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Heterag
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Ice / Air Conditioning
« on: Sep 8th, 2003, 7:52am » |
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???
Hi all, I am a CH sufferer and have been for about 4/5 years. I am 28 and I smoke, though I only drink when I am nowhere near a Cluster headache Cycle!
I have tried a few things to reduce the amount of / strength of / etc, headaches I get. Most of these were drugs supplied by the doctors, and none of them ever worked.
The only drug which works is the Imigran injections that I now take. These are great, apart from the "take only 2 a day" crap. Although, lets face it, when my 5th headache of the day kicks in, the last thing I would be thinking about is whether it is wise to have a 5th injection or not - in fact if it is really an issue, then someone at some point will be picking the last injection I ever take out of my cold dead fingers.
I have been reading the stuff posted here for a long time, and although it is very helpful, there are a lack of conclusions - I am still having trouble realising that I will be coping with headaches for the next 20 years - especially as my partner just gave birth to my baby daughter.
Therefore I would like to try and solve this issue alone, as much as I can and have this information for you this far;
A baseball cap, loaded with 3 cheapie ice lollies (the ones in plastic sheath that taste of nothing that you can get 100 of for a £fiver.) placed on one's head is at least 90% effective in my case at stopping the headache from ever appearing. This would be when I know that I am probably at the point of 3 CH's a day in my cycle, but if i keep the hat on with updated ice pops - all i feel is the pressure - and it does NOT hurt.
Now before any one starts telling me that this doesnt work - it does for me and I tell you why. The lollies are worth nothing, so having a freezer full of them costs nothing. Also, filling all my friends freezers with them costs practically nothing. Changing of the said ice-pops is easy due to their abundance in all houses I visit. An ice-cooler is also available for any long trips. The only downside of this, is that I haven't yet decided how to wear the cap during my working hours.
Further to this, if I am out without my ice-pop cap, the use of Air conditioning has given a few surprising results. When I started having headaches, I didnt have air-con. I remember getting lots of headaches in the car when driving due to using eyes too much (low light / bright day / etc). Since the change of car - when I feel the onset of pressure from a headache, I do up the windows and put on air-con (about 18 degrees c) the pressure reduces and sometimes the headache will go away / other times it will just reduce until I turn the air con off again - this is fine until I run out of petrol ;o)
Therefore - if ice and cold air fix most of my headaches (not forgetting the injections when air / ice is unavailable or i have gone too long without them), I am wondering what the link with 02 is - and therefore trying to decide what the best course of action is from now on.
I am pretty happy with my results - it has taken a long time to reach this point - I have been in a LOT more pain LOTS MORE OFTEN than I am these days - directly thanks to my ICE / AIR help - the injections being like a hug from God, when the ICE & Air are not working/there.
I would like to a) leave this information for anyone else to read (hopefully when searching for ICE or AIR conditioning & b) hear about anyone else who is pursuing their antidote down this route.
Cheers
Heterag
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Mark C
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #1 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 8:24am » |
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Welcome to the board!
Glad you found us...sorry you need us. There seems to be two schools of thought on the temp thing...the hots, like me, and the colds, like you......although sometimes I like cold too.
Roxy has the right idea....maybe she will share her "ice capades!"..... I hear she has a pretty big ice machine 
From the bio sounds like you are in the right place. I am an Imitrex junkie too...it's the first thing to ever really work and I have exceeded the recomended dose also. It seems to be the folks with a heart problem that can't take Trex..but it does seem to lose effectiveness after 3 or 4 shots in 24 hours. If the first shot don't get it the second probley won't either. I am glad to say the first 6 mg usually knocks it out.....for a few hours at least.
PFDAN's
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Heterag
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #2 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 8:35am » |
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Hiya,
Cheers for the welcome.
I am unaware of any current heart problems - though if my heart gives up - the headaches issue will be mute!
I have read a few things about the 'Hot' side of things - I have tried to use hot water (havent yet found hot ice), though it hurts like hell before it goes numb and the hot-numbess is more painfull than cold-numbess.
How do you use the hotness to reduce the pain?
Heterag
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Mark C
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #3 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 8:48am » |
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If I am lucky, as soon as I feel an attack coming on I hit the shower as hot as I can stand it....I have run the hot water out many times......and maybe 25 or 30 percent of the time I can abort an attack. But it has to be a shower...right on the back of my neck and head. It don't always work...it is one of my ritiuals when I get hit. I would do just about anything to find relief...and in 28 years I have! I ain't alone either...look at this page on the OUCH sit for more "non-standard" treatments. Hang around here long enough and you will see just about everything......where are the Boji Stones when you need them ;D
PFDAN's
Mark
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Heterag
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #4 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 8:56am » |
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Hiya,
Yea, I saw that page - I have tried the back of the neck thing, without much luck.
The only way the warm thing works for me, is if I surround the Hot area with Coldness - i.e.: If I had a hot flannel on my head, I would need a cold flannel everywhere else to really feel the difference.
The main point about all my rememdies is that the remedy (cold air / ice / hot water) has to be directed, directly at the temple above my left eye and the two or three inches in a straight line over my head and down my face. Either side of this postion by an inch or so would have no pain at all - though it is very hard to notice this during a headache unless you do use a Hot and Cold flannel simultaneously.
Cheers for your responses!
Heterag.
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TxBasslady
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #5 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 11:08am » |
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Hi Heterag
Welcome.........
The ice thingey works for me also. The rt side is my afflicted side. I absolutely have to have the cold icey compress on my eye, temple area, and my neck.
Haven't tried the icy pops tho........
