Hola from Mexico

[samuelsamuel]

Hello all, first time poster here. My name is Samuel, I'm a 28 year old New Yorker currently traveling through Mexico. I've been getting CHs for at least 5 years that I can remember, and I'm not exactly sure when they presented first but I started treating them soon after, I saw a neurologist for 2 years and was prescribed imitrex and topomax. Treatment was successful after a few months but after 2 years my insurance ran out and I could no longer afford any treatments. As soon as they came back I was pretty desperate, and my then girlfriend suggested I try a gluten free diet, as she is celiac and has read about connections between headaches and gluten intolerance. Amazingly enough after about 2-4 weeks of no gluten (very strict, no traces, etc) the pain went away and has been gone since. That was 2 years ago. I'm now traveling through Mexico, I've been here for 4 months and will stay through the end of the year. I've been healthy and haven't changed much about my lifestyle since I started traveling (Not a big drinker, I'm a cigg and pot smoker) I'm still gluten free and work out regularly. I just started getting headaches again last week, no rhyme or reason. Now I've been getting them almost every morning and then sometimes again later in the afternoon. Because I'm in Mexico and I'm pretty broke, my options are limited. In a frantic moment I went to the farmacia and bought the Mexican generic of imitrex and some naproxen sodium, worked like a charm but don't really know what to do at this point as its not really a long term viable solution. I've read through a ton of information on this forum (quite a lot to take in) and just wanted to know if anybody could help me with some suggestions or things I might be able to do in my present situation here. Would love to be pain free and enjoy my trip and not have to worry all the time I should mention I have access to mushrooms, not sure of the variety etc... Thanks in advance, I'm glad this forum exists.

[CHfather]

I doubt that the naproxen will help you. 

You want to know that you can divide your imitrex injections (if it's injections you're using): https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/2446-extending-imitrex/

An energy shot (5-Hour Energy sort of thing) or energy drink (RedBull sort of thing) will sometimes abort or at least lessen an attack.

If you're willing to do psilocybin mushrooms, read more in the "ClusterBuster Files" section and ask questions. You have to be "detoxed" from Imitrex for 5 days. 

I suppose you could go the pharma route with verapamil as a possible preventive and oxygen (?) or split-dose trex as your abortives. 

So, what are the chances of getting oxygen and bringing it with you? One way or another, I'm sure you could get a mask and a regulator, but I have no idea about the availability and/or quality of the actual O2 you could get--and I don't know how you're traveling and how transportable O2 would be.  I see that you can rent tanks, regulators, and masks in many major cities/tourist destinations (for example: http://www.handicapped-services.com/oxygen.html).That might be outside your budget. It doesn't appear that you would need a prescription.  You don't mention oxygen as something you've previously used, so I'll just tell you that it's the best and safest abortive there is.

You could also try the D3 regimen, if you can get what you need. I would imagine that American big-box stores like Costco and Walmart, which I know exist in some places there, will have what you need. The developer of the D3 regimen got all his supplies from Costco, and I see that there's an online costco in Mexico, too: costco.com.mx   The regimen is described here: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/1308-d3-regimen/

[spiny]

Welcome Samuel!! I agree about starting on the D3 regimen. It can work quickly to eliminate or reduce the pain of your hits. Easy to source and take. Caffeine works great a most of the time too. Even at night, it does not keep me up after a hit. I can go right back to sleep.

 

I have slammed some caffeine and then used the same breathing techniques for O2 with just air in a pinch. That also seems to help.

 

These few things can really help while you look for O2 or anything else to kill the cycle.

[samuelsamuel]

Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone is enjoying today pain free. Thank you guys for the quick response, I am in the process of looking into the D3 regimen, I wish I could find a way to make the oxygen work but I don't think the way I'm traveling allows for it unfortunately for me... Not sure if I'm shooting myself in the foot here or not. Does anyone have any thoughts or links to sources regarding CHs and diet and other aspects of health in relation? Thoughts on cigarettes and pot?

[CHfather]

Every once in a while, someone says they quit smoking tobacco and their symptoms improved.  Most people don't experience that improvement, and there are lots of non-smokers/never smokers with CH.  I think the same is true for pot, but maybe others can comment better on that.

 

A person just recently posted that a serious low histamine diet helped him/hder a lot, and someone else who was trying it also reported good results.  https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/4446-low-histamine-diet-worked-for-me/?hl=diet   Lots of vegetarians with CH; lots of people who eat carefully.  Every once in a while someone reports that some kind of strict diet helped. Ayurvedic; elimination; gluten-free . . . there's rarely enough follow-up to know how it turned out over time, or whether others were similarly helped.  Type the word "diet" into the search bar on the home page and you can check it out for yourself.

[lp3]

I have found that if you eliminate all msg from your diet (and the 70 or more secret names for msg like high fructose corn syrup etc) you will see a huge improvement. Also eliminate all nightshade foods. Tomatoes, potatoes, and peppers. This helped me tremendously. Stay away from foods that are grown low to the ground. No Celery, onions, or broccoli. The farther up the tree the better it will be. Eat NO processed foods especially processed meat. Look up and google the 70 secret names of msg. That will be a good start. Stay away from any exciter drugs. If you want to get well fast this is a good start. at least it has been for me. I am a chronic 5 year sufferer who used to have 5+ attacks daily. Now I get 1 about once a week. The diet sucks but then again my head feels so much better and boy oh boy did I lose some weight. You must not cheat on the diet even once if it is going to work for you. I hope this helps because it is the only thing that has worked for me. Alas though, I dream of food every night. Seriously, the diet totally will work and you will hate it though. Now throw away your food and get some that is real. If it comes in a can, or a wrapper, it probably belongs in a dumpster. Please try this. Best!

[CHfather]

MSG is a bad one for a lot of people, for sure.  In fact, now that you mention it, one reason I had to stop traveling to Mexico was that (a) there was MSG in a surprising number of things where you wouldn't expect it, and ( if you asked a waiter if there was MSG in a dish, 98% of the time they had no idea what you were asking about.  (I agree that there are a whole lot of sneaky names, but I don't think high fructose corn syrup is one of them.)  I got severe pancreatitis attacks from MSG (a pretty darn painful condition in its own right), and it took me several years to figure out that MSG was causing it. Most doctors still today wouldn't guess that MSG could cause pancreatitis.