[Baclofen revisited ( megadose, alcoholism)]

2 hours ago, Juss said:

It was not at spiny, but at Pebble.

I'm sorry for somehow thinking it was spiny you were referring to -- there was no reason for me to think that.  I think this topic has been fully done now, so I'll just add that Pebbles' -- a great, generous person, with vast knowledge -- probably wasn't dissing you, either. 

Many of us here have relationships, both on the board and in off-the-board messages, that go back a lot of years.  I have had at least three substantial run-ins with prominent figures here, after each of which I thought, "I'm just gonna quit."  For better or worse, I'm still here, and, definitely for better, they are, too.  Dealing with electronic representations of actual humans is a tricky business.  

[Baclofen revisited ( megadose, alcoholism)]

37 minutes ago, Juss said:

obviously you didn't bother to read my post and instead just crapped on me. That is why I don't even know why I bother stating anything. I'm sorry that it doesn't suit your opinion and everything must foot a certain opinion.

spiny isn't a crapper-onner, and I don't think she was doing that here.  I think she was just observing that doing all the right dietary/nutritional things is tough.  In general, I think your posts receive more thought and respect than you think they do.  I read and re-read your long hypothalamus post, for example, and I often follow your links, but I really have had nothing to add.  Sometimes I disagree with things you say (your high regard for Dr. Amen comes to mind), but I figure people can read, research if they choose, and come to their own conclusions, and I prefer to use my time here on the most basic, practical kinds of help (get O2, do the D3, bust according to the protocols, etc.).  It's been said a thousand times here -- this awful condition inspires all kinds of searches, and each person's should be respected. This place was founded by people whose idea, busting, was mercilessly crapped on, and the D3 regimen was ridiculed when it was first put forward and for a long time after. (As jon' said, if you want to see crapping, take a look at the board from which this one was spun off, clusterheadaches.com.)

[Boswellia serrata]

@Theresa, if this isn't overtaxing your patience . . . It seems he tried busting at least once or twice with satisfactory success.  Is that accurate?  And you had mentioned possibly starting the D3 regimen . . . did he do that?  Is he taking other meds?  I'm just trying to get a sense of the full context.

BTW, I added this thread to the post on "Basic Non-Busting Information" in the CB Files section.  Since it says that post has more than 2,000 views, putting the info there might increase the numbers who see it.

[Boswellia serrata]

Thank you for everything about this post -- the very act of posting it, of course, but also the nice clarity about context and specifically what your finance is taking!   If you put Boswellia into the search bar (top right of every page), you'll see some other related discussions that might be valuable.  

[Oxygen set up]

11 hours ago, Shaun brearley said:

it's all guess work with the flow rate buddy

Yes, this is true.  You just turn the knob on the regulator until you get the flow you want.  This quickly becomes easy to do.  It's the other questions I couldn't answer.  If you were in the US, I'd say it's all going to be fine; I just don't know whether for some reason Indian tanks or regulators might be different from US ones.

[Oxygen set up]

I'm sorry, Vipul.  I don't know the answers to any of those questions.  

[no rhyme or reason. Nothing works]

6 hours ago, Uncle Romulus said:

i was just watching the video.

I'm sure I should know this, but what video are you referring to? (I've been here 11 years, and I admit that I haven't kept up outside this forum, even with things at this site.)

As others have already said, there's a lot of possible help here, and if you feel like it, you might tell us how you are treating your CH now.

It's possible if you skim through this file, it might have something new for you. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6213-basic-non-busting-information/

[Not sleeping well...]

2 hours ago, DoesMyEyeLookSmall said:

I been dealing with these monsters for almost 15 years now and felt like I was in the dark and almost felt ashamed to look for help/answers outside of my Dr.

All the usual questions seem to be in order.  Do you have oxygen?  Have you started the D3 regimen?  Do you know about busting?  What are you using to prevent, and what to abort?  Do you know what your triggers are (if you have any)?  Have you tried any of the new meds (Emgality, Aimovig...)?  . . .  Those kinds of things.  For a big overview that might have some helpful stuff in it, I will refer you here: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6213-basic-non-busting-information/  There's a section on busting at the end of that file, so if you get tired of reading, be sure to look at that.

[Share your experience on Stuff That Works!]

@Anthobob, thank you for letting us know about your experiences!  That information helps a lot.  

