Ricardo

Next time your doc tries to tell you something is "FDA approved" remind them that the FDA sucks monkey butt. Big time. http://www.naturalnews.com/011401_Dr_David_Graham_the_FDA.html

Can not agree more. When I was having grand mal seizures that left me with no license, my cluster's raging all the time and my thought process reduced to mush, I applied and was told there was no way I'd be turned down, only to be denied every type of service the government had to offer. (they did give me food stamps for a month, till they denied that too )They even tricked me by telling me that I had to sell my car in order to qualify, and then denied me for a different reason. Rat Fink Bastards. At least I get to hold a grudge

Wow, Ting....My momma used to sing that to me when I was a wee lad....stuck in my head with amazing memories for life. Thanks! Some lyrics from one of my favorite songs... People let the sun shine in I know it's going to be all right Get up on your feet again we will be dancing in the sunlight... I saw this show in June, it was amazing. First song is "walking in the sunlight" The whole show helps me when I'm feeling down. http://www.archive.org/details/RR2011-06-04.SBD Thanks again! Sending pain free vibes your way

I wish I had a better answer, but I think the truth is, nobody knows. I agree that the RC seeds are fairly innocuous, but that does not necessarily mean it's not going to set you off. It does increase different brain chemicals for months at a time--we know this because of how effective the seeds are at busting peoples headaches for months at a time. I'm tempted to think that the seeds could actually help the Bipolar II, as it seems like the biggest problem is the depression....but that's taking quite a gamble with your brain. I truthfully do not know what I would do in your situation...but talking to your doc about the pro's and con's could help.

Made my day! Enjoy all the amazing things the world seems to have in store for you

Another true Thanksgiving story....This one's a little spooky....Way back in the good ole days of 1993 or 1994, when strong clean LSD seemed to be everywhere (probably because of this guy....) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Leonard_Pickard Me and 3 friends went out into the thick woods alongside the Connecticut river, tripping balls. Unfortunately, it was about 16 degrees out and we could find absolutely no kindling to start a fire. The wind was whipping and it was freezing. 2 of my friends decided to sit in the car all night while me and another friend looked desperately to find something to start a fire with. It was my parents car, and it ended up being completely empty for flammable things--except for a church hymnal. Probably one of the strangest trips I've had, staring into a burning fire watching religious songs written on paper slowly burn up, one by one. One of the few times I've prayed, as in "please lord don't take this personally " We made it through the night. I went to my Aunts for a fairly regular Thanksgiving dinner, came home, and went out to hang with some friends. No one was around so I drove around and then headed home. As I pulled onto my street, The Eagles "Hotel California" came on. I drove right past my driveway and kept on going because I liked the song and wanted to hear the whole thing. In the middle of the song though, my Ford Taurus (nicknamed "The steel Pig" by my friends for how well it handled ) slid on the freshly layed loose gravel that was put down less than 24 hours ago. I was heading for a huge boulder, jerked the wheel and went to the other side of the street--where I slammed into a telephone pole hard enough to break it into 3 pieces. No seatbelt, made a basketball size smash in the windshield from my head...and somehow I was fine. Got out, ran down the street to my folks house and we all headed back to the scene, which was a mess. All sorts of neighbors had come out to see why all the power on the street was out . Unfortunately, one neighbor was a cop and was holding up roach clips that he found in the ashtray... Now Thanskgiving always reminds me of Hotel California, Burning Hymnals, car wrecks, being 16 years old and yelling at police officers...The good ole days  When I said to my Wife, "Kinda weird, I have a lot of Thanksgiving tripping stories..." She said, "No, you just have a lot of tripping stories"  Oh yeah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMFqh_tiHoQ Happy Thanskgiving folks! -Ricardo P.S.  Cause I know somebody's gonna ask...I actually had my headaches before this accident Â

Maybe. But I doubt it...From what I've read Ketamine ACTS like an SSRI, but it works differently, mostly by promoting new nerve growth in your brain as opposed to hitting the type of serotonin receptors that mushrooms or psilocybin do. The Ketamine seemed to workpretty good when I first got it, and I had no detox from the triptans. And on Sat, the day I got hit pretty hard I had not actually taken any zomig in weeks. Today I'm getting hit, but not hard. I'm probably just going to take a zomig at some point and not let it all stress me out, I hate taking triptans, but they're better than getting hit...I guess I could take some mushy's, but I did that whole I'm "tripping balls at Thanksgiving thing" once when I was a teenager--I remember thinking that if I didn't stab my turkey it was going to squirm off the plate My mother seemed a little concerned...