You make a good point....guess if the heart goes, the headache doesn't much matter anymore... ;D
I don't usually have daytime attacks....mine come while I am asleep. However, I haven't had but about 4 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours. Had one about 3:30 this a.m. Was totally exhausted, I dozed for a bit, and then was hit with another. My hubby had already left for work and I had hell trying to get the ice thing goin by myself. Damn ice cubes and water everywhere but where I needed it.  Finally got it all together and survived thru another freakin attack. Now I am even more exhausted..........and someone has to clean up this mess from the water and ice cubes.
ummmmm......wonder if there's some kinda bucket a girl can just insert her head into  .........may just check with Roxy......an ice machine could be a good thing, just open and insert head  ;D
Good luck and wishing you pfdan
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Heterag
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #6 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 11:36am » |
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Hiya,
I had forgotten what a nightmare is was before I came up with the ice-pop solution - water and ice every-bl00dy-where .
Trust me - the ice-pop in the cap is so useful, there are more reasons;
a) you do not have to hold the ice - leading to a more relaxed you, as the ice (ice-pop) is held on your head without you exerting any effort (stressful when headache kicking in).
b) you can fall asleep without the cap falling off - cool for those who wake up with headaches - YOU MAY GET YOUR FULL NIGHTS SLEEP!!!
c) you can drive, run, etc with the cap on (sounds more like a tampax advertisement doesnt it).
d) it does not matter what sort of hat it is, so long as it is tight enough to hold the ice-pops without them falling out.
e) you do not have a few ice cubes/trays to deal with - you buy a huge great box (for very VERY little money) and leave them in your freezer!
I hope this information intices you to give it a try - my friends / family / partner and child would be living in a slightly louder more stressful world if I hadn't!!
Cheers )
Heterag.
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TxBasslady
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #7 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 11:47am » |
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;D
ummmmmm......guess if these things were to burst..... I could be a rainbow !!!!!!!
sending "KEWL" vibes your way
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How lucky I am... to have known someone who was so hard to say goodbye too.
Take a kid fishin
www.takemefishin.org
I adopted a Vietnam POW/MIA from El Paso, Texas!
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Virginia
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #8 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 11:56am » |
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Ice pops? Ice lollies? huh?
Are you talking about the frozen flavored ice pops? Grape, orange, etc.? Don't they get pretty messy when they melt? I can't imagine the wrappers staying in tact when they melt...
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Smurf
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #9 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 12:20pm » |
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I think it's safe to assume that Heterag is from Great Britain....? Welcome, sorry you're here, if you know what I mean!
I'm not sure about the ice caps here in the states. I've looked in Walgreens and Walmart and found nothing like that.
I use Rubbermaid's Blue Ice packs. A big one goes on the base of my neck and back of my head, and a smaller one on the left temple. I need to move it around every so often because the pain seems to move around a bit: an inch this way, an inch that way, during the attack.
Do you think a shower cap of sorts would work? Or has any American found them somewhere?
Many PFDAN to you.
P.S. I was once told that most people who get CH are from Western European heritage mainly the British Isles - any ideas?
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stevegeebe
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #10 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 12:26pm » |
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Hot shower works for me as well.
I stand with my right shoulder toward the shower head and alternate between the right side of my head and right shoulder.
I've tried ice packs and it has not been effective.
Strange how these opposite approaches work for the same condition.
Steve G
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Linda T
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #11 on: Sep 8th, 2003, 2:26pm » |
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Hi and welcome.
I'm glad that you found something to work for you. Personally, I like it hot.
9erfan: I think what Heterag means by ice lolly is one of those flav-or-ice things we get in the US. You know the ones that you buy that are liquid and in a long plasitc tube. You take them home and freeze them. When your ready to eat them you just cut off the top and push the ice up and out.
Wishing you all PFDAN always, Linda T
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Heterag
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #12 on: Sep 9th, 2003, 2:59am » |
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Hiya,
Yes - the ice-pop things are little plastic tubes - and u cut the top off and push the ice up to eat - placing them in a cap (of any sort, so long as it is tight enough to hold the ice to your head and not move) is a much better use though.
My baseball cap has a few different colour stains on it (shouldn't have used the Hugo Boss one really), and I suppose that I may have had a few odd colour hairs in the morning, not that I have noticed. Usually wake up feeling like I have had a good night sleep though - so hair colour isnt an issue!
Rather have blue hair than a headache any day of the week!
Cheers
PS - I am in UK (*work in England, live in Wales).
Heterag
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Heterag
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Re: Ice / Air Conditioning
« Reply #13 on: Sep 10th, 2003, 11:21am » |
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Hi again,
Having re-read my first post I see that I may not have explained myself well enough;
When I say about wearing the ice-cap (cap/hat/etc with ice-pops in it) I mean to wear this constantly (when in house) to ensure that the shadows & creeping sensation that annoys us and keeps us thinking about our next headache, do not build up - in fact, when I have the hat on (every night and all weekend when I am in my house), I dont notice the shadows at all.
Just thought I would mention it, as you may think that I mean to use the ice when you get the headache - this is too late, though the ice does help a little at this point also.
I have read a few posts on here the last day or two, and to think there are people sat knowing they are going to have a headache without any plans for what to do - I seriously feel for these people!!
Get some ice - strap it to head (in hat/cap) - then do something to get your brain thinking about (even if its watching simpson videos <- my first choice usually) and hey presto, the pressure is reduces (cos your head is frozen) and the shadows therefore dissapear.
This does not mean that you will never get a headache, though you wont get one until it is kicking in (no shadows), and the build up can last for a whole day (I now only have this feeling in work when I dont have the cap on), which is most depressing.
anyhoo - off I go again
Heterag!
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