On 12/4/2021 at 5:28 AM, spiny said:

Not sure how you are using the word 'microdose', but we consider that a very low dose of 0.3gm's or so. The standard is sort of a level one dose of about 1.2gm's. Enough to know that you took some. Please poke around and read a bit. There is a protocol and method that is used. Normally three busts all five days apart. You will find a lot of info in the Clusterbuster Files section of the board.

You could start your own thread too, just to introduce yourself to the community. 

Yes to all that.  Busting basics are listed under the blue "New Users . . . " banner at the top of each page.

An example of something else you might want to learn about is the Vitamin D3 regimen that has helped virtually everyone who has seriously undertaken it. I think the latest version is here, but I always feel like there are new wrinkles that might not be reflected there: https://vitamindwiki.com/Cluster+headaches+substantially+reduced+by+10%2C000+IU+of+Vitamin+D+in+80+percent+of+people   The search bar at the top right of the page can sometimes be helpful, but if you start a thread you'll get more direct advice.

[Flying]

Completely respecting your reluctance, and I feel like you're not a person to be led somewhere you don't want to go.  So just FYI . . . 

There is often a misunderstanding that a "trip" is part of the treatment.  It isn't.  It's just a side effect, and as Jeebs said somewhere in a thread like this one, RC seeds at therapeutic doses are virtually guaranteed to have zero psychedelic effects.  It is completely legal to buy and possess them in California.  Preparation is extremely simple.  Consuming them is unlawful.  You can start at a very low dose.  There was a time when RC seeds were considered a better busting agent than MM, but MM gets all the media attention, and many people here seem to think it and L are the big hammers.  Seeds still might be considered better than MM (because their structure is closer to LSD).  This is the original post on the topic: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/684-5-lsa-seeds-of-the-vine/?tab=comments#comment-8326  This covers a lot of bases: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/2353-moxiegirls-seed-recipe/?tab=comments#comment-29101   Blah blah blah here: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6816-number-of-rc-seeds-to-take-some-thoughts/    There are some small contradictions among these files, but if you start a thread in one of the protected boards I'm sure those can be ironed out.

 

[Oxygen set up]

1 hour ago, Vipul said:

Noted, so I'll use them only when O2 is not accessible. 

I think opinions vary about this.  There's no doubt that triptan overuse will cause rebounds and perhaps extend cycles or make attacks worse.  On the other hand, if you need one for a "breakthrough" attack where for some reason O2 isn't doing the job, I wouldn't hesitate.  That's particularly true if you are injecting only 2 or 3 mg instead of the 6 that are in the standard injector.  See this thread: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/2446-extending-imitrex/

[Nurtec]

1 hour ago, mit12 said:

I have been taking it for almost 1 month now and I have been migraine free and no Clusters so far.

!!!!!!!!!!

[Oxygen set up]

7 hours ago, Vipul said:

I've replaced the small bag on the mask with a big bag. I start inhaling when it's full. So even at 10 lpm I get enough oxygen for 10 to 15 breaths.

This isn't clear to me.  The bag (the smaller one that you had before) should fill up fairly quickly when you turn on the O2.  Then when you inhale, the bag should empty, or at least mostly empty. Then it should fill up again when you stop inhaling and are exhaling. The flow rate determines how fast the bag fills -- the higher the lpm, the faster the bag fills.  That is the only relevant aspect of flow rate -- it doesn't affect how much O2 you take in when you inhale.  If the bag does not fill fast enough that it is ready for your next inhalation, you need a higher flow rate.  It is called a "reservoir bag," because it holds the O2 until you inhale it.  Having a larger bag on there means that you have extra O2 for each inhale, which is fine, but you want to start inhaling as soon as there's enough O2 for you to take a full, deep breath, and not wait for a very large bag to fill.  I'm just not really comprehending what you mean by "even at 10 lpm I get enough oxygen for 10 to 15 breaths."

7 hours ago, Vipul said:

In your experience does O2 always work to abort the attacks? Or does you get used to it with long term use? Do you use lesser oxygen as you learn to breath correctly? 

O2 virtually always works.  For some people, it is less effective when the pressure in the tank is low (when there is less O2 in the tank).  There might be times when it doesn't work, or takes longer to work, but the value of using O2 doesn't really decay over time.  Yes, you will use less O2 when you find the breathing strategy that works best for you -- and there is also some evidence that it is just less effective in the first few uses than it becomes after that.