Psychedelic and Head Pain have been the theme of the week...I've been having relatively good times with the headaches until this Sat. Woke up with a Kip 3 in my right eye. 95% of the time that I get hit it's in my left eye, almost anytime I get hit in my right eye I know it's going to be bad...Took 6 ketamine sprays, had relief but not completely and not for long. Took 6 more, and experienced the same. Cannabis helped for a little while, but not much. REALLY strong coffee did about the same. Took 20 high strength ginger pills--All I got was heartburn. I took 6 grams of Vitamin M, very little relief. I think I tried more Ketamine too...At this point I tried to lie down with an ice pack and try to zone out in the hopes that it would let the drugs work better. Just ended up feeling really crazy and thrashing around. Finally got up and went to stack wood just to keep myself busy. I would pick up as much wood as I could drop it to stack and would get overwhelmed by pain (and ginger heartburn ) Seemed like while I was actually moving and lifting the mushroom intoxication zoned me out enough to not notice (as much) but as soon as I stopped for a minute it would flood back over me. My friend showed up and gave me 2 hits of Acid. He seemed scared, he had never seen me like that.  2 hits helped but not nearly enough. My guess is that if I ate something like 10 it might have aborted it...Eventually I gave in and took a zomig, which worked.  All in all, lasted about 12 hours (which makes me wonder if it really was a cluster, lately I wonder more and more about migraines....) The next day I got hit again, although not nearly as bad. 8 hits of acid helped for most of the day, but ended up taking 2.5 grams of Vitamin M on top of it later on, which got rid of my pain. Monday I was blessed with just shadows. Yesterday I was completely pain free until about 4 pm--then I started getting hit harder and harder. Felt like a thin cold steel blade was slicing into one small section of my left forehead. Took 2.5 grams Vitamin M, which worked until about 10 pm, then it steadily got worse--I could tell that if I went to sleep like that I was just going to wake up in agony. Took 1/2 zomig and went to sleep. Today I feel the gentle pressure in my eye, like if you were to take a grape and gently squeeze it until it's about to pop. Wonder how it's going to end up...Think I'll try some cannabis, but I have the feeling I'm back to the zomig at some point today. WTF?!? The questions I have that no one can really answer...Why isn't the Ketamine working? It seems like one day I'm singing praises about how pain free I am, the next I'm trying to stop myself from banging my head on the wall--with no apparent reason as to what brought it on. I know this is a common theme, but it frustrates me beyond belief...Am I now on a Zomig spiral of rebounds? Was the Ketamine ever working? Hard to tell at this point if the ketamine WOULD be working as I am pretty much out. Have I gotten tolerance to the Ketamine? That's something I know nothing about--if anybody has any info on Ketamine tolerance and how quickly it sets in I would love to hear it...Was the high dose morning glory seeds that I dosed up with right before I went on the Ketamine REALLY responsible for all the PF times? At least I see my Neuro on the 30th and he's going to double the strength of the Ketamine--but I'm not really sure what to do in the meantime. I think the only thing I have that will work is zomig, and I am damn convinced that even if it hasn't yet, it will eventually give me rebounds. My guess is that until I see him I am going to take zomig, get rebounds, be a complete mess and just deal. Then I'm going to get Ketamine, dose on that for at least 5 days, and then take every psychedelic known to man (that I can find ) and try to bust the beast into oblivion.  At least I've got a plan -Ricardo

