CHfather

Smart guy, too, that Ricky (Desi Arnaz). When "I Love Lucy" started, he negotiated to buy every episode from CBS at a very low price, so that his and Lucy's company, Desilu, earned all the money for all the reruns. Desilu created and produced other series that included "Star Trek," "Mission Impossible," and "The Untouchables."

Jeff, there are a lot of posts about amitriptyline/elavil over at ch.com, and a pretty amazing range of experiences, from "didn't do squat" to "knocked out my CH for three years." Here's a thread from 2008 that has the whole range (including a post from our own Mystina): http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1225150917 Also, dosages varied very widely, and it often was prescribed along with something else, seemingly most often verap (and from my scan it seems to have been in combo with verap that it worked best). Seems like "made me a zombie" is also a fairly common complaint.  The overall sense that I got is that the more "standard" meds have been found to work better, with less drastic side effects. I'm pretty good at googling, and so I also did an internet search looking for any tests of amitrip for CH, or medical recommendations of it for CH, and didn't see anything. Didn't push it to the limits in terms of searching, but went pretty far. Migraine and tension headache, yes. Maybe there's enough good stuff over there at ch.com to suggest it's worth trying. Seems the effective dose is higher than 10 mg, though. Many strong recommendations to take it at night to reduce the side effects. Hope it gives you some good results. Jerry

Sorry, Jeff. You're such a hero here, I know lots and lots of people are sending you positive vibes.

You can read Oscar's posts by going here http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?action=viewprofile;username=714D5D5F4C3E0, scrolling down the page, and clicking on "See the last [40] posts by Oscar."Â Change the [40] to 120 if you want to see all his posts. If you go here http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=files and scroll down the page, you'll see the key files that Moxie mentions (including the file "Shutting the Door"), plus several others you should read, including the important one called "Playing Well Together."

Couldn't agree more!

Pretty much what Moxie said. Put the seeds in a glass of water, stir, let settle, use the ones that sink and discard the ones that float.

More-or-less random thoughts . . . I haven't read the whole Wilson's thing, but I recalled that licorice root, which has been valuable for treating Heilette's CH, is specifically used by some people to address hypothyroidism. E.g., '>http://www.livestrong.com/article/506254-the-effect-of-licorice-on-hypothyroidism/  But from other things I've glanced at, it seems this method of treatment is questionable, or at least has to be applied with great care. I also recall that somewhere in his long tome on the licorice root protocol, Les mentions that licorice root is a fairly powerful temperature-reducing agent. All of which reminds me -- Heilette, I hope are you being careful to follow Les's requirement that a person should not stay on the licorice root protocol for too long at one time.

Suz, Very glad your neuro was responsive to this new symptom, if only so that you can get the whole thing checked out since this cycle has been so rough. We're thinking of you.

Okay, I'll call you FLUFFHEAD. With having gone 10 years without any treatment, you have earned the right to be called anything you want. You will learn all you need to know about treating CH with the things you mention in the many files in the "ClusterBuster files" section of this board, which you can get to from the "Forum Jump" tab at the bottom of this page. You will have to "detox" from imitrex and the steroids for five days. It's good to be off verapamil, too, but many people have had some success while still taking verap. It seems that you do not have oxygen. You really, really want oxygen, which is the most effective abortive there is. It will help you get through the 5-day detox and the time after that while busting kicks in (it can require several "busts," five days apart, to fully treat CH when you're in cycle). Even without insurance, you can set up a system using welding oxygen. A lot of people here and among others with CH do it that way. Here's some info about oxygen (O2): http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1299901790 Here are some files about busting to start with: Overview: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290127865 Interactions with meds: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290130731 Dosing (though there's nothing here about LSD or DMT): http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290130612 Warnings: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1319290654 I believe it is agreed here that LSD is likely to be the most effective busting agent. Could be wrong about that. Psilo is great, too. (The goal of most people here is to find the point where the dosing kicks in but tripping is minimized. Others can be more precise with you about what that might mean, dosagewise.) Whatever you do next, please stay in touch. People here will help you. Also -- Have you tried quickly drinking an "energy drink" (RedBull, Monster, etc.) at the start of an attack? That helps a lot of people (particularly when combined with O2).

I came here for the advice, and stayed here because of the people -- with the brave, kind, funny, generous Hipshot being very high on the list of folks who make this a special place to hang out.

Purp, I've said a couple of times lately here on the board that I miss you . . . but I sure am sorry to see you back under these circumstances. Hoping you'll do what you need to do, quickly, before anything takes hold.