[Oxygen set up]

1 hour ago, Vipul said:

Hello, I can see many on Amazon India but none that says 0 to 25 lpm. Most don't even specify the lpm and the ones that do, are 0 to 15. I'll look again. This one too does not specify lpm. 

That one (the Flamenco brand) is a welding regulator.  LPM is not an issue for welding, so the gauges don't show LPM and the product specifications wouldn't include it.  The good thing is that you have a very wide range of lpm available to you from a welding regulator, the very small challenge is that you have to fiddle with the controls to find the lpm that works best for you (rather than just clicking an an lpm setting as you can do with a medical regulator.  As I say, this is a very small issue that people quickly adjust to.  The first link I provided in my post above is to a medical O2 regulator -- you can see that they look quite different.  I think most of us would suggest that a welding regulator is the way to go -- as long as it fits onto your tank.  That's not an issue in the US and many other other places, where both medical regulators for larger tanks and welding regulators for all tanks are CGA 540.  I would assume the same would be true in India.

I hope you have read that oxygen section in that document I linked you to.  Some tips there about strategies and mask preparation that might speed up your aborts.

[Oxygen set up]

This looks to me like a 540-type connection.  I don't know whether it's the same classification system for regulators in India. Maybe @Racer1_NC or @xxx can confirm this.  I see that www.indiamart.com has a lot of regulators.  That's a business-to-business site (not business to consumer), so you might not be able to buy there, but there is contact information for all the suppliers.  (There might be a better site where you could buy directly; this is just what I saw with a quick look.)  

As the oxygen section says, you can use either a medical oxygen regulator or a welding regulator with that type of connection.  Here's a medical O2 one that goes up to 25 lpm from Amazon in the US: https://www.amazon.com/Regulator-CGA-540-Responsive-Respiratory-120-1205/dp/B07ZS9JK7P/ref=sr_1_21?crid=292UW7S35X6N3&keywords=oxygen+regulator+540+cga&qid=1638375197&sprefix=oxygen+regulator+540%2Caps%2C216&sr=8-21

You can use almost any of the welding regs shown at Amazon -- search under oxygen regulator 540.  You'd want to be sure to get one that has a barbed fitting  to attach your mask tubing to, such as what you can see on the left side of this one: https://www.amazon.com/IMAGE-Welding-Welder-Regulator-Cutting/dp/B00JP9WIF2/ref=sr_1_10?crid=292UW7S35X6N3&keywords=oxygen+regulator+540+cga&qid=1638375197&sprefix=oxygen+regulator+540%2Caps%2C216&sr=8-10

I wouldn't rely on anything I say here until it's confirmed by Racer, xxx (Batch), or another of the true experts here.  

[Oxygen set up]

2 hours ago, Vipul said:

I have bought 4 10L tanks

VERY happy that O2 is working for you!!!!!

If by 10L you mean 10 liters, the tanks must be bigger than that!

2 hours ago, Vipul said:

Can someone please give me a link for a good 0 to 25 lpm regulator.

There are two basic kinds of regulators (at least in the US).  What kind of regulator you get depends on how it connects to your tank.  If your regulator looks like this, it is CGA-870. 

If it looks like this, it is CGA-540. 

If you have a CGA-540 connection, you can also use a welding O2 regulator.  We could give you ideas for where to get any of these in regulators in the US (Amazon or EBay, for example), but will that help you there?  Can you google and find them?  As you suggest, if the 0-15 reg does its job when you remove the humidifier, you are probably okay with that.  As shaun' says, most people don't need the humidifier.  I would suggest that you read through the section on oxygen in this file for some thoughts that might be valuable: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/6213-basic-non-busting-information/

[Flying]

The only carry-on oxygen allowed on US flights is a portable oxygen concentrator.  Battery-powered, I don't think they go much higher than 6 - maybe 8 lpm.  A lot of hoops to jump through for that -- doctor's letter, advance notice to the airline . . .   Policies vary airline to airline.  You can rent them for travel.  I don't think the airline, at least on a domestic flight, will provide you anything more powerful than that to treat an attack.

You can carry on empty cylinders or check them in baggage.  You can have cylinders available to you at places you go to, through your O2 supplier or if not, through other suppliers.

Of course, you can bring abortive pharma meds on board, and energy drinks (I think they usually sell Red Bull).

Many people here have reported success with a SPUT (small piece/(amount) under the tongue) of seeds or M.  I suppose maybe L would work, too. 