Hands down, the best nugget of information that I was able to take from the documentary...Sasha Shulgin started off working for DOW chemical corporation. He was so good at making snail poison that they gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted--so he came up with a myriad of psychedelic substances. If there ever was a way to reinforce my belief that humanity is on a crash course for amazing things this was it. Regardless of the greedy, evil, polluting agenda's of corporations like DOW chemical company, the universe obviously obviously has it's own agenda. Anyone who has enjoyed any of Sasha Shulgin's discoveries, insights or mind bending drugs should thank Dow chemical corporation for trying to kill snails a little bit better. -Ricardo

I don't know...but here's a link for the movie without going though stumbleupon. http://vimeo.com/29358948

http://www.erowid.org/culture/characters/shulgin_alexander/ Really awesome documentary on Sasha Shulgin--"Dirty Pictures" Definitely worth the watch! http://video.stumbleupon.com/#p=sp2gonb59p

I'm still kinda amazed how well the Nitrous at the Dentist worked for me. That day my beast was rearing it's head in that way that tells me I'm usually screwed for the day. The nitrous from the whipped cream maker, however, was not too effective. Actually it was REALLY effective, but only lasted less than a minute, then it all came back. Oh well...I'm betting the real effectiveness that I got from the dentist was from the 2 hour long nitrous mask and my brain being bathed in NMDA receptor antagonist goodness... Unfortunately, it has had one sinister side effect. An addiction that Ricardo thought was long gone has resurfaced with the use of the "Hippy Crack". I thought I was fine. It's been years and years. I gave up many many things at one point in my life, around the time I found out I had to give up gluten and dairy. Yup. You guessed it---the coconut milk whipped cream is friggin awesome and I can't stop myself. It brings me back to my debauchery days of 8 years old, repeatedly spraying the frothy sweet cream over donuts, sandwiches, cookies, you name it. My only hope now is to up the amount of mushrooms and pray for salvation. Until then, I am drinking 6 times as much coffee because it's just so damn good with whipped cream. -Ricardo PS--after that post, I think I will change my mood to "Strange" forever

http://www.accessrx.com/blog/current-health-news/magic-mushrooms-cure-depression-jd0617 Well who woulda thunk? Probably everybody that's busted..... Not to mention.... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20636166

Ain't going to help your clusters....but important info just the same! The condensed, more humorous Fraggle Rock version, starring Rosanne Barr

If there's anything good that can be pulled out of all this, It might include the question to your doctor-"have you ever heard of abnormal testosterone levels in people with Hemicrania Continua?" After he tells you no (or more likely "I have no idea" and you can tell him to get back to work and start researching ) You can ask him, "how about with clusters?" -Ricardo

Yeah I remember my old Doc telling me I didn't have clusters "because they were so rare"

Don't you hate it when you go to a doc and it seems like you have more good ideas then them? I know they sure hate it when I point it out to them Might help to get him to tell you why he's saying no to Ketamine. As far as Botox--I would bring him this study and ask him, "you really think this is a good idea?" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37861005/ns/health-skin_and_beauty/t/botox-paralyzes-your-emotions-too/ Is that really the ONLY idea that he had? Has he given you the Indomethacin test? I think it is a horrible medication that should never be given to people....And you should try it! Only for a little while though, just as a diagnostic. That's my plan, one of these days I'm going to get the nerve to start taking the prescription I filled over a month ago:) What did he even say about chronics? Does he even acknowledge that you might have BOTH clusters and HC? I have to admit that for quite a while I had a doctor that I really liked, but when it came to my headaches he was a complete waste. It can actually be rough when you like the guy, took quite a while for me to give him the boot! Hope you get some pain free time, maybe even some more LSD! -Ricardo P.S. If I was there with you I would personally call him a schmuck. Just for you

