Bejeeber

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

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?