I feel like (though this just might be the way it seemed to me) not many years ago, a flight for someone in cycle seemed to practically guarantee getting hit.  Now it seems less certain.  As I say, that might just be how I was reading posts.  Similarly, I don't think there's much risk of an attack for someone who is definitely out of cycle -- but again, people will correct me if I am wrong about that.

[Oxygen Delivery]

I would check with your French oxygen supplier and see whether they can arrange O2 in the US, at least temporarily.  I know that some companies will do that for people with US prescriptions traveling outside the US.

As Freud says, you might want to get welding oxygen, which is used by some percentage of people with CH.  Since you probably never have had to look into that, here's is a link to a post about welding O2. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/5627-notes-about-welding-o2/  (There's info there about regulators and masks, too.)

If he has some written documentation that he has CH (ideally, in English), it might be possible to go to an urgent care place in the US and get an O2 prescription.  Certainly it seems that would be feasible with a "regular" doctor or a neurologist at a headache center.  Once you have the prescription, as Freud says, you can usually get O2 and self-pay without insurance coverage.

One quibble with Freud -- I don't think you can get a filled welding tank, or any large tank, at Harbor Freight.  I could be wrong about that as a generalization -- it was true of the two HF stores I went to.  But wherever you end up there are likely to be welding supply stores and places like Home Depot that rent and refill tanks.

Finally . . . You might take a look around this board for information about the Vitamin D3 regimen.  It might not be familiar to you/him, and it has been very beneficial for large numbers of people.  The basics are in here, starting on the fifth page (the second page 2): https://vitamindwiki.com/tiki-download_wiki_attachment.php?attId=7708   Others can fill you in on nuances.  This thread seems to cover a lot of the bases: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/7417-ditch-the-benadryl/?tab=comments#comment-71582

[Nurtec]

15 hours ago, Juss said:

What I don't see people discussing and what CH Father could fill in is the adjunctive therapy of Botulin Toxin. . . . 
I hope that @CHfathercan enlighten about Botox, as he is the genius. For me, they are symbiotic and you need both to deliver results. He would know, as he is the one most in the loop.

Juss,

When I first joined this board, almost exactly eleven years ago, I was desperate to help my daughter (the person in my family who has CH).  That's why I picked the screen name that I have.  There was a guy who was furious with me, and let me know that in a very harsh PM, because he thought I was trying to make myself sound like something special, I guess like the "father" of CB or something.  Farthest thing from my mind, but he wasn't having it.  (He was generous enough to write me an apology, a few years later, for that and some other irritations he had with me. I have always been touched by that decency on his part (Brian, if you're listening. . . ))

I mention this because I think you might have me confused with the guy who is indeed the "father" of this board, Bob Wold, whose screen name is Psiloscribe, and who perhaps is a genius in terms of knowing things about CH.  I have no knowledge about Botox, and don't think I have posted anything about Botox, except maybe to point someone to the research here and there. 

If I were to need anything to convince myself that I am not a genius, it would be your posts, which I ponder from time to time, not only because of their content, which I generally can't grasp (but which I am glad to see that others, such as Bosco', Shaun', Jeebs, and jon' are learning from, so they can help teach me/us), but because they illustrate to me that I only know "a lot" about the most conventional things related to CH -- oxygen, meds, RC seeds, and a couple of others -- and the advice I share is nowhere as sophisticated as it perhaps could be.  I have been telling myself to go back and thoroughly read your posts and links so I could at least be a little smarter, and with some free time I hope to undertake that project. 

(You reminded me of one of my favorite lines from a novel I liked quite a lot, by John Lanchester.  The narrator, who one slowly comes to realize is completely nuts, is very jealous of his brother, who many consider to be a genius.  The narrator says, "I myself have always disliked being called a 'genius.' It is fascinating to notice how quick people have been to intuit this aversion and avoid using the term."

[Taurine to stop onset of Cluster Headache]

Just plain coffee has a more caffeine per ounce than a standard Monster drink. V-8 energy drinks (preferred by spiny) have about the same caffeine as a standard Monster.  As far as I can tell, those V-8 energy drinks have no taurine.   Some people find the energy drinks/shots yuckier than just coffee.  If you think taurine is valuable (many do), you can take taurine pills along with the coffee.

