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        New Message Board Archives >> Jan-Mar 2004 >> All day HA, suggestions?
        
(Message started by: cakelady on Feb 4th, 2004, 5:57pm)
Title: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by cakelady on Feb 4th, 2004, 5:57pm
Hi gang, the beast kicked my a%% last night. Hit me with a 10 and it took the o2 for friggin' ever to work. My head has hurt ( just feels bruised) all damn day.

Any ideas?

So tired, so afraid to sleep

Cakes
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by manana on Feb 4th, 2004, 6:04pm
your head feels bruised & mine feels like it's been thru a meat grinder for weeks now.  i try not to contemplate 10...although i know, you know?
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by tiredofclusters on Feb 4th, 2004, 6:16pm
Cakelady,
Sorry to hear that. Just like you told me. hang in there.
Thanks so much for the support the other day. If u every need anything don't hesitate to call.
Thanks,
Neal
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by thomas on Feb 4th, 2004, 6:18pm

on 02/04/04 at 17:57:35, cakelady wrote:
Any ideas?

So tired, so afraid to sleep

Cakes

Have you tried melatonin, that may help you sleep and get some rest after the long fight today.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by cakelady on Feb 4th, 2004, 6:45pm
Yes Thomas,
 having read so many of your posts... ;)

I am taking 9mg a night, half hour before I screw up my courage to go to sleep.

Actually, I did a search for your posts on the topic to find out what dosage to take. Thank you for your help. Some nights it helps, some nights it doesn't.

Do you have any other thoughts or words of wisdom on melatonin.

Cakes
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by BlueMeanie on Feb 4th, 2004, 6:49pm
Hi Cakelady.

I'm not sure if it will help, but after I get hit with a KIP 10 that just won't abort, I take a muscle relaxer. It is in prescription form. Norgesic Forte. Does not relieve a Cluster Headache, but it does ease the pain you get after fighting the Beast for hours.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by jonny on Feb 4th, 2004, 6:57pm

on 02/04/04 at 18:49:47, BlueMeanie wrote:
I'm not sure if it will help, but after I get hit with a KIP 10 that just won't abort, I take a muscle relaxer. It is in prescription form. Norgesic Forte. Does not relieve a Cluster Headache, but it does ease the pain you get after fighting the Beast for hours.


I have to chime in on this one.....This is just my experience on NF!...It was givin to me as an abortive, if I was ever going to kill myself it would have been after taking NF to abort. Everytime it threw me into a depression way before the HA ever ended. I came sooo close...it still scares me.

That is just how it worked (It never aborted a HA) for me and only me as far as I can tell by reading this board for over four years.

............................jonny
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by KingOfPain on Feb 4th, 2004, 6:58pm
You could try Dramamine.

http://www.prodhelp.com/images/im_dramamine_original.jpg


Helps to keep you out of REM sleep.

Not to be used on a constant basis.

Just occasional use only.


Others can give you more info
on the use of this product.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by cakelady on Feb 4th, 2004, 8:05pm
I would love more info on the dramamine if anyone has any.

Last cycle, I was taking Flexaril as a muscle relaxant for my neck. Mid-cycle, my car got rear ended.
Very loooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggg cycle.

Thanks for all your help.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by Opus on Feb 4th, 2004, 9:17pm
Cakes,
  Try uping your meletonion, I take 12mg, if I go any higher or lower I get hit. You can get 1mg pills to help you find your dose.

Opus/Paul
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by Little Deb on Feb 4th, 2004, 9:24pm
How about scheduling a massage for tomorrow??  When my last cycle started....I was bummin and I went in for a massage because the lady said she could do cranio'sacral massage for headaces.  I was willing to try anything at that point.  She just did my head and neck for an hour and a half....it was so wonderful.  Of course it did not do anything really for the CH cycle....but it really did feel good on my head.


vibes your way cakelady....Little Deb
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by cootie on Feb 4th, 2004, 11:10pm
I agree with jonny on the muscle relaxers........even tho I am a supporter......I have a script to flexeril for my neck and back severe spasm's and severe ha's they cause..........but the shit throws me into a zombi depression state......so be carful with any of that crap even tho I must admit it has ended spasm's. But.....you don't want to end anything else Pam

I started cuttin the 10 mg tabs into quarters to see if that helped but left out suma the side effects.......so far I was wrong.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by Patrick_A on Feb 5th, 2004, 12:49am
Are you taking Imitrex as an abortive?

