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        Daily Chat >> General Posts >> Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
        
(Message started by: Woobie on Jan 29^th, 2008, 2:54pm)

Title: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by Woobie on Jan 29^th, 2008, 2:54pm

HI - it's me - woobie :D

I have a friend at work, and she is completely miserable.. and I was wondering if you all could help.
She has migraines and this daily headache thing. I've asked her about her headaches and she said that sometimes, in the middle of a migraine - they get unbearable.. like they ramp up and get "relentless" for a while and then back to the "normal" pain. She said that when this happens - she's balling like a baby and then when it's normal again - she lays back down.
I'm wondering if there's some clusters in there. Her doctor said no - it's just part of the migraine..
I know there are people here with both migraine and clusters. Is this how it is?? a cluster in the middle of a migraine?

She's asked me about clusters several times, and says it does and doesnt sound like some parts of her pain. She said it seems like her doctors are just throwing stuff at her - and really dont know what to do.. (gee, imagine that)

She's had them almost constantly for the past 5 years.. and has been put on all the meds by her doctor... and nothing works. She's tried various diets, and home remedies, and other stuff - like melatonin, and red bull and caffiene and NO caffiene and allergy things and it seems like she's always trying something.. and nothing helps.

She's been to the headache clinic in chicago - and they keep putting her in the hospital for IVs. She says they help for for about a week, and then she's back where she started, and they wont do another treatment right now.

She's in so much pain - every day - you can see it in her eyes. Yesterday I asked how she was doing - and she teared up and said "i'm done. I cant do this anymore - I'm about to just throw in the towel." SHe missed so much work, she's scared to lose her job... she almost cant get thru a whole day of work without crying anymore.

I guess my question is - will oxygen help at all? for migraines? I know i've seen on here where some people say it will - but I need specifics, I guess. I want to help her. She's never tried it - but is willing to try anything.

I figure I can bring one of Ramon's rigs to work with me and set her up - and see if it works, but how many lpm?

Thanks ...
woobs

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by artonio7 on Jan 29^th, 2008, 2:59pm

Sounds... goofy and trite but... have her try hyperventilating into a paper bag.

with warm regards,
Tony

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by Woobie on Jan 29^th, 2008, 3:05pm

Funny you should say that - I see her in the bathroom at work with a lunch bag all the time. I asked her one time if she was doing that for her head or for the stomach.. she said for the stomach, but it seems to help her head a little. She asked me why i would think it would help her head, and that's when i told her about my husband and his clusters and the oxygen. This was about 4 years ago .........

she said she doesnt know if it helps, or if it's just the idea of doing something..distracting her .... but she does it.

woobs :-*

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by vietvet2tours on Jan 29^th, 2008, 3:06pm

Heck yes take her a tank fix. Cain't hurt.

Potter

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by brewcrew on Jan 29^th, 2008, 3:07pm

Pardon me for my stupidity, but doesn't hyperventilating into a bag cause you to rebreathe CO2? Kind of the opposite of breathing pure O2?

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by Woobie on Jan 29^th, 2008, 3:13pm

i dunno?? :-/

should she NOT do that then?? is she doing more harm than good?

woobs

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by thomas on Jan 29^th, 2008, 3:23pm

The guy from Linde gas said CO2 will work for migraines and O2 can make them worse. :-/

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by Mosaicwench on Jan 29^th, 2008, 3:35pm

At the risk of being flamed (like that's ever bothered me), has she seen a chiropractor?

In my teenaged and young adult years I had excruciating migraine type headaches - sometimes lasting 8-10 hours a day. Went through a multitude of tests where they thought I had a brain tumor etc., had lots of meds, and nothing helped.

I finally had to see a chiro for sciatica and he noticed right away that my neck was in sorry shape, a curvature in my spine, and began adjusting me for all of it.

If I have one bad one a year now, that's a lot. I can feel when I've abused my back and know the headaches are gonna come around again and then I get myself in for a full adjustment.

