantime, about the only usefulness I've heard of for imitrex pills for CH, is that some CH'ers who have a predictable time an attack will hit take the pill one hour before and can prevent it. Here's the imitrex tip which outlines how to get 2 to 3 aborts per injector instead of just one, and makes for less expen$e and less side effect risk: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/imitrex.html We'll be looking forward to when you have O2 as your primary abortive and can reserve imitrex strictly for emergencies if at all. Neurontin. Some CH'ers swear by it, more swear at it. Personally I found I had to take it up to 2400 mg per day (on a neurologist's advice) to get prevention from it. It prevented about 50% of the attacks, which beat the heck out of 0%, and made it worthwhile for me at the time. The kind of sleep deprivation you've been experiencing will drive anyone entirely cuckoo. Most of us have considered giving up before finding some significant relief. Don't you even think of that anymore - you've arrived at a place here where you'll find out how to acquire a fearsome but non toxic arsenal for beating this MF-ing beast to a pulp and sending it screaming home to it's mommy. Which is a good, good thing.Â

Uh oh, sounds like your aunt and grandma have probably been getting all of their treatment info from doctors. This place is riddled with CH'ers and their supporters who know all too well that what the medical establishment has to offer can be one big prescription for a tremendous amount of pain. The fact that you've stopped in here could very well be a huge turning point for your beloved aunt and mawmaw, one in which I know you'll be very happy to have played a major role in, tomboy. As Ron said, CHfather laid a motherlode of priceless info on you, and I think it's important to re-iterate this part: And this:

Hey Rob - Jeff asks the questions that cluster-enquiring minds want to know, so I'm looking forward to hearing more, so we can be cram maximum informative-ness into our responses. You asked about energy drinks - I know that they can work for both migraine and cluster if chugged right at the onset of an attack. The shots can be handy for this. It's the combo of caffeine and taurine in them that is credited for their abortive capabilities. Personally I can't abort a CH hit that's determined to go to a high Kip with an energy drink, but milder hits, yes.

Yeah Zenchow! Sounds to me like the very welcome signs of the end of a cycle indeed. Keep after it as clustermom suggested, and you just may be able to thwart the entire next cycle - how cool would that be?!  8-)

Oh my darlin' Deltadarlin, a good thing about me and internet forums is that my notorious mumbling isn't as much of an issue as it is in person. 8-) Something missing from me so far in this thread is a BIG thanks to you OUCH'ers who organized this shindig and pulled it off so well, and I know you were a real ringleader DeltaD! The food was good too, although there was a bit of a generation gap that cropped up when a horde of us were marching back into the hotel for the banquet. It went something like this: Jeebs: Alright, I'm ready for some cluster-vittles! Val: Some cluster-what? Jeebs: Vittles. That's what we call food here in Tennessee. Val: <eyebrows raised, silence> Jeebs: You need to watch some old '60's Beverly Hillbillies reruns! Val: Why would I want to do that??!!

Well this has quickly spun out of control. ;D

You don't have to answer that Kaboom, Dan knows full well that Dreamboat is my middle name. In fact this is the boat I rode in on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KodlzjCxfig

And Jackie is one of the super nice OUCH'ers who even lent me her phone when mine broke. Thanks again Jackie, and looking forward already to the next time we can lounge around on the outdoor benches and blab it up. 8-)

Roast a few marshmallows for us Mystina.

Sandy! So good to meet you too - sorry, I lumped you in with the "other fine CH'ers" due to your huge 3,000 + post count where you've been helping people over on ch.com, which had me forgetting for a second there that like me you are bi-forum , and are over here too! ;D Yeah Bob has me all fired up about BOL - he sure makes a very good case, and I know so many of us are chomping at the bit for the next trials to get underway. I practically came out of there chanting BOB! BOL! BOB! BOL! ;D

Woopsy - just clicked on this topic for the first time now, sorry. :-[ Thanks for thinking of me though. Unfortunately I wouldn't have been able to attend even if I had responded in time.Â

Live and in person at the Nashville OUCH conference today! And plenty of other fine CH'ers and supporters whom I previously knew only in cyber form. Yep - and very unexpectedly even Kaboom(!!), hands down the most fabulous surprise attendee of the event, who told me something very AWESOME - she's gone 5 days in a row PF even while riding on planes!! (Please forgive me Kaboom if I'm risking any jinxy-ish action by reporting this here ) Bob (Wold, clusterbusters founder) was enthusiastically welcomed for one of his patented, well presented and seriously informative talks on BOL and clusterbustery stuff, and he was even presented with an award with great fanfare and applause for best research I think it was. I told him that I think there were some sort of anti-busting poltergeese in the room or something though, the only thing that could account for the big clusterbuster charts falling off of the walls during his talk. It was a GREAT day in in the clusterhood.  8-)

Nobody can claim you're not qualified to hand out one of those! ;D

Without a doubt! Sorry to hear of the O2 setback though - this is unfortunately a very common experience when dealing with O2 suppliers. I'll just echo the recommendations for a minimum 25 LPM regulator and an optimask.

Hurray for the return of Clustermom13! Your Bonkerhood (kinda like a knighthood) is now officially bestowed.Â