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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2004 >> newly diagnosed
        
(Message started by: charleyd on Jan 19^th, 2004, 2:26pm)

Title: newly diagnosed
Post by charleyd on Jan 19^th, 2004, 2:26pm

I've just been diagnosed with ch but have been suffering for a while, i have tried many different drugs but none have worked so far. I would like to try o2 but when I asked my doctor about it he just laughed it off has anyone got any idea's of how i can get him to listen to me

Title: Re: newly diagnosed
Post by Paigelle on Jan 19^th, 2004, 2:47pm

Charley,

Welcome to the club! Sorry you are suffering, but at least now you will have some shoulders to lean on, cry on and laugh with.

If you will just search through the site here and on the left you can find information that you can print and show your doctor. This should help him in understanding what might help you.

Good luck!

Title: Re: newly diagnosed
Post by pubgirl on Jan 19^th, 2004, 3:00pm

Hello Charley

Sorry Paige, but I have to say this when Brits post as GP's in the UK can be real gits about things they sniffily say are "from the Internet"

There are a couple of things you can do here which can affect GP's, Charley.
All GP's in the UK have a book called the BNF,( stands for British National Formulary I think). It is the tome they reach for to look up drugs etc.
Ask your GP to check the BNF entry (this year's ) for CH and it VERY clearly sets out the main treatments e.g. Imigran, 02, Verapimil etc. This was some achievement to get this entry in there right, and it really does make GP's take notice.

The second thing you can do is take along the article (the link is called Cluster Headache article) written by one of the world experts in the condition, Professor Peter Goadsby who is a Professor of Neurology, based at the London Institute. GP's tend to take notice of that too.

This can be found at the OUCH UK site (the British support group affiliated to the one here)

www.clusterheadaches.org.uk.

There is also a message board there, with some more great people like the ones here, who can really help you.

Hope to see you over there!

Wendy

P.S. We are having a get together of clusterheads in Liverpool in March if you can make that!

Title: Re: newly diagnosed
Post by beepbeep on Jan 19^th, 2004, 5:09pm

I have been dealing with these headaches for 2 years. I fired 2 doctors who said it was Trigeminal Neurigia. Found a new doctor that actual knows something, but he is like the rest; Practicing medicine. I am a chronic who gets 1 to 2 a day. I sometimes get a break of a day or two but that is it. I thought of growing them but its so confusing, and the thought of poisoning myself scares me. I'm willing to try it. There has to be an easier way to get these mushrooms. I would be very grateful of becoming episodic over chronic any day......

What are shadows? Is this almost like an almost headache? My headache feels like a red hot knife thru my eyeand stuck in a tree. It takes 45 minute to get off this tree and close to normal. It take a lot out of me. Some one help me. I am ready to take the punge into freedom.

Title: Re: newly diagnosed
Post by t_h_b on Jan 19^th, 2004, 5:22pm

A shadow is exactly like an "almost headache".

You may have all the symptoms of a full-blown attack, but to a lesser degree, probably without the stabbing burning eye pain. A shadow can last for days so it can still wear you out. I think it may be a little like a migraine (never had one of those), but we can deal with the shadows after putting up with the real CH.

Still think whoever named it a "shadow" is a genius.

Title: Re: newly diagnosed
Post by tommyD on Jan 19^th, 2004, 5:37pm

beepbeep -

Growing them isn’t supposed to be hard, and there are some experienced farmers around who can help you out. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them...I have the BLACK THUMB. Check out the www.clusterbusters.com for info on growing. and don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Charleyd, Wendy and other folks in the UK -

Shrooms are legal over there, as long as you don’t dry them, or otherwise process them. And now they are being sold over the counter legally at some smoke shops, herb shops, head shops etc. Mostly they are being imported fresh from the Netherlands. Enough to get good and high cost about 10 pounds, so I hear, but you should only take about a quarter to half that much for cluster treatment.

The OUCH-UK site is great, but there is no info on using shrooms or other indole ring hallucinogens...apparently the OUCH -UK board is worried about legality and liability.

Here’s a story from the Norwich Evening News. Mr. Price, quoted at the end of the story, is wrong though....drying shrooms does NOT cause a “cycle change” (whatever that is) to create a stronger “fully psychoactive drug:” All drying does is remove the water, so that you ingest about a tenth as much by weight for a similar effect. And if you make a tea from fresh shrooms, and avoid eating the fresh shrooms, nausea is usually not a problem.

Buy, don't dry legal mushroom loophole

January 8, 2004 12:22
A SHOP in Norwich has exploited a legal loophole to sell hallucinogenic magic mushrooms.

Head in the Clouds in Pottergate is legally selling fresh mushrooms of various strengths and said demand for them had been "phenomenal".

It is perfectly legal to sell the mushrooms if they are fresh. It is only once they have been dried-out or "altered by the hand of man" they become a class A drug.

Police today warned people would face jail if they dried the mushrooms out.

