Bejeeber

I was bracing myself before looking at this topic - I hate to hear of people getting slammed the way your hub has Angel - so that's a bit of a relief about the HA's being better since Wed.! In case that 2 grams comes on strong, do you know how to assist him with the O2 (if he is hit with an attack near the peak and needs someone with normal space/time perception to help make sure the O2 is being administered as usual)? This very well may just be me, but I find that if there is stomach discomfort during the busting, soda crackers and carbonated water will help, and they are also kind of yummy in a sideways and warped sort of way. Putting out the best thoughts and hopes for a good busting! P.S. I also find naps to be a suicide mission.Â

Sorry for this quick digression everyone, but Yury, since you respond well to the cold stuff, I should mention that breathing cold air with your nose right on the vent of a cranked air conditioner can also abort a hit for some of us some of the time (when the O2 isn't available).

What they said. 8-) After 18 years you've just now found a place where there's a good chance to bust this beast. I'm a 30 year CH vet and my CH experience and outlook has improved tremendously thanks to our brothers and sisters in CH who have figured out what the docs haven't, pooled their knowledge, and are eager to share it. Here's some good info about the newer, more effective way to abort CH hits with O2: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/O2/index.html

Hey m9dbent, Here's hoping we'll hear a report back of success after you've tried mother nature's treatment. If you see this before dosing, a couple things to keep in mind if you happen to find yourself having a stronger experience than expected: Don't worry too much, you'll be very much coming back down to earth within 3 hours. And it'll likely be entirely worn off within 6 hours. Music music music. A good coping strategy (for me at least) is lying on the floor, closing your eyes and listening to some music you love, but that isn't too dark themed. Personally I find later era Beatles to be ideal. 8-) People and other things may look weird. Just know ahead of time that this is a side effect - they don't really look this way. Write yourself and your wife a note ahead of time about what to do if have an attack (such as breathe O2 from the tank at x LPM for x minutes), so you can just refer to it and be confident you're doing the right thing.

Hi Angel - have been thinking about you and your husband - sorry to hear it's been such a hellacious week. Have you been able to get your hands on a hi flow O2 regulator and try a higher LPM? I'm thinking one could potentially come in very handy for when that prednisone wears off. You may know this already, but a prednisone side effect is that it can cause a normally calm person to have temperamental/angry outbursts. A sort of roid rage. So don't take it personally if this happens, and any outburst will likely quickly subside.

My thoughts about BOL vs. LSD/Psilo is that there is no way doctors in the near future are going to prescribe hallucinogens to patients. But if BOL was on the fast track to approval, it is quite conceivable that before long we could see docs prescribing it for CH. Plus I'm amongst several others here so far who have reported they've had past psychedelic experiences, aren't afraid of them, will gladly embrace them to stop CH, but will only do it to be free of the CH, and otherwise would prefer not to go there anymore. Let's get mainstream docs widely prescribing BOL (if it is proven to work), and if people want to pursue hallucinogens for CH and/or PTSD, let them take that on independently.

Since the O2 didn't do too much today I would say absolutely he should crank that LPM up considerably - maybe starting with 15 LPM and if that's not working keep going up from there. Problem is though that it's mostly just special (online) order regulators that will go up that high. I've heard that dive shops - if you have any in your area - can be a local place to get a hi flow regulator (a different "demand valve" type). Something to keep in mind is that the O2 will also run out a lot quicker at a higher LPM, but hopefully offsetting that will be his ability to abort attacks quicker. Some of the most knowledgeable and experienced O2 aficionados report routinely being able to abort a hit (at a high LPM) within 5 minutes. The high LPM could really make a big difference - anything below 25 LPM doesn't do jack for me when I'm being hit hard with the CH attacks, and I, as many others do, hyperventilate it at the onset of a hit. Also, many report that the taurine and caffiene combo in an energy drink such as Red Bull can help the O2 stay effective longer, if the drink is downed quickly right at the onset. The folks over at the clusterheadaches.com message board tend to be the gurus about O2 - I'm always telling people over there to also check out this forum, and if you haven't signed up there, it could be worth your while for continuing O2 advice. Here's a good read on the O2 subject from that site: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/O2/index.html [edit]: Like Alleyoop, I have also rigged up a big reservoir bag to my mask, in my case a big plastic trash bag. Not very glamorous looking but it works.

That's a very tough spot your husband is in right now, and I know we are all feelin' for him. I wish I could say I've heard of occipital nerve blocks being done at an ER before, but I'm afraid I haven't, and I hate to say it, but I have to wonder if they would offer much besides opiates at an ER that you don't already have on hand (O2 and Zomig). Hopefully I'm wrong about that and someone can correct me here. At this point I should probably check to be sure - is your hubby taking the most effective approach with the O2, which would be high liter flow (such as 25 LPM or above) and a non rebreather mask such as the optimask?

