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        New Message Board Archives >> Jan-Mar 2003 >> Flying with Clusters
        
(Message started by: gnfb on Jan 21^st, 2003, 6:37am)

Title: Flying with Clusters
Post by gnfb on Jan 21^st, 2003, 6:37am

Hello Everybody
New to this chat
Fellow Cluster headache sufferer form 18 now 47 only diagonosed at 30 odd
I take Imgran in nasel and tablet and have recently been trying a sublingual tablet that is powerful but srews up my day
Most of my clusters are over my right eye but in thelast few years ive had two boughts over my left anyway enough history
I have to take along flight next week London to Wellington Nz
has anyone had any expiernces travelling with clusters?

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by Brassbear on Jan 21^st, 2003, 6:48am

gnb,

Welcome neighbor... no personal experience. Talk to jonny, he just flew to Phoenix... 8)

Good luck on your trip!

Michael

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by nkolb on Jan 21^st, 2003, 7:27am

20 year sufferer here - has flown extensively for business (domestic and intercontinental). The idea of getting a CH in an enclosed space terrifies me, so I avoid flying when I am in a cycle. But sometimes it is unavoidable. In my experience CH are no better or worse than usual on a plane. Nothing about flying (air pressure changes or dryness, for example) seems to make it better or worse. If anything, the "ritual" of flying (check-in, carrying bags, talking to people, staying organized) helps keep me focused and alert - so the attacks are less frequent.

but London to Wellington is a very long flight, longer than I would attempt. I wish you luck.

My advice is to:
INSIST ON AN AISLE SEAT CLOSE TO THE BATHROOM.
DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL.
DO DRINK LOTS OF WATER.
TRY TO MAINTAIN SLEEP CYCLE (dont doze off).
GET UP AND STRETCH FREQUENTLY.
PRAY FOR A DECENT INFLIGHT MOVIE.

I once made it from Atlanta to Oslo (via New York, Amsterdam, and Copenhagen) without a problem. 36 hours.

Good luck,
Norbert

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by gnfb on Jan 21^st, 2003, 7:43am

I ve done the Sydney to London flight quite a bit but as far as i remeber havnt been in a cluster season as i call it. Thanks for the tips I mainly do all of them anyway without the thought of a attack. The reason I bought it up was that I have a hunch that my attacks are related to weather patterns as i seem to get them when its overcast rainy and oppreshive

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by echo on Jan 21^st, 2003, 9:20am

Anytime I fly above 28K feet I get a CH, without fail. One thing I have done to help lessen the impact is to take High Altitude pills (similar to those taken by high altitude skiers) a couple of days before traveling. This was suggested by my neurologist.

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by Ueli on Jan 21^st, 2003, 11:33am

gnfb,
What I do to keep away CH for some time, like a flight or a dinner I can't be sure it's not poisoned with MSG, is to take in advance one of the longer acting triptans as a short time preventative.
I had success with Naratriptan (Amerge, Naramig), half of a 2.5 mg tablet giving protection for at least 4 hours. Repeat as necessary.

Good flight half around the world,
Ueli

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by Brian_Y on Jan 21^st, 2003, 4:01pm

I fly quite a bit with my work too and I have found that the pressure changes (and, perhaps, the changes in the weather depending on where you are going as well as the circadian rhythm being jostled if you are switching time zones) can bring them on for me. If you recall, I was recently in Portland, OR (went there from the sweet, sweet East Coast) and was there for a couple of days when **POW**. It was nightmarish. As for dealing with them on the plane itself, I cannot speak to that as I've been fortunate. KNOCK WOOD.

BUT...All that being said, a couple of weeks ago, I was in Grand Cayman on business and it went off without a hitch. Was Portland simply a case of "bad timing"? Dunno.

My doctor does feel, however, that pressure changes circadian interruptions can bring them on?

Any other thoughts?

