New here, need some advice!

[Coop]

Hello everyone, I'm a 22 year old med student from Chile and episodic cluster since 2008. I wanted to introduce myself and ask a couple of questions regarding my current cycle. This is a long tedious post, and my case is not severe, but I really respect your opinions and would appreciate feedback on my handling of this.

First of all, I've only had 3 cycles:

2008 March- lasted 2 weeks, 1 a day, usually right after awakening in the morning, about 9am, didn't used any meds, as I wasn't diagnosed yet. Got dg right after that though.

2010 June - lasted a month, after the first hit my neuro put me on prednisone 80mg a day for about 7-10 days, PF for that time, but when I lowered the doses I started to get 2 hits a day, meaner and meaner ( got an scaling pattern from 6 to 9, and one k10), used O2 to abort ( worked sometimes, wasn't doing it right though ) this lasted about 3 weeks till the hits went down and all stoped. This cycle broke me emotionally, although it's virtually nothing compared with what some of you guys must endure!

This cycle : 2012 - April 17th, first hit, 9:20am aprox while in class.

-Got hit again every day at 9:30 -10 am with moderate clusters.

-On my 4th day, I started taking the D+3 regimen, the days after This the hits got weird: the clock moved to 10:30 and started lasting longer (30-60min) and if I slept after the hit (which is the usual, as I get reeeally tired) I get an extra one 2 hours later...this kills my whole morning and early afternoon. Fortunately, and probably because of the D3, all the hits that I had after the 5th day where mild (k2-3) or moderate (k4-6) and abort rapidly with O2 (15-20 minutes, 15lt, nonrebreather - my new baby) ...but I still kept getting them.

-So on my 8th day I started my Prednisone holiday (60mg) so I wouldnt miss anymore classes or hospital rotations.

Since then I have only had shadows and two incidents worth mentioning: on my 11th day I got hit twice while sleeping in the morning, I waked up at 8:30 to take the pred (too close to the usual hit-time), and went back to sleep...got hit at 9:45 (mild-30min), got so tired that went back to sleep, and got hit again at 11:45 (moderated-40min). The night before I smoked weed(had a great time, no pain).

The second episode worth mentioning is today, my 14th day: I got hit once (k4-5) at 9am while sleeping, got it under control with O2 within 20min. This time I had taken my pred dosage at 7am and kept on sleeping until it awoke me. I decided to stay awake after the hit this time and the second cluster never came. Yesterday I smoked weed again. So now the two possible candidates for bringing back the beast are Mr. THC (although I had a great night yesterday!) and mr. Sleeping through the usual hit-time (the rest of my pred holiday I've been awake at this hours for the usual study-life).

Tomorrow is my last day on 60mg pred, and I'm scared that the beast will come back with a vengace (as last time) when I lower the dosage to 40 ( for 4 days), then 20 (till further notice). I have continued taking the D3 regimen all this time, I don't know if it is working (hope so) or if this cycle will end soon... If it comes back I don't want to go on with traditional empirical prescrption meds as I know they can prolong cycles and eventually damage your body. So I'm thinking on going for a vitamin M bust (only available bust here in Chile), but I have my doubts as I recently used psylocibyn for recreational purposes ( beautiful experience!!) and got pretty near to a depression the moths that followed.

This is all my relevant story till now, I wanted to know what you guys think and recommend if the beast comes back with its nasty pick...

I respect this community a lot and your opinion means a lot to me! You are a wonderful bunch of people that have endured hellish pain, fear and anxiety, it takes a LOT to overcome this and I take my hat off to you!