Angel - here's a post from the Theory & Implementation forum/topic: "First Time With RC Seeds" if it's of any help to you: "CArl wrote on Yesterday at 8:53am: One must reduce Verapamil gradually, it's not advisable to just stop taking it. If my memory serves me right. You remember absolutely right!! there`s a rebound effect on the adrenalin and nor-drenalin. If i remember correctly I had tojust stop taking it because of heart beat down to 37, and the rebound effect was not that nice. but they thought it was ok, because of not using it because of heart, and my young age. so, i don`t know about you, but i wouldn`t ex rec it, if you can avoid it. When I dosed the first times, i couldn't`t detox from everything, it was just not possible at the moment. It still worked, i think it just took me a little longer to get the real results. but it did night and night. that`s my excperience at least. Wish you good luck

Hi Angel, I'm no expert at all on busting, so I think it's great that your talking with BobW, who is quite the expert. I can tell you though that judging by the cases I've followed, and my own experience with RC, if it was me in this situation I'd go straight for the big guns. Mushrooms (if they can be found).

Over at ch.com I've seen gal after gal who suffers from CH come on there and report having a male doc refuse to diagnose them with CH because "women don't get them". So I believe there is indeed a self perpetuating myth amongst the idiots MD's that keeps female sufferers from being diagnosed as often. My attempted humorous approach to asking why such a high percentage of englishfolk were there at ch.com, and whether we (I'm American, but half English, half Irish by descent) are more prone to CH totally backfired and a complicated flame war resulted. I really shouldn't have used the term "limey bums". Also, I've run across a few CHers of African descent so far.

We have a living legend in our midst. Ron I hope you don't mind being called old though by those pesky little whippersnappers who are recounting the legend, the urban legend that is actually true. 8-) I wonder if any posters depicting Ron have been made yet, or if Bonkers is appearing in any comic books or screenplays?

"Rune Andersson, Founder and Chairman of the Group Mellby Farm, donating nearly 6 million to the Brain Fund and the research cluster." Hats off to Rune Andersson! I imagine he realizes that the results of this research may very well help prevent some desperate CHers from resorting to heads off at the wrong end of a double barrel. Imagine the day when this kind of funding could become available for CH/BOL research...

Hey Jay - at 29 days into an episode I'm sure you are truly motivated. I've adopted the cliche "desperate times call for desperate measures" practically as my SLOGAN in the past when I've been where you're at right now. Here's hoping the good Samaritan college kids will come through for you TODAY.

Thanks Jay - and yes I absolutely assume that sharing is off limits here. Man I wish I woulda been thinking about this when the giant Bonaroo outdoor rock festival was being held here recently. It would been VERY hot there though. Otherwise, I don't know that I've ever had the personality for hanging around somewhere and asking strangers about mushrooms, but now especially at age 51, I figure I'd likely send the college kids screaming. Agreed that a mainstream country music festival may not exactly be the right venue either. ;D

Hey Clusterheads, Been meaning to register here for a good while now - some of you may recognize me from the clusterheadaches.com forum (hey Bonkers! ), where I routinely suggest to new members that they come on over here and learn about clusterbusting. I have a few topics to start here, but I'll try to just focus on one for this post: I AM A LUCKY SOB! I say this because although I started having CH attacks every year starting about 30 years ago, the frequency of episodes gradually started diminishing, and I went 7 voonderbar years between my 2 last episodes. My most recent episode started around August of last year and lasted about 2.5 months. I've been experiencing a day of shadows once every 9 to 14 days for the past several months. I've always dosed with around 45 RC seeds at bedtime on the day of the shadows, and have woken up symptom free until the next shadow 9 to 14 days later. Well I did this again just a few days ago with the same results except that after just one day PF, the shadows are back for 2 days in a row now. I'm not just a lucky SOB, I am also a vigilant one when it comes to CH, so just in case this is a new episode trying to start up, I'm seriously planning on looking into knocking it out with nature's fungi from the cow pastures. Last year the RC wasn't enough to thwart my CH episode and I'm ready for the big guns. FINALLY the question: For a feller living in the city in Tennessee, any opinions on what would be the smartest way to proceed, either somehow finding out where the accessible cow pastures are and harvesting the relief that mother nature offers there, or ordering spores and waiting around for 'em to grow? Hmmmm....next up I better go check and see whether spores can even be shipped to TN - last time I checked I was in WA, and there wasn't a problem. (FYI - unfortunately I don't know anyone who could get me some curative fungi. This wouldn't have been a problem for me in the 1970's. )