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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2002 >> Shower till the hot water is gone?
        
(Message started by: cox3406 on Oct 9^th, 2002, 9:22pm)

Title: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by cox3406 on Oct 9^th, 2002, 9:22pm

I will stand in the shower when I have a HA under the hot water until it runs cold and a lot of times this helps me. Does it help you all?
PF for 16 hours now.
Mark

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Axis on Oct 10^th, 2002, 1:34pm

How ?
I mean how can you stand anything hot at all with a CH ?
From an Kip 8 to 10 I feel like I'm on fire.
Have you ever used ice ?
I'm just asking ok.
The cold is my friend hehe.
The colder the better, Some things that I've learned to do over the years is a tub of cold water with ice in it, But add the ice after you get in, Big bowl of ice that I lay the left side of my head in till numb,
Theres alway the ouch I have a CH hitting while away from the house so can I please have a cup of ice to breath hehe.
I cant tell you how times I've come down with a cold just before Dec because of the ice and water thing hehe but anything to get rid of my CH.
There is one other cold thing I do but some might think me a nut or freak so I'll hold that one out for now.
But if heat helps you then go for it and your so lucky :)
Rod.

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Margi on Oct 10^th, 2002, 1:37pm

Hi Rod,
yes, ice is a popular therapy here for sure. My husband uses those gel packs that never really quite freeze and lays one on the back of his neck at onset. It really helps him. We keep 3 of them in the freezer at all times. just in case.
In a pinch, you can also try a package of frozen corn or peas. They are pliable enough to mold to the shape of your eye and cheek, so you can get it right on the site of the pain.
Hope this helps you.

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Bob P on Oct 10^th, 2002, 1:45pm

hub tried standing in a hot shower until the hot water ran out but it didn't work. He still smelled!

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Starfire3 on Oct 10^th, 2002, 3:38pm

Shower steam helps open blocked nasal passage and hot water on shoulders relaxes muscles that cause extra pain, but heat on head often makes it worse.

Ice on neck is what chiropractor suggested. I thought he was crazy because the muscles are bunched, why do I want them to bunch more? Then I got hit with ha while on highway travel and ice was easier to find on the road than a shower. Color me super surprised when my ha broke within 10 min of applying ice to neck.

Here's a wierdness tho. Does anybody else get chills just before the ha breaks? (no, not from the ice :)) Doesn't happen all the time and is more common with the kip 8-9 than the lesser ha.

- Starfire

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Axis on Oct 10^th, 2002, 5:11pm

LOL yes I get the chills, But mine come from the ice because I try to turn myself into a snow man ;D
And soon as I feel the chill I know the CH is about to leave me.

Never did the hot shower because I get so hot to start with but I do have a heating pad that I may try on the shoulders to see if it helps, And as far as the nasal passage I just blow and blow and blow hehe it hurts like hell to blow but then feels good for about 30 secs then its time to blow again, In some way I think by blowing my nose so hard ( because it does hurt to do it) it helps to get my mind off the CH for a few secs and every sec counts :)

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by cox3406 on Oct 10^th, 2002, 7:44pm

It seems to be the steam affecting the nasal passages and the massage effect I find helpful. I cannot always do the shower thing though because sometimes I do chill, get real cold and if the HA is over a K-6 the water is too intense. I dont think I have tried ice before, but I will. I will try just about anything that might offer some relief. I will have to stand by my ritiual, I bet I have ran 50,000 gallons of water over my neck and shoulders in the last 20 years, sometimes it helps, sometimes not.
Thanks all,
Mark

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by cox3406 on Oct 10^th, 2002, 7:50pm

Star,
I have also noticed on the more severe HA chills, some severe, before the CH breaks. Hmmmmm......
PF for like 30 hours now, feel pretty good :)

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Charlie on Oct 10^th, 2002, 10:50pm

That was funny Bob. Still laughing. :) ;) :D ;D ::) 8)

I would think cooling your legs or feet would draw some circulation away from your head. That makes some sense to me. One guy stands barefoot on a cold floor. I read it in the guest book a year ago.

Charlie

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by marty on Oct 11^th, 2002, 3:51am

Hot showers does not help me but HOT coffee does - about two large 7-11 cups - be careful, it might blister your lips because, atleast for me, I have to drink it very fast -I think that the pain from drinking this "nasty" and extremely hot coffe gives me a distraction - Once I go past K-7, the coffee usually goes flying somewhere, so I have to start drinking (coffee that is ;D) when I feel the CH is on its way. Most of the time, it helps me - probably imagination, but that's OK...

Marty

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by cox3406 on Oct 11^th, 2002, 9:13am

You know Marty, you're right.
The showers might be imagination, I don't know.
I'd piss on a spark plug if I thought it would help, know what I mean?
48 hours PF, this dance might be over for a while. :)
Whew,
Mark

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by sonyjack on Oct 11^th, 2002, 9:53pm

Yes, I've been taking hot showers for 20 years. At least they give me something to do. They don't make it worse. They don't (really) make it better, but I like to pretend.
Sonny

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by marty on Oct 12^th, 2002, 2:53am

I have a feeling that most of us (all of us?) have a certain ritual that we follow religiously during an attack, atleast I do. So if it is drinking coffee or taking hot showers, sitting in a bathtub full of ice - it is my belief that it is not so much what you do, it is the mental support that you get from "your special ritual" - In my case, I "know" that most times, two large cups of coffee and I will start to feel better - pacing while drinking coffee, tears flowing :'( (usually my attacks lasts for 40 minutes) - therefore, the coffee becomes very important to me.

