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        Cluster Headache Help and Support >> Cluster Headache Specific >> Sinus Pills?
        
(Message started by: Budman on Apr 26^th, 2006, 2:18pm)

Title: Sinus Pills?
Post by Budman on Apr 26^th, 2006, 2:18pm

Hello my name is Buddy, have had CH's since around 1993. In '95 I had a CT scan because of these recurring headaches, but the doctor just said I checked out OK, and that was that. What else could I do? (did the term "Cluster Headaches" exist in '95?) The headaches would go away, then would come back months later. JUST YESTERDAY I finally find out what it is that I am suffering from. BLESS THIS SITE!

Whenever I get these headaches, its like a needle poking the back of my right eyeball, which turns beet red. The eye just drops tear after tear, and my right sinus goes crazy, I end up with a pyramid of tissue from blowing my nose. After every blow, it seems like the pressure gets worse, but I have to blow my nose to releive the pressure the snot builds up! The best part is when after all this is over, it looks like my right eye is set lower on my face, and doesn't open up as much as the other eye. Gotta love that!

The way I would treat these headaches would be to take a sinus pill and "try" to lay down in a darkened room. It seemed to work for me, after about a half hour of agony before the sinus pill kicks in. 2 nights ago, I was up untill 4:30am (CH started at 11:00pm) before the pain went away and I could finally sleep. And it took 4 sinus pills that night.

So now that I actually know what I'm suffering from I know I should see a doctor and get the right meds. And I'm wondering if taking sinus pills for CH's will worsen my overall condition or make me more prone to get CH's.
Has anybody else out there used sinus pills for the pain? Good Idea or Bad?

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Mattrf on Apr 26^th, 2006, 4:56pm

I suffer from bad sinuses on top of my CH and when CH started I thought it was a sinus infection but none of the sinus pills helped me and blowing my nose just increased the pressure for me and made my eye feel like it was going to pop right out of my head.
Like most on this site say, do every thing you can to get your doctor to give you o2 if he agrees you have CH, it has been the only thing that has helped mine. There is a lot of information on this site print as much as you can and take it with you to the doctor and help educate him. Most doctors don’t know that much about CH so you have to help them so they can help you better.

Good luck to you and welcome to the family.

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Budman on Apr 26^th, 2006, 8:15pm

Thanks alot for the info and thank you for the welcome! Today I was exploring the boards and site, downloaded the .pdf file Update on Therapies for cluster headache. What a great piece, very informative! I went straight to the drugstore after work and got a bottle of Melatonin, hopefully this will subdue the beast until I can get to the doc. Also am drinking plenty of water.

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by D_Robinson on Apr 26^th, 2006, 9:41pm

Not real sure where you are, but if you can see a specialist I would. The last meeting I have with mine we were able to sit down and review a bit of records and well learned a lot about the real first time I had these headaches since the clinic she is at is the same my GP is and shocked my GP was seeing me for 4 weeks straight 15 years ago trying to solve a sinus infection that was cluster headaches. It was all in the records. I was in to see this guy like every 4 to 5 days for a month, and this guy was clueless. I changed GPs and when I got hit again 15 months later was referred to her immediatley and was diagnosed with CHs. was given an EEG and a CT scan, and got help. Most of the pain I have gone thru has been on my own wanting to treat CH with a preventative and not abortitves like O2 and such, but a regular doctor is wholy unprepared to deal with CH's. One trip to my clinic's emergency room proved that when the doc could not beleive I have been this way since 11 pm the night before. Finally he called my neuro and she put his striaght. You gotta see someone who understand this issue.

David

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by danm on Apr 27^th, 2006, 11:49am

When i first started to get headaches about 13 years ago, I didn't know it was CH. I thought they were sinus headaches but they only came on after a few beers. So each time, i was going to go out drinking - college age at that time - I would take Tylenol Sinus before I had my first beer and it worked a few times. Then once I was correctly diagnosed with CH, I got on the right meds.....and learned that alcohol was not a good idea during a cycle.

