Bejeeber

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?

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