The pain is bad and we all have to deal with it, but we also find personal ways to deal with it mentally - whatever you do, it is the right thing for you to do - keep doing it, because you will need that mental handle to grab onto.

Marty

By the way, if you try the spark-plug thing - post a picture of it...

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by domm on Oct 12^th, 2002, 10:15am

Marty and others - here's a partial list of the ingredients in coffee. Your guess is as good as mine as to which one actually helps. I say partial list because the brewing process changes some of these into something else.

http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives/dec2001/1007419335.Ch.r.html

I have also seen a list of the chemicals they have found through GC mass spec of the vapor space above a cup of steaming coffee (although I can't find it right now), that listed about thirty different compounds. Half of them were known carcinogins, and listed as EHS (extremely hazardous substances) by the EPA.
Don't get me wrong, I love coffee. I drink about a pot a day. ;D And yes it helps me with the beast. Just not sure why. Is it the hot steam, or one of these compounds.? Wish someone would figure it out. It might lead to a new effective treament for CH.
PFDAN to you
domm

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Linda T on Oct 12^th, 2002, 6:30pm

Dear Mark: Seriously - hot showers have been my life line. I found that a hot shower can abort an attack in a couple of minutes if you can get in it fast enough. Sadly, this does not always work. During this past cycle the hot shower method failed me about 1/2 way through. But still, even though it didn't work, I stood in that hot shower anyway. Because, like marty says, it's that "special ritual" thing. I need something to do and that seems to be it.

Hope you're still PF and wishing you all PFDAN always, Linda T

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Mark C on Oct 13^th, 2002, 4:14am

What a diverse bunch we are. I love coffee. It is also one of the first things I STOP doing when an attack comes on. I will drink two pots a day when I am PF, none when dancing, yet when comparing symptoms I am textbook. I think some of this ritual is harboured because it is created in our own personal, private hell, alone, away, in the dark, and it is ours. Mine is. I had a Kip 4 today that lasted 40 minutes that I swear I knocked out with a shower, or maybe not! ;D
I did drink two cups of coffee this morning. :)
I love you folks.
Mark

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Marc on Oct 13^th, 2002, 9:19pm

Well, we are all different.

When I get hit, I can't seem to cool down. I absolutely crave cold. Ice packs are my friend! If there is a cold body of water nearby, (pool, lake, ocean) it's an even better friend!

Heat of any kind is my worst enemy during a CH. I think it's because my BP spikes up in response to the adrenalin that comes from the knowledge of the pain that is about to arrive............

But, it's probably just me.

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Mastifflvr28 on Oct 13^th, 2002, 9:30pm

Nope,
Ain't just you Marc,
Heat KILLS ME!!
I cannot take a warm bath whilst in cycle. Definate trigger. Also "after sex", trigger.
And my body's thermostat turns up sky high while under attack.
Cold is what I need.
Mast

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by oringkid on Oct 16^th, 2002, 11:09am

And just to round it all out, I use both! At the beginning of an attack, or for shadows, a hot shower is soothing and seems to take the pain away for the time I am in it. I will also use a heating pad on my face (pressing lightly towards the place between the eye and nose) at the very end of an attack. Again soothing. When the pain is becoming intense I put an icepack on the bottom of my feet. Sometimes this works to abort an attack in 5 minutes. If it doesn't then I get the other ice pack to rotate on head and neck.

Coffee? Definitely! Hot black coffee at the first sign will abort almost 40% of my HA's Course, when you do this at first sign, it could be that it was only shadowing, but it is part of my ritual.

Sherry

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by kim on Oct 19^th, 2002, 11:44am

Yet again, I am going "WOW". Sherry, me and you seem to have executed over and over the same habitual ritual!!!!

Hot vs. cold.....It continues ....Finally I told the doc about my dilema. The ganglion lump in my neck/shoulder seems to crave HEAT to alleviate that awful muscular cramp, yet at the same time the heat applied to my facial areas of pain seems only to AGGRAVATE....Finally, one neuro suggested heat to the neck/shoulder while COLD to the head pain. This is something i have applied over the years. Also, youguys, while in the hot tub i put my feet unde the HOT water and somehow, it provides a small sense of comfort during the actual attack. It is all simultaneous and what i refer to as "habitual ritual" During particularly difficult attack I fill the tub up with COLD water (after all else has failed) and dunk a towel in that ice cold water and hang it over my head. In conclusion, I can only tell ya that after years of this crap, I go into fast motion and do all these things in a frenzied effort to cut off the PAIN. Still.............it persists. I dunno. WHATEVER WORKS!

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by marty on Oct 22^nd, 2002, 1:02pm

I was just thinking....

It is a GOOD thing that that the non-CH'rs can't see us when we perform our rituals...

Someone might write one of those "cartoonish" and very funny books about us.

We sure are a special and "kind-of" proud bunch...

Title: Re: Shower till the hot water is gone?
Post by Melissa on Oct 22^nd, 2002, 6:31pm

First thing I do when I wake with an attack, is go turn on the coffee pot. Then it's on to the bathroom, where the I close the drain in the tub, and crank the shower as hot as I can bear it. Then I sit in the tub, with my head under the shower, rocking back and forth. When I've been waterlogged enough, I throw on a towel, and head to the kitchen to pour a big mug of coffee. After I've had about 2-3 mugs, inbetween my pacing and rocking, my HA has calmed down enough for me to try and lay on the couch with my hair still wet. Seems the combination of a very warm body, and cold wet hair is what finally helps to end my "session". Then I fall asleep and wake up 2 hours later for the next bout. ::) Of course, there are times when nothing ever seems to work, and all I'm thinking and moaning about is wanting to die, but hey, whatever takes the edge off, right? ;D