Dan

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Budman on Apr 27^th, 2006, 2:37pm

Yeah thats what has triggered my last few headaches, beer. And I drank some red wine the other night with my steak dinner, thought I would be OK since it was diluted with the meal. I was wrong, soooo wrong! Thats the night I was up 'till 4. 2 glasses is all it took. Smoking and drinking are the "precipitating factors" according to some information I read at the Headache Foundation online.

My situation is that I have declined health insurance so I can pocket the extra 20 bucks in my paycheck and the open enrollment for getting back in the plan insn't until October each year. I'm aprehensive to go see a doc without health insurace because I want to keep my savings account. My hope is that my cycle will end and I can go see the doc in October after getting insured.

I had what may be an excellent stroke of good luck, I hope, last night. I found an old book I had bought years ago, "Amazing Medicines The Drug Companies Don't Want You to Discover". It was published in '93. I found a part in the book that addresses Cluster Headaches and Migranes. It reccomended 25mg twice daily of Feverfew to "prevent migraines or at least reduce the pain". For our Cluster Headaches it reccomened Capsaicin, which comes from cayenne peppers. It said you can apply this topically on your temples (if thats where it hurts). It said the stuff "will hurt the skin at first, and may burn the eyes or cause the nose to run, as with eating spicy food. But a study in Italy found that repeating the treatment over several days caused the spicy-food reactions to cease and, moreover, significantly cut or, in the majority of cases, completely stopped "cluster" headaches that had previously occured frequently." It also said that Capsaicin can be dilluted in water and sniffed.

Needless to say, i was intrigued by this, so today I did some looking around on the net, and found that the stuff isn't something to be taken lightly, its like total fire!
Its the stuff that makes peppers hot, its actully the most concentrated, hottest stuff you can get from the peper. So the idea of me dilluting this stuff in water and sniffing it seemed a little bit like playing with fire.

But then I hit on a site that sells this stuff called "Sinus Buster". It was created by a guy who suffered from CH. He was selling pepper spray, which has Capsaicin in it, and he would let people spray him in the face with it to demonstrate the effectivness of the spray. One day just before a demo, he started having a CH, and when he got sprayed in the face, some of that spray went up his nose and he said his headache instantly left. He's created a Capsaicin/Feverfew/Peppermint mixture for headaches and sells it online for $15.99

Personally, i don't know if this stuff works or not, I've never tried it. But I'm definately gonna get some of it, why not? Has anybody out there tried this stuff? Does it work? Sounds pretty intense, sniffing up pepper spray! LOL! But hey, if it works, I'm gonna use the stuff.

Any advice out there from the knowledgable veterans of this board about Capsaicin? Thanks for the feedback, and sorry if this has been already discussed ad-nauseum, I'm new!

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Budman on Apr 27^th, 2006, 3:12pm

Someone has previously posted about this and left the weblink to the page sinusbuster.com. He said it worked great. I will be getting some of this, $16 bucks for no pain sounds like a good deal to me! Hope it works, will post the results.

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by BarbaraD on Apr 27^th, 2006, 8:53pm

I think if you'll read back on some previous posts on this site you'll see that this is a rip off, but go ahead and try it if you need to -- lord knows some of us have tried worse... If it works for you great -- let us know -- the ones I know that have tried it were disappointed.

Hugs BD

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Mr. Happy on Apr 27^th, 2006, 9:13pm

Sinusbuster isn't sinus pills. It's pepper spray. Sinus pills are about drugs that end in -drine and maleate. Decongestants and antihistamines. Never seemed to make a differance for me, but then again, I'm addicted to the damned things.....unless I can Hock Lugies out the window w/o social stigma. And after 3 decades, they've made Sudafed the next thing to a controlled substance.

I'm acrimonious.
RJ

http://www.mushys.com/pix/NoCH1trans.gif

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by TAHwife on Apr 28^th, 2006, 7:19am

HI...My husband got desperate last week and actually took Benedryl for allergies and sinuses...he had minimal relief!! Good luck to you and yes CH have been "talked about" for yrs, but not too many docs are familiar with them...let us know what your doc has to say...PLEASE!
Karen

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Budman on Apr 28^th, 2006, 9:08am

There's a retailer for the Sinus Buster in a town about 15 miles away. A friend of mine lives close to there and will be picking it up. Sorry to hear that it may be just a rip-off though. I guess I gotta try it, it may work for my particular condition. I will definately report the results.