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by gnfb on Jan 21^st, 2003, 4:19pm

Well first of all I would like to thank you all for your comments and tips I will now put this on my daily visit list. Back to the flying first I suppose my concern was I admit a bit of embaressment vanity call it what you like as we thrash about at home meditate take up the fetal position we are doing it in the privacey of our own home stuck on a plane with 350 others .... not my idea of fun
also I was concerned for adverse effects of the medicene at the moment I use a drug called Buprenorphine sub lingual It kills all pain in 5-10 minutes usually then leaves you stuffed for several hours But hey who cares if it gets rid of the pain. I also as I may have mentioned before take ingran inhalent works for me just takes a little longer I imagine it is ok to take and fly not being medical doc not sure any ideas?
As for the atmospherics air pressure I lived on the east coast of australia for some while and I am sure that every year around the rain storm season got an attack
Does anyone know if there has been any surveys of attacks by locations?
Thanks again for the warm welcome

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by ziggy on Jan 21^st, 2003, 11:02pm

sorry to hear about your unfortunate situation.i fly quite frequentlywith work also. I have a few trips to make this week and i'm in the middle of a cluster cycle now so i'm opting to drive instead of flying.I have flown twice in the middle of a cycle before. first time was nasty no shots and no o2. second time a shot as soon as we took off it got to about a 5 and hung there for most of the two hour trip but it was tolerable. When i'm not in a cluster sometimes i get shadows but nothing major. there has also timeswhen i was flying and i thought that's what brought them on.i try to avoid it if all possible when i'm in a cycle.I haven't had to get on a plane since 9/11 when i was in a cycle. so i don't know how that would be to take a bottle of o2 andimitrex on plane but it would be a great travel companion. ziggy

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by Ann on Jan 22^nd, 2003, 7:48pm

Hello and welcome!
I just got back from the Caribbean and had a 4 and half hour flight. No problems. I brought along 14 injections and my auto injector. To be able to board the plane I had to show my medical reference explaining my condition (Martinique customs officers are very friendly! ;) ) Remember that most airplanes have oxygen on board. If you do need it, just ask the flight attendant. They can always take you to the back of the plane for more privacy.

Good luck
Ann

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by Lenny on Jan 22^nd, 2003, 10:49pm

I used to fly quite often for work,my exp. is that i would get hit 50% of the time.My last trans-atlantic flight,was the flight from hell. On the way there( L.A. to London )got 1 attack ( imitrex - inj.)gone within 5-10 minutes,on the way back i had 2-shots left ( i used both of those within the first 2-hours of the flight )the rest of the flight i was sucking on oxygen ( which all airlines have on board)Oxygen has never helped me,i forgot how much LPM this one had ( it was one of those portable units )I kept on sucking on the O2 till i felt the pain leaving my eye,then i would stay on it for a couple more minutes just to be safe,within 5-10 minutes the mother fu..er was back in full force,again with the O2,this went on the whole entire flight back( routine,maybe 6-7 times )at one point the stewardess had the balls to ask me to stop using the O2,since it was getting low( she also mentioned in case there might be an emergency.Usually when i get hit when i fly its,usually 1 per flight.A few weeks ago,i went on 4 seperate flights without a problem."BTW"British Airways had the nerve to send me a bill for the O2,the woman who i spoke with in customer service agreed with what i thought they should do with the bill ( shove it where the sun dont shine ;D).Thats my own exp.( whenever i fly,i get so nervous,because of the unknown-is he going to visit me or not :'( ).PFDAN to all.

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by jonny on Jan 22^nd, 2003, 11:11pm

Get on the plane, get in the air....order two beers and have your fucking Zomig on hand.

Works for me.

