CHfather

ron, i'd suggest that a quick google search would enlighten you and save mystina some potential discomfort. Â

Ting, the current forecast for the conference weekend is sunny with highs around 70 (high of 62 on Thursday) and lows in the mid-50s. 70 Farenheit is about 21 Celsius; 55 is 12.8 This link might be easier: http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/Chicago+IL+USIL0225?from=36hr_topnav_business

Feels a lot more like home with Mystina, Dan, and Ron back in the fold. Nope, not gonna say anything sarcastic about what kind of "home." Just glad you're all here.

Dave, people report different experiences with seed vendors, and there's no consistent theme. I'd say 95-plus percent of the time, what you get from any vendor will be fine. It seems that www.iamshaman.com is often recommended here; I kinda like www.psychoactiveherbs.com, but again for no good reason except that they worked. Unless for some reason you think you'd prefer HBWR (Hawaiian baby woodrose), I recommend RC (rivea corymbosa) for ease of preparation, dose management, and minimization of psychedelic potency. In the US, it's legal to purchase and possess seeds, just not to prepare/consume them. You'll want at least 100, I would think.

most people here say that generally three treatments (at least) are required to do the full magic. so it seems you're doing it right, especially since you've seen good results. in terms of starting before your cycle (for future reference), i think most people recommend "maintenance dosing" every three months or so, and being sure to bust at the first sign that a new cycle is starting. when you ask, >>if I need more how the heck am I going to get any?<<, you raise a question that also came up for me in moto252o's current thread, to which i don't know the answer. i am thinking that two doses of one modality (shrooms, let's say) followed by subsequent doses of another type (seeds, let's say), will probably work almost as well as three or more doses all of the same thing. even though their psychoactive properties are different, it's my understanding that they all work in essentially the same way. so i'm saying that if i were you and i didn't have more psilo, i'd definitely start on seeds and expect good results. but i'm also asking whether others who know more than i do might want to correct me about that.

well, i don't want to overcomplicate this, but i'm sure i remember reading that distilled water is not recommended (something about not having the minerals to do something with the electrolytes). i think the what-kind-of-water question might be overemphasized, since people seem to get good results with all types, but the most common advice i've seen is that it should not be any kind of sparkling water, and should not be heavily fluoridated water, which tap water is, in some places. so any non-carbonated bottled water (so that it's fluoride free, which they all are) seems like the safest bet, from all that i've read. again, i don't want to be hysterical about this, because as i say people have had good results with all types. just telling you what i've read and what worked for us.

It does say something like that in the conference syllabus (LifeGas has "generously agreed to supply oxygen tanks for use during the conference.") I have a 15lpm e-tank regulator that I can make available. No mask, though.

Yes, deep breaths. There are some people for whom O2 just doesn't work, but that's pretty rare. Did it ever work for him, more quickly/more effectively than it does now? I'm over my head, so hopefully others will step in.

Waaay too long! Maybe even dangerously long. You say the flow rate is 15lpm and he's using a non-rebreather mask, so I'm kind of stumped. He either needs to switch to higher flows with a new regulator as Bejeeber has mentioned (about which Jeebs and others here are considerably more expert than I am, and which you can also read about at the two oxygen files I've referred you to), or maybe he's doing something wrong with what he has. It's a tank, right, not a "concentrator" (a concentrator is typically a squat, gray, noisy machine that makes O2 from room air--practically useless for CH)? And is there a hole on the side of his mask that lets room air in as he breathes in? That needs to be covered so he's getting only O2. (There's an illustration of this at http://www.clusterheadaches.com/O2/index.html and here's what it says there: >>>Notice the little round white disks on the side of the mask. These control the exhaled air, and the outside air. If there is not one on each side, either tape over the other one, or (as I do) place your thumb over the holes, during an inhalation, and then remove the thumb during an exhalation. If these valves are not present, or in good flexible condition, you will not get the full 100% oxygen that is required. If you are male, and have facial hair, you may have trouble getting a full seal around the mask. You may want to just remove the mask, itself, and breathe straight from the plastic valve mechanism.<<< He could try the O2ptimask, which which a lot of people get much better results. Maybe others will chime in here with things I'm missing. And we'll hope for the best from busting/D3.