Drug action groups also urged the store to be responsible in who it sold the mushrooms to and the quantity they allowed them to buy.

The mushrooms are not addictive, but health experts warn overuse could lead to mental problems among vulnerable people.

Head in the Clouds are selling the mushrooms for as little as £10 for 20g, and a worker there said they had contacted the Home Office before putting them on sale.

"The Home Office said it was legal to sell fresh mushrooms as long as they were not dried or touched by the hand of man," said the female worker, who asked not to be named.

"As long as they are fresh they can be sold. It's been phenomenal. In the UK the consumption of mushrooms has overtaken Amsterdam and Germany."

The varieties on sale include Mexican, Cubensis and the stronger Philosopher's Stone type - a truffle which grows on the roots of normal mushrooms.

An undercover Evening News reporter bought £10 of Mexican mushrooms. Half of the quantity sold "should result in a "trip" of four to six hours, leading to uncontrollable giggling and colourful visuals".

Penny McVeigh, chief executive of alcohol and drug service Norcas, said: "They are selling this stuff for a particular reason and it seems to me they haven't thought to give people any advice on the taking of these substances.

"But it's a well established city shop that has been there for a long time so I'm sure they wouldn't do anything which would risk that."

But Head In The Clouds, which specialises in New Age products, said it was doing all it could to give people responsible advice, but admitted the mushrooms could be misused.

"There is a chance that people can to something with them that isn't legal," said the worker.

"We do give people advice, but there's only so many who will listen to you."

Steve Rolls, a spokesman for drug policy thinktank Transform, added: "All drugs are potentially dangerous, including magic mushrooms.

"The voluntary regulation we have is a step in the right direction, but what is required is a legal regulatory framework to ensure quality of product so people know how strong they are."

PC Richard Price, force drugs co-ordinator with Norfolk police, said there were only a handful of prosecutions each year for possession of magic mushrooms.

But he said people drying-out the fungus to create a more powerful hallucinogen were in possession of a class A drug - on a par with heroin or cocaine.

"Once the mushroom is dried out or cooked it goes through a cycle change," he said.

"The psilocybin (a chemical within the mushroom) then becomes fully psycho-active.

"When they are fresh you would probably vomit on the quantity eaten before you get any hallucinogenic experience. If you pick them and eat them it is legal and there's nothing the police can do about them."

Title: Re: newly diagnosed
Post by pubgirl on Jan 19^th, 2004, 7:15pm

Thanks guys for the information, am aware of legal situation in the UK and so are the trustees of OUCh UK. I also personally think that advice for new people should focus on the more traditional treatments first as well as mentioning mushrooms as an option.

I posted on this a few weeks ago (pasted below from the Guardian newspaper) if any Brit reading this wants easy access to shrooms. (Portobello Road in London may be easier than Norwich which isn't exactly the hub of the country- no offence people from Norfolk!)
I personally have no interest at present in the treatment and am happy with my 02 and Imigran!

Wendy
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Aztecs dubbed them "the flesh of the gods", Siberian shamans used them to enlighten their path to the spirit world, and they were the preserve of hippies and the pioneers of the psychedelic movement in the 1960s. But now magic mushrooms are at the centre of a new - and legal - retail boom.
On the Portobello Road, in Notting Hill, west London, a stall opened for business in August, openly advertising varieties of psychedelic fungi and growing kits for sale. Psyche Deli, the company behind it, now runs two similar market stalls elsewhere and supplies more than 30 shops across the country. The company estimates that its turnover and that of its competitors in London is running at 50kg (134lb) a week, the equivalent of 5,000 individual doses or five-hour "trips".

The consumption of hallucinogenic mushrooms is probably as old as human society. But the existence of the modern trade owes less to history and more to a curious loophole in British law.

When the directors of Psyche Deli decided to test the market for Psilocybe cubensis mushrooms in Britain, they were unsure how far the authorities would allow them to go.

Although psilocin and psilocybin, the psychoactive constituents of the mushrooms, are considered class A drugs under the 1971 Misuse of Drugs Act, the gathering and possession of fresh mushrooms has never been an offence in Britain. However, the courts have ruled that mushrooms that have been dried or "altered by the hand of man" do constitute a class A drug, as might mushrooms that have been frozen and packaged for sale.

Nevertheless, when the company checked with the Home Office last March it received a letter from a licensing officer saying it was "not illegal to sell or give away a freshly picked mushroom" or mushroom growing kits.

Psyche Deli promptly placed an order for mushrooms and terrariums with growers in Holland. It is not the only company thriving thanks to Britain's new-found fondness for fungi. Amolon, a Birmingham-based operation, has a burgeoning delivery and mail-order business that supplies customers across the country, while the Shroomshop, a collective of 20 UK growers, sends mushrooms direct to head-shops in the Midlands.

Like many operators, Psyche Deli is careful not to promote the mushrooms as hallucinogens, saying they are being sold for "ornamental" and "research purposes" only. The stall also carries a prominent sign prohibiting the sale of mushrooms to under-18s.