Agree with the sentiment, but I think you mean, "Mystina, Mystina, gal, where ya been so long?" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vzv5KTNU2FU Got to be OLD to remember this one!  :-/Â

ob, Here are some things I know, which are not conclusive. At least one person here (davidj, I think it was) has experimented with kudzu and busting, and in his case the kudzu didn't seem to interfere. And, I once received an email from a doctor who has studied LSA and CH quite extensively, and he said >>I'm unaware of any interaction of kudzu with LSA (doesn't mean there ISN'T one of course).<< I'd take the 10 now, since you're primarily doing it as a test of the effects anyway, and then weigh the kudzu question with more input from people here.

You can find quick links to the articles about oxygen here: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1299901790 My suggestion would be to send them to your doctor's office before your visit. Maybe someone will look at them, maybe they won't, but you will have them on notice that you know what you are talking about. (I remember one person who sent them to her doctor's office, and the doctor paid no attention to them, but the nurse practitioner in the office did -- and the nurse practitioner got the O2 for the patient.)

http://ck-wissen.de/ckwiki/images/1/14/IHS_IHC_2009_BOL_Halpern.pdf

Hey, THANKS, spiny!!!!  kaboomski!

You're right, spiny, but I know they're also sold separately (because we got ours in separate packaging from a kindly CBer), and I figure that'd be a lot cheaper than buying an O2ptimask. Also, the O2ptimask one is relatively short . . . I realize now that I'm looking for one with an extension, as illustrated in the ch.com oxygen pages: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/O2/index.html (I would just include the image of it here, but for some reason I can't include images. Or don't know how. I click on the "insert image" icon, and get the , but then I can't put anything in there between the s. Can't use paste (nothing happens) and don't get anything helping me "browse" for the image in my files.)

Do you happen to know where to buy a mouthpiece? I've looked on the internet but can't find anything that I'm confident is the right thing. Thanks.

Check the kaboomski family tree. Also, this from the Urban Dictionary: KABOOMSKI ... Also means awesome, cool, amazing. TJ- That chick looks kaboomski Who knew? http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Kaboomski

much too kind of y'all. if there was an embarrassed emoticon, i'd toss a few in here. i've seen what the beast does and that memory is with me every day. if i can help anyone whack it a few times and send it running, nothing makes me happier. y'all are the superheroes. (heaven knows why i'm y'alling today. must be from talking on the phone to denny a while back.)

We haven't seen kaboom here much lately, but I know she's still hard at work on behalf of ClusterBusters. So, this story caught my eye today (the headline was something like "Kaboom Clears Out City Hall"): A metal pipe with the word “Kaboom,” scrawled across it definitely qualifies as a suspicious item, and yesterday one was discovered at Akron, Ohio’s City Hall at 8:30 a.m. Cue bomb squads, police, fire crews and the K-9 unit and a building evacuation. But chillax — investigations revealed it was the homemade, name-tagged cane of community-minded resident Kaboom, who forgot it after a City Council meeting. It gets better: Three years ago the 65-year-old changed his legal name from the unexciting James Louis Krosner to the alarm-raising Natural Hunka Kaboom. He claims the explosive name is just a shortened version of Polish family name Kaboomski. . .

Redd, it does look to me like the largest cylinder that comes with this system is an M9. That's the same diameter as an E tank, and a little less than half the height. From what I read, it would hold only about a third as much O2 as an E tank -- 8.7 cubic feet vs. 24, according to http://mercurymed.com/catalogs/BDR_TechnicalInformation.pdf (An M tank holds 125 cubic feet.) And it takes more than two hours to fill an M9 tank, so if it could be used to fill an E tank, that would take close to 6 hours. (I have heard that the O2 created by a concentrator is less "pure" O2 than the O2 a cylinder holds -- containing some "room air," or something.) Maybe someone with sharper eyes and a sharper mind will see something here that I'm missing.

Ting! I was just discussing with another CB member how much we miss you! Such an honor to know you.

RC prep: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290128974 I wouldn't recommend relying on seeds that have been in the freezer for a year. They might work, but why take the chance -- they're not that expensive. Jeff has said he's doing so experiments on the life of frozen seeds. No one knows what the lowest effective dose is likely to be. Could be as low as 10 good seeds. But at 30 you are virtually guaranteed to have no psychedelic effects, and certainly nothing to be anxious about, and (in my opinion) you'd almost certainly get enough LSA. Once you've taken 30 and experienced nothing psychedelic, you might want to go higher. Energy drinks, and also ginger tea, help a lot of people with the shadows.

Thanks. I have been wondering. Glad you're out of cycle!