Is the oxygen helping him??? If not, he might want to try a higher flow rate and deeper inhalation/hyperventilation. Also, as you can see from the oxygen file I referred you to, there is some equipment, such as the O2ptimask and a demand valve, that make the use of O2 considerably more effective. And also also, I wonder whether, if the oxygen is helping him, he's staying on it long enough to completely abort his HAs -- it's recommended to keep using it for at least several minutes after the headache has gone away. If you haven't looked this this file, it might help: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/O2/index.html Regarding the seeds, people start at all different levels. Some start with what we would consider a very small dose (10-20 seeds), to see how it affects them. The problem is that generally that's not a high enough dose to have much effect, but you still have to wait five days before dosing again. This is not a science: not only are people affected differently, the seeds vary in potency, so a lot is done by testing to see what works without undesired side effects. I would say that many people, if not most, work their way up to a dose of 50-60 seeds or more . . . but some get relief at 30-40, and some have reported at least short-term remissions with as few as 15. I think most people take them around bedtime. Many/most people get a very good night's sleep after dosing, which is quite a blessing in itself. Regarding the pain, I'll let others speak. You could read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_headaches    I always remember a doctor saying it was equivalent to the pain of having an arm or leg amputated with no anesthetic. Others may also have advice about what you can do to help during an attack. I'm afraid that "not much" is the answer, but maybe I'm wrong about that. When my daughter was on the downside of an attack, it seemed that I could sometimes help by circling her arm with my hands and pulling down toward her wrist, as though I was getting the blood to flow in that direction. But there were also times when any touching was unbearable for her.

Jo, it's great that you're stepping in here to help. Sometimes folks with CH can get so caught up by the pain and frustration that they stop trying to get better. Maybe they've been to doctors who have not given them proper treatment -- almost everyone here has many stories about that. But people here have been able to hang in there, often with the help of someone who cares like you do, and their lives are 100% better -- even pain-free in many cases -- because of it. Everyone here will tell you that oxygen is essential. Does he have that (a tank with a regulator that goes up to at least 15 liters per minute, and a non-rebreather mask)? You (and he) can read more here: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1299901790 Can't overemphasize the oxygen. It can stop an attack in 15 minutes. It saves lives. Do you think he'd be willing to try the "busting" elements mentioned here? As you might have read, they are taken at levels that cause little or no psychedelic effects -- and they work for a very large percentage of people. You could start by reading this file (and there are many others on specific related topics in the "Clusterbuster files" section of this board): http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1290127865 Is he taking some kind of prescription medicine now? He might have to "detox" from that for five days before trying "busting." Let us know; ask any questions you have; and answers will appear from people who have beaten this terrible thing, CH, and want to help others do so. If you can get him to participate himself here, he will be sure to find many brothers and sisters who are "just like him" in many ways, and who will help restore his hope and determination. I would also recommend that in my opinion he should start right now on the simple, inexpensive, easy, and safe vitamin D3 protocol that seems to have helped many, many people quickly and also lastingly. You can read about it here: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1314134804Â

James, please see the PM I just sent you. Much appreciated, Jerry

Anthony, this is what TommyD says in the Clusterbuster Files section of the board: >>Most reports seem to indicate verapamil will block the clusterbuster treatment, though a few say they successfully used tryptamines while on verapamil, and some reports seem to indicate that it impeded, but didnÂ’t completely block, the treatment.<< I think that's as close as you're going to get to an answer: a definite maybe. So maybe you'd want to detox fully, to be sure.

Kika, I responded to this post as part of a response to another post you made at roughly the same time. http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1313464721/8#8

ypu know, i think it is, but the guy who developed this regimen is pretty insistent that people should follow it as closely as possible. i believe there are some vegetarians/vegans, for example, who have gone with a vegetable-based Omega-3 product. it's hard for me to imagine that it would make a serious difference, though i guess the epa/dha proportions might be different(??). maybe bejeeber, who has thought about this, will have something more useful to say. oxygen is crucial -- keep working on that!

For the greatest likelihood of success, you want to do all four elements of the D3 regimen: D3, Omega-3, calcium citrate, and the lemonade/limeade. http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1314134804/0#0 Since you've mentioned B2 a couple of times in other posts, I just want to emphasize that we're talking about D3 here. We've kind of slipped off the topic of oxygen a bit here in this thread, but that's the most essential element for aborting headaches. Isn't there somewhere at your nursing school where they have high-flow oxygen and a non-rebreather mask that you could get to when an attack hits??? For 80-plus percent of people with CH, it aborts headaches within 10-15 minutes. Here's a file you probably should look at about O2: http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1299901790 If you try it and it works, you won't let lack of insurance stand between you and getting O2, whether that's through a prescription or by getting welding oxygen on your own. It (and busting, or maybe even the D3) will get you your life back. QAnd . . . on behalf of other CH sufferers, you are in a position to make a big difference regarding treatment of CH by educating yourself, your peers, and your teachers. It's always shocking to us here how little medical professionals know about CH, and how seldom they even prescribe the most essential, effective, and safe treatment there is -- high-flow oxygen with a non-breather mask. You'll see in that file that there are articles about O2 in highly-regarded medical journals. So I really hope you will get it and use it, not just for your sake but for the good it will do for many others when you tell others about how well it works and how essential it is.