I don't believe Chiropractors can cure cancer or clusterheadaches or a myriad of other things, but for spine related issues they can offer real relief.

And I've tried Brew's oxygen and it doesn't do a thing for me.

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by artonio7 on Jan 29^th, 2008, 3:39pm

on 01/29/08 at 15:07:11, brewcrew wrote:

Pardon me for my stupidity, but doesn't hyperventilating into a bag cause you to rebreathe CO2? Kind of the opposite of breathing pure O2?

The effect is cerebral vasoconstriction.

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by Karla on Jan 29^th, 2008, 5:06pm

I used to get really bad migraines along with ch. I found that the things that worked to prevent and abort my migraines didn't effect my ch at all. The meds I took for ch didn't help my migraines at all either. It sucked. The only way I could tell the difference between my ch and migraines was migraines throbed in the temple and ch was sharp stabbing in the head and eye. The migraine would last for days and the ch would last for 1 1/2 hours. I would be very sensitive to sound and lights with migraine not ch. I would Throw up most of the time with migraine and be nautious but not with ch. So there are some subtle differences that are dead give aways that you are not dealing with the same creature. I hope this helped. However, you have to keep in mind just as with ch everyone is a little different and what works for one wont work for the other the same is with migraines.

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by deltadarlin on Jan 29^th, 2008, 7:55pm

Oxygen has never helped my migraines (but I don't have the auras, or the nausea or any other of the *asides* that go with some migraines).

Has she tried feverfew? It has been shown to help with some migraines (although it didn't do anything for mine).

I feel for her, I really do. Sometimes my migraines will ramp up on me, peak out and then go back down to what they were.

Wish I could help more.

Title: Re: Question about Oxygen and Migraines..
Post by Lizzie2 on Jan 29^th, 2008, 8:21pm

Oh man....I feel for your friend so much. This is a lot like how my migraines have been over the last 7 years, and actually the only thing that has saved me has been going on pain management 2 years ago. I know that's like a taboo thing around here, but I have semi gotten my life back, and I haven't been in the hospital ever since starting to work on managing the pain, whereas I was in the hospital/outpatient IVs all the time before. The way that all got started for me was my psychiatrist asking me if I felt my pain was being treated, and I broke down in tears saying that no, and I've always done everything right and everything they asked of me, but I was still in absolutely excruciating daily pain. My psychiatrist talked with my neurologist, and my neuro was the one who started me on the pain management program. Now I'm moving forward with the idea of trying the Occipital/Supraorbital nerve stimulator for both my migraine and CH, and I'm hoping that if that helps as well as I think it might, then I will be able to move away from the pain management and back to living a more normal life. This is not something I generally discuss, but I just have to say - if your friend has a doctor that will consider helping her in this way - sometimes it's just what we need to survive. For some of us, absolutely nothing helps, and it's almost inhumane to be expected to live with that pain day in and day out with nothing to help ease it in some way. I have become 100% more functional ever since making that change, and I hardly ever miss work now. Plus I've taken on a lot of roles at my job, and I know the reason that I've been able to function as well as I have is because we've gotten the pain managed in some way. It's not gone, but the daily pain is not so unbearable. Now when I have CH's, it doesn't ramp up my migraines to such a severe degree when they are over. I was the guinea pig for many treatments at the headache center, and I tried more things than I can even count before making the choice to move to pain management, and seriously it is the only thing that has given me any sort of quality of life. As I said, I still have a lot of pain and good days/bad days, but it's taken some of the worst of the pain away, and then instead of every day being bad, just some days are bad.

In terms of the O2 - yes, I have had it help with severe migraine attacks, too. For me, the vasoconstriction helps with both headache types. I use frova and amerge for both headache types as well.

I really hope your friend gets some relief. I've been where she is, and it is a living hell. You feel like there is no way out, and it's all you can do just to get up in the morning and even get out of bed. I wish her some relief from her pain....

Hugz,
Carrie :)