Last night I felt like I was gonna get a headache around 11ish, (seems like thats a good time for them) went outside and got some fresh air for a couple of minutes, popped (3) 3mg Melatonin tablets and went to sleep, no CH. Not sure if it was the fresh air or Melatonin. Been taking the Melatonin for 2 nights now, seems to be doing its job of sedating me for deeper sleep.

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Budman on Apr 28^th, 2006, 9:23am

Would it not be the best case scenario to be actually having a CH when you go to see your doctor, and have all the paperwork about the condition right there in front of him to read? That would make an impression on him/her right, enough for the doc to take your opinion seriously on what you have instead of the doc thinking you don't really know what you got and tries to figure it out on his own by running a multitude of tests. (This is assuming you could make it to the doctor's office, wait and hour to see him/her and still be able to converse while having the CH.)

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by BarbaraD on Apr 28^th, 2006, 5:47pm

If you can time your CH to fit your doc's appt - more the better, but go armed with ammunition (written and some knowlege to back it up). Most docs aren't real well versed on CH and need to be "taught" about CH.

I've spent 10 years with the same GP and neuro and we're all still learning and "practicing" on me (I'm chronic and their problem child). The secret to docs is to find someone you can relate to and who will listen to you, form a relationship and then you've got your doc.. otherwise keep shopping till you find the right one. I've been thru a bunch of "specialists" and can about tell you who the kooks are out there.

We've all tried "home remedies", miracle cures and almost anything else that's come along. Hell, I wore banana peels around my head all day cause it was suppose to cure this thing -- it didn't! Capsiasian (pepper) cream up the nose (about what Sinius Buster is) was supposed to be the "thing" several years ago -- Drummer found out you should wear underwear when you're applying it -- ;) We've all got stories about the "cures" we've tried.

Just remember - NOTHING works the same on ALL of us and we all react differently to different things. CH is in a class all by itself - you can't compare it to another type of headache (stop the doc if he/she tries). We all have different triggers and we all have different ways of handling it.

Read everything you can on this board and take what you can use - try what seems to help. And let the rest of us know what works for you.

Hugs BD

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Patrick_A on May 1^st, 2006, 9:00am

I think everybody at first thinks they are having sinus problems ( I know I did) All of the symptoms are consistent with it. But the truth is..... You are not making more mucus in your sinuses. Your sinus cavity is actually swelling due to the imflammation of that nerve. Thats why your eye feels like it wants to come out I also feel as if I want to get all of that crap out of mu sinuses because I feel it needs more room for the swelling.
Bottom line is.....It ain't ur sinuses that are at fault. Its the damn CH's.

Patrick

Title: Re: Sinus Pills?
Post by Budman on May 6^th, 2006, 11:40am

On the day of my last post, me and a group of buds went to this 3 day rock festival called Livestock. I had a friend pick up a bottle of the Sinus Buster stuff and bring it to me there. Of course I did plenty of drinking and whatnot, and that night (Friday) I started to get a CH. As soon as I started to feel it coming, I took a few snorts of the Sinus Buster. It seemed to work for me, the pain went away and I felt fine. Didn't have any more CH's until I got home on Sunday night. It was after I had fallen asleep, I awoke with a crushing CH, (Kip 8 I estimate) so I tried the Sinus Buster at this point, but it wasn't enough. It would numb the pain for a few moments, but I think the headache was too far underway for this stuff to work. Eventually after about an hour of misery, took a sinus pill, and I was fine after it kicked-in. Haven't had a CH until this morning, tried to sleep-in on a Saturday morning and I think I got hungry and that triggered the CH. Anyway, as soon as I started to feel it, took about 5 snorts of the Sinus Buster and it worked, no pain after that. I think this stuff is good if you apply it before the headache gets too intense, but after a certain point its too late for it to work.

I'm on the wagon for a few months now, gonna try and stop the triggers but I know the CH's will be back. Thanks alot for all the info you all have shared, the banana story...classic! Excellent advice on picking out a good doctor, and now I know why my sinus's swell, you guys rock!

Buddy