PFW to you all,

Coop

[blueballs]

Stay away from the weed until your episode is gone. Being fairly young with short episodes I would suggest..pick one therapy and stick with it. Traditional or alternative. Weather d-3 therapy works with traditional therapy I couldn't say. What you should do I cant say. I would avoid anything that makes me drousy. Caffeine and 02 works well together and with good timing you can complete your studies and get some rest in between.  Smoking the ganga does not promote that too well unless your one of the lucky ones that it does not effect. If the prednisone fails during your taper an option is to bump it back up...at the direction of your doctor. A more complete abortive plan would help. 02, caffeine, energy drinks, and pharmaceuticals, triptans like imitrex has helped many avoid much pain. Cardio and vascular stimulation by exercise or other means helps to abort. Dont mix therapies throwing everything together at once doesn't help a whole lot and may counterindicate each other,at least for me. Do rethink the mushrooms if your subject to depression.LSA would be a better option in that case.This is just advice and I do not profess to know a whole lot just my experiences over the years. Every case of cluster attacks is severe. Your pain is no less than mine. I would love to go to Chile. Hope this helps :-?

bb

[Coop]

It does help Bb, thanks a lot for your reply. I'll just see what happends. And yeah, I'm not touching my bong again till this is over  .

I'll keep you guys posted on how it goes with the pred taper. I don't know if I should pump it back up if it fails, couldn't that prolong the cycle? Has that happened to anyone around here?

Cheers and thx for the support! There's a lot to see in Chile, it's a very long country with lots of beautiful places, so make sure you pay a visit someday!

[blueballs]

Prednisone is transitional it should be used as a taper while some prevent takes effect. I have been on pred for as long as 2 months at 60 to 40 mg. The neuro bumped it back up when I was tapering down to allow the prevent more time to ramp up to theraputic levels. Going on too long with pred can enhance side effects and get ugly, especially when you taper off from long term use. Anything can prolong an episode. The only thing predictable about cluster attacks is they are unpredictable. They say prolonged episodes are caused by this or that, episodes last as long as they last. :

bb

[kika]

It took me many years to work up the courage to try busting with RC seeds after trying almost all of the traditional therapies ( which had little, if any success aside from pred which had intolerable SE to me)

Since you don't seem to object to plant use, are you considering busting? I'm not sure of you have to detox from pred first ( I suspect so), but you could keep it in mind if/when the next cycle hints that's it's starting.

[Coop]

Well, yesterday I started to taper, going from 60mg to 40mg, as indicated by my neuro. As expected I got hit. It wasn't a strong hit but it was a hit after all. My fear that pred could extend the cycle was based on the comparison between my first and second cycle, the first lasted only 2 weeks without meds, the second lasted a month with pred and serious pain... But I get your point bb, this baby is unpredictable! I'd like to make an encarnation of cluster headache and wack the shit out of it with a bat! Maybe we could make it some sort of festival!

Now I'm waiting to get todays hit... To see if it gets worse or better, I just hope this ends soon

I'll seriously consider busting if this doesn't stop by next friday, got to get back on track with my studies.

I've noticed that minutes before starting with a hit I start getting this weird palpitations on my chest. I asked my neuro last time and he told me it was probably a part of the same disregulation problem on the hypothalamus. Have any of you guys experienced that?

Cheers and thanks for the feedback!

[blueballs]

Yes I have had the heart take off prior to a hit. I figured it was part of the endocrine system reacting before I knew what was coming.(adrenaline) Good luck with the taper. Dont wait around for what you know is coming. Let us know how you do Coop.

bb

[Coop]

Hey bb! I kept on with the pred taper + d3 vitamin, three days ago I lowered to 20mg pred a day BUT havent got hit once! I've been 3 days pf and my last episode (4 days ago) was very mild. I think this cycle is ending! I must keep on with the pred at lower and lower doses the next few weeks but I'm confident the beast wont be back (it would have been back by now )

I'll try not to get my hopes too high though because you never know how this bastard can suprise you again.

Anyways, thanks for the advice! I'll let you guys know eventually if I'm out of the woods or not.

And btw, as I am a med student, feel free to ask or tell me if I can help providing information or explaining concepts!

Cheers !

[blueballs]

We love good news. Hope the episode is over for you. Once your clear of all the traditional drugs you may consider using LSA or Psyilocybin as a preventative. Med student experience counts and could help many as long as you are here and participate.

bb