Agree completely. Although sometimes they just let up, so who knows what has really worked, eh? I will say the other day I had a rough one that got toned down by intranasal Ketamine-but not gone. Dosed up 3 times, each time almost gone but not quite. Dosed again, but this time sat and meditated quietly, and the result was complete pain relief. I think this type of action might be quite helpful to lower amounts of drugs taken....Whatever they are. I am really glad you have found relief, BUT... This is a sure fire way to get everybody real pissed off. When you come on with your first post telling people that this is a free cure that is 100% effective....This might be true for you, but I doubt it's true for everyone.  I would love to know how this is going to work for the people that get woken up in the middle of the night with a raging cluster. Are they going to stay up all night paying attention to how tense their eyebrow is? And what about chronics? Do you just stare in a mirror all day? I think meditation is a great idea, I think being aware of how your body is feeling and the tenseness of your entire self is a major tool, and I would encourage everyone to try it....But I wouldn't get your hopes up on it curing your clusters...Just my 2 cents. I think it would help a lot if you explained a bit about your condition and diagnosis, including what has worked for you (anything besides your meditative practice?) and what hasn't. Most of all, introduce yourself without telling us right up front your going to cure us--I hope you understand that we get people weekly on this board telling us the same thing, and besides Bob's ideas on hallucinogens, not much has seemed to pan out.

2 boxes in the mail.

After thinking about how much it's going to suck to have a raging headache, hope it's during my dentist working hours, drive down there and suck down some of their Nitrous, I figured I would go a different route. Seeing as how the Ketamine has gotten me off the zomig and I'm not paying $60 a month in copays for it, I figured this might be worth it. Worse case scenario I'll end up getting high off Nitrous for a while and even get to see if I can make some coconut milk whipped cream. Just ordered, I'll keep ya'll updated! http://www.webstaurantstore.com/1-2-liter-whip-cream-dispenser-white/407WHC16%20%20%20%20WHT.html?

Yesterday I went to the dentist to have 2 cavities filled and a small mouth guard made that might help with clenching in my sleep (Surprised to find that it is FDA approved for migraines....) I almost canceled, my head was not feeling so great. Admittedly, it was not what I would consider a typical cluster, and more and more I'm starting to think I may have migraines or HC along with my clusters, but this was an interesting experience nonetheless. The interesting part came when they put the nitrous oxide mask on me. Within minutes (maybe less) my headache was gone. 100%. They kept the mask on me for about 2 hours, the whole time I was pain free, and the relief lasted for the rest of the night. A brief shadow emerged at one point, but very brief and very light. Gives a little more credence to this account: http://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=23397 Side note-Batch has pointed out that the mixture with Nitrous Oxide is actually half oxygen. Although this would seem like a no-brainer that the O2 was what as actually aborting the pain, I have tried O2 at 65 LPM with a non-rebreather mask for 20 min with no relief. Also, I have not heard of many people that can abort with O2 in somewhere around 30 seconds. Here's another link--http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v4/n4/abs/nm0498-460.html Best part--my dentist told me to call up when I'm getting hit and I can try out the Nitrous without any dental work  -Ricardo

Sorry dude. No apologies to anyone that is considering getting their ta-ta's tattooed. That's a rule I made early in life and I'm sticking to it. I will however, extend my apologies to the kid I shot in the ass with a BB gun in 7th grade, to the school nurse who had to pull the dime out of my nose that I stuck there as a "magic trick" in 6th grade, and to anyone that I convinced to take a gravity bong hit out of my modified Carlo Rossi wine jug when I was a teenager. I should probably apologize to my mother as well, but I don't think I have time to type all that out now. -Ricardo

Sorry dude, You're right. When I reread that I saw how it sounds and I didn't mean it that way. What I meant was that anyone that read what I wrote before could tell that I was really pissed with you. I definitely wrote that wrong. Truly sorry, and I sincerely apologize for flying off the handle and saying that junk to you.

I think it is smart of you to go slowly with the psychedelics seeing as you have been diagnosed with Raynaud's....Raynaud's syndrome is essentially a problem with blood flow to your extremities...Vasodilators will help, vasoconstricters will make it worse. Most Tryptamine psychedelics (mushrooms and LSA containing seeds like the RC seeds) are vasoconstricters, meaning they could make the situation worse. Although I don't have any real info in front of me, for some reason I think the seeds may actually have MORE vasoconstriction than the shrooms, but I'm not 100%. I would try a small bit...like a REAL small bit first and see if it starts making your symptoms worse. I would also go heavy duty on ginger, it's a pretty potent vasodilator AND it'll help with nausea, could even help to abort a cluster.