As jon' notes, there are huge variations in how much caffeine an "energy drink" or "energy shot" contains.  In your 473ml (16 oz) Monster (if it's a standard one), you are getting 160mg of caffeine. An eight-ounce Starbucks Pike Place roast will also give you about 160mg of caffeine. (Coffee roasts also vary a lot.)  So you are getting a lot of additional stuff in a standard Monster to account for the 16 ounces.  A 2-ounce 5-Hour Energy has about 200mg of caffeine.  You can see a thorough listing of caffeine content here: https://www.caffeineinformer.com/the-caffeine-database

Like jon', I am puzzled that your pain level is so high when you are starting out on the O2, and I'm glad you're having success with the O2.

 

[Nurtec]

NR', if you put the word Nurtec into the search bar at the top right of any page, you'll see what people here have said about it.  No one reported having the success that your doctor's other patient had, for sure. It's important to recognize that mostly you are likely to see disappointments reported here, since people who have success are not particularly likely to come here to report it, so you're not getting the full picture. (In that regard, it's frustrating that some Nurtec threads tail off without closure, since it's impossible to know whether the treatment succeeded or not.)

It's my understanding that Nurtec is an abortive medication to stop individual attacks (migraine attacks, since as you say it isn't an approved CH treatment).  Is that how your doctor prescribed it (take it to stop an attack), or are you supposed to take it regularly as a preventive?  Aside from that patient whose cycle is reported to have ended, as an abortive Nurtec seems to be not nearly as effective oxygen or triptans.    

My goodness, it is expensive!  When you say "without insurance," if that means you have no insurance, that's one thing, but if you do have insurance but it won't cover it because it's not approved for CH, maybe you could try something like Emgality, which works in essentially the same way, on CGRP receptors, and is approved for CH.  If you decide to go ahead with this purchase, you can get it for a little less using a coupon from at goodrx.com.

Can we assume that you are using all the standard CH treatments -- oxygen, D3 regimen, etc?

[Episodic suffer - worst cycle yet]

Nice going!!!

If your mask has open holes in it (a circle of small holes, typically on one side, whereas the other side has typically has the same holes but with a gasket behind them), be sure to block them with your thumb as you inhale, or cover them with tape.  They let room air in as you inhale, and that reduces the effectiveness of the O2.

[Could use some prayers ya'll]

I had horrible neck pain some years ago.  Every day a misery, wearing a cervical collar all day, unable to do anything comfortably.  I was in the hospital for a week just because I was going nuts from the stress.  The first day I was there a doc came in and said he had looked at my MRI and he was ready to do surgery whenever I wanted (fecking ambulance chaser).  Nothing they gave me, even morphine or steroids, helped at all, and when they kicked me out they gave me giant bottles of things to take daily (neurontin, oxycontin, oxyIR . . . ). I flushed them down the toilet on the third day (too bad -- street value was probably pretty high). 

It happened that we had a connection with a top neurosurgeon, and I counted the days until my appointment with him, thinking he surely was going to rush me into surgery and finally fix the pain.  Instead, he said to come back in two months after doing physical therapy regularly.  I was crushed.  I wanted it over, and I was terrified of doing anything to make it worse.  Turned out that waiting was the right thing to do, and I never did need that surgery (and I never miss a day of doing my neck exercises).  

There are those famous studies where they would look at people's spines and try to predict who was having back pain. Turned out that except in extreme cases there was no connection between spinal condition and back pain. One person could have three herniated disks and be suffering, and another person could have something that looked just the same and be having no pain.  And the other way around -- no structural issues but serious pain for some and no pain for others.

So maybe, like me, you were just having some kind of awful episode and it's going to get back to normal or normalish and just become a memory.  Or, of course, maybe not, but it sounds like they're ready for you if surgery is what you need.

Love you, Denny, and sorry you're going through this now, too.  

 

[Shutting the other door??]

Thanks, spiny!  Noting that Batch now prefers Quercetin to Benadryl.  https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/7417-ditch-the-benadryl/?tab=comments#comment-71582

[Episodic suffer - worst cycle yet]

Acan', the D3 regimen is ultimately a healthier, and better, preventive strategy than any med.  It will take effect as quickly as verapamil, if you need high doses of verapamil to be successful and have to be titrated up to those levels (that is to say, the D3 regimen might not be effective right away, but verap won't be, either).  I can't say whether that same kind of time period before effectiveness is true of topirimate or other meds, and I'm not saying not to try any of them -- just saying that D3 is a better solution for most people.