As others have said before me, at least until you decide that busting is worth it I can't imagine why you wouldn't try the simple, inexpensive vitamin D3 protocol that has helped 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 (these tablets should also contain magnesium and zinc); and 2,000-4,000 mg per day of Omega 3 fish oil, with food. And two glasses of lemonade or limeade per day with meals. Many people start getting significant relief very quickly. 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

Thoro, Here (below) is something Ricardo posted recently at another thread about seeds no longer working. In a later post he said, >>One important thing to remember is to let the peppermint tea cool down to at least room temperature before adding the seeds....Both LSA and LSH are supposed to be sensitive to heat.<< Can't vouch for this myself . . . Professor_Tanaka tried it recently but hasn't posted about the results, except to say >>Peppermint + RC == definitely something different, imo.<< Ricardo posted: >>>The real thing I want to throw out there though, is something I've said over and over and kinda surprised no one else seems to have tried it. Once you seem to be getting tolerance to the seeds, get a new batch, grind em up and soak them in cold peppermint tea for a few hours. The peppermint tea is high in acetaldehyde, and according to our good friend (and my avatar) Albert Hoffman, the combination of LSA and acetaldehyde will make LSH--Which he said at low doses is indistinguishable from LSD. Higher doses tend to give some people anxiety so I would start with a small amount and work you're way up (especially if you are an axious person to start with, I am not, and have taken damn high doses without any anxiety) I can not attest to the chemistry behind all this, but what I can say is that it is a different drug (LSA makes me sleepy and kinda narcoticized, This stuff definitely did not make me sleepy--if anything got a slight stimulant effect from it, and it kept me up for 12 hours) and it seems to help my headaches.<<<

yes. http://www.clusterheadaches.com/cb/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1298659068

Not-Bob , can you point to a thread or threads that illustrate what you are discussing here? I've read virtually every post at this board since I came here, and I can't think of anyone who came for busting advice, or even came not looking for busting advice, who didn't get offered busting advice. (If you think referring them to the very clear busting advice in the Clusterbuster Files is not busting advice, then I guess I just disagree with you about that -- but in most cases that is just a predecessor to further discussions anyway.) At the same time, the plain fact is that many people looking for busting advice here, or looking for general advice, are not ready to bust yet because they're not detoxed from meds that interfere with busting. Oxygen is of course vital for that, and yet we have person after person after person saying their docs won't prescribe O2 and/or they don't believe they can afford either prescribed O2 or welding O2. Those people are strongly advised, and often guided very specifically, toward getting O2. The best other alternatives I know of to potentially help people tolerate getting off the busting-blocking meds without (or with ) O2 seem to be licorice root (which is also limited by undesirable interactions with some meds) and the D3 regimen, which in my opinion has enough anecdotal support here and at ch.com to be worth recommending. So when you say >>please, don't dilute what we do here on this board with anything other than [busting information]<<, are you saying we should just tell people to quit their meds cold turkey for five days when there are "alternatives" that just might make that a lot easier for them, particularly if they don't have/can't get O2? Would you say to them that, yes, there are probably ways to make detoxing easier but they'll have to look somewhere else for them? (i would gladly just refer people to the D3 thread at ch.com if it weren't so convoluted and the simple prescription weren't so easy to describe.) I'll say again that I've read virtually everything that's been posted here for the last nine months, and I can't think of a person who has been, in your words, "sent off" without busting information (not to mention that there's a whole huge board here teeming with busting information if that's what they want). Is it just that they're not being encouraged to bust as strongly as you think they should be? I'm assuming that if they try licorice root or D3 and it works for them well enough that, in your words, they "put off" busting treatments, but they know busting is a future option and they'll get help with busting if they ask for it, we don't consider that any kind of failure, do we? All that said, you and others have created this great place, and if you're troubled by its direction, that's reasonable cause for concern for the rest of us, and I look forward to reading what others have to say (and more of what you have to say, if you're so inclined).

Sorry I'm a day late. I hope it was a good one.

chuck, have you considered RC seeds? i know some people get results from them even if hbwr doesn't work for them (and they're so much easier to prepare).

Here's one data point . . . If I'm reading this right, it says under the "Fares" tab that it's $20 one way for the hour-and-a-half trip from Rockford to O'Hare. http://www.coachusa.com/vangalder/ss.details.asp?action=Lookup&c1=Rockford&s1=IL&c2=Chicago+O%27Hare+Airport&s2=IL&resultId=2222&order=&dayFilter=&scheduleChoice=&sitePageName=&cbid=962196355703 Of course, you then have to get from O'Hare to the hotel . . .

http://www.omegashuttle.com/schedule2.htm $45 these days

Happy happy happy wishes. You are a gem. Jerry