..................jonny

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by Jarvis on Jan 23^rd, 2003, 8:31pm

GNFB, Hi-If you have a strong heart, Then I would reccomend a product called " Ephedrine Plus" as a short term preventive. its an allergy med available over the counter....... Taken an hour ahead, It will get me through meetings, flights, and most of the work related circumstances 92% of the time, low dose every 4 hrs. I still dont know why it works or how it works for clusters but for me it does. Only during the daylight hours. It is no help at night, again I dont know why. As I can be hit equally hard at any time. If your physically ok then the only side effect is alertness if its used sparingly. Of course it is and can be abused. I'm sure there are other brands. .. active ingredients..........Ephedrine HCL 12.5 mg ......Guaifenesin 200 mg....... 1 tab every 4 hrs. Try it before a flight if you do to test........ mj.

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by gnfb on Jan 24^th, 2003, 5:25am

thanks i will see if the local chemist has

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by gnfb on Feb 5^th, 2003, 4:35pm

Made it to Wellington
Now that is a trip, London to Wellington with only two stops, hour and a half in Bangkok and 3 hours in Sydney total fly time approximately 23hours. I had two attacks during my travels a light one at the airport before I left took one inhalant imgram and a couple of panedine forte, passed after 15 minutes. During the flight I had an attack in the final hour and a half coming into Sydney took inhalant and panedine forte but it got a grip and was fairly strong for 30 minutes.
Don’t know what the person sitting next to me thought. One minute I was a fairly animated conversationalist discussing aspects of international travel, work and other issues the next I’m a silent, rocking back and forth, head tilted two one side, crying from one eye, sweating, shooting something up my nose as if it was some sort of disposable pack of coke!, travel companion. And then 30 minutes later I’m back to “You get a great view of Sydney Harbour if we land from the North”
But as we all know during an attack who cares what anyone or anything is thinking or doing around them.
When I got to NZ I found that my supply of meds was getting low. This bout is a strange one usually mine are over my right eye these are over my left, only had them once before and finally got a treatment of Presidone that controlled them immediately. This time I had tried Presidone and it didn’t seem to work. I have been getting 1 or 2 attacks a day sometimes a couple of shadows as well. So I had been going through my meds.
By the way I find that if I’m not sure if it’s a shadow or a full attack I take half a tablet of Ingram and sometimes it works as well as a full tablet.
I sought out a surgery In town only to be confronted with the initial details that Australia or England both of which I hold citizenship in have no medical companionship effectively I will have to pay upfront for my health needs! The visit to the doctor would cost approximately $30 USD. I am going to look into this issue next week and will let you know what the outcome is. Apparently health insurance is fairly big here but you can only get it if you are a resident and even if you could get it wouldn’t cover pre existing. Now I will check this out as well but its not looking to good. And for those who are saying I should have got Insurance before I traveled it was the same thing do you have any preexisting if you do watch that policy skyrocket that’s if you can get one.
In Australia when you go to the doctor you pay approximately $24USD upfront you then can claim about 75% of that back through Medicare the national, lets call it health fund that everybody contributes too so in affect you pay $6USD. Ingram meds except for injection are now on what they call the free list so you only pay about $2.50USD per script BUT each script only has two inhalants or two tablets and they will only give you two at a time per day. So in a bout you can be back and forth to the pharmacy everyday, and the script only has 5 repeats. So after that you have to get the doc to write another. I have to believe this is purely to do with the cost because as far as I know the inhalants wont give one any sort of high so why not dole them out in 10s or something, more practical. Now once you have spent more than $72USD in scripts at the pharmacy in any one year you go onto a total subsidy and your meds become free.
In the United Kingdom if you are a citizen you go to the doctor and there is no charge! It is covered under the NHS your scripts you are charged about $11USD BUT I got 6 inhalants on one script plus I could have got injections same deal.
So after all that I started yesterday a course of presidone and so far so good usual formula took 3 yesterday in the morning 3 this morning will continue for 5 days then try cutting down to 2 a day and so on. The only thing with this is it could of course just be the end of the bout and I’m taking the meds needlessly but hey I don’t wish to find out !!

Title: Re: Flying with Clusters
Post by jonny on Feb 5^th, 2003, 4:58pm

Glad to hear you made it, Bro.

.....................jonny