Patrick
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by t_h_b on Feb 5th, 2004, 6:57am

on 02/04/04 at 21:17:11, Opus wrote:
Cakes,
  Try uping your meletonion, I take 12mg, if I go any higher or lower I get hit. You can get 1mg pills to help you find your dose.

Opus/Paul


I'm glad someone else is advocating the "start small and work your way up" melatonin dosing method.  For me it's 0.5mg so I recommend starting with that.  The only smaller dose I recall seeing is 0.3 mg.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by mikeyd on Feb 5th, 2004, 7:39am
I'd like to try melatonin, but it is "illegal" in Canada. All the health food stores were forced to remove it from the shelves...along with many other herbal and natural remedies.
However, this has forced me to use their scripts and look for an effective combo and the best I have found in my 15 years of tango with the beast is Verapamil with DHE for aborting. I take the verapamil 3X daily @ 120mg/dose, first the O2 (if I can get it), then 1/4ml for the Migranol DHE nasal spray which is quite effective. (I only take 1/4 of the recommended dosage which is 1 ml.) You are not supposed to exceed 6ml./week and I find that if I dose it at 1/4 ml to abort I never go over the recommended weekly maximum. If the first misting doesn't take then I will do another...if that doesn't take, then I suffer it out. I only had a few bad ones last cycle which lasted 10 weeks or so, it is a Godsend compared to the pain from that icepick behind my eye. This was a pretty smooth cycle compared to most of my other ones and at least you can fuction on that combo. Non-drowsy, although the verap drops the BP and makes me feel zombie-like, and I got a nasty bump on the noggin from standing up too quick and fallin down just as quick...lol
Neck massage sounds like a reallly good idea now tho...even tho I'm out of cycle...lol
mmmmmmm....massage [smiley=sleep.gif]
Anyone else use the DHE/verap combo?

Vibes for some PF time so you can recoup
Hugz [smiley=hug.gif]
Mikeyd
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by t_h_b on Feb 5th, 2004, 8:01am

on 02/05/04 at 07:39:44, mikeyd wrote:
I'd like to try melatonin, but it is "illegal" in Canada. All the health food stores were forced to remove it from the shelves...along with many other herbal and natural remedies.


Is melatonin available to you by prescription?  If not, well, marijuana is illegal in the US so people order seeds from Canada--you can even buy them on Ebay--so why can't you order melatonin from the US?  I'm not suggesting that you break any laws, but maybe you're allowed to import medication for your own usage?

For some it is the magic drug.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by mikeyd on Feb 5th, 2004, 8:33am
I asked my doc and she was the one that told me it was no longer available here...but I might be able to import it via a 'friend'. Not sure about US companies shipping things to Canada that are "controlled substances here"

I'm surprised the pharmaceutical giants haven't lobbied to have it prohibited there too. They have too much power and money for my liking.
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by cakelady on Feb 5th, 2004, 10:15am
Last night wasn't so bad. This damn thing has set up the craziest cycle this time.
Only at night,.

night 1: 1HA
night 2: 3HA  fairly heavy ones
night 3:  6 to 8 HA  4-6kip
Repeat cycle.

I am going to try upping the melatonin.
I see my neuro next week. May have to break down and take the prednisone taper. And the Flexiril. :(

Thanks for the support.

Cakes
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by Peppermint on Feb 5th, 2004, 10:42am

on 02/05/04 at 07:39:44, mikeyd wrote:
I'd like to try melatonin, but it is "illegal" in Canada. All the health food stores were forced to remove it from the shelves...along with many other herbal and natural remedies. Mikeyd


Hi Mikeyd,
Maybe you haven't seen this:

on 02/03/04 at 09:45:00, Margi wrote:
Again, Broomhilda, you've sadly gotten misinformation about cluster treatments available in Canada.  Melatonin became available in Canada January 1 of this year.  We talk about it on the Canadian board and I believe there is a post here about it, too.  Doug Wright, our OUCH Canada president, gave an excellent talk about the benefits of using Melatonin at the American OUCH Convention (held in Vancouver) in 2002.  
Lots of good information out there and much better treatment available at home in Canada now for cluster folks.  Take heart!  :)


Check this out: http://www.clusterheadaches.ca/

Pepper
Title: Re: All day HA, suggestions?
Post by Jayne on Feb 5th, 2004, 11:33am
He Christine..I am so sorry you are getting slammed. I missed not seeing you yesterday. If you want to try imitrex and let me show you the "trick" that we all use I will be happy to help you.
Love Jayne
p.s I can't wait until you are out of cycle, then we can go for a "bevvy"


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