Okay so this time I do have the o2, I do have the official label and access  to a headache clinic and drugs but essh. So far today has been [insert expletive of choice]

Just when I had begun to think Topamax was making the world a nicer place this morning arrived like a freight train so hallo O2, hot strong coffee and ice. Freaking weird shadowy things at 1030 that made me wonder if it was perhaps neuralgia around my eye.
12.30 convinced the world should end I had had enough scared poor husband silly. Tried using ice, heat, O2 pacing hitting head on floor.
Hubby turned up clutching ready loaded sumatriptain auto-injector over to use it on me; I was not exactly nice so he made a quick exit and I do not blame him.
My head hurt like a * and I could not make the mind leap to use the damned thing. Its still sat ready to go upstairs next to the O2 tanks.
So flaming fed up with myself. Head feeling like some bastard was ripping it apart from the inside out and I could not face using a small needle. If a dr or nurse had offered fine but DIY made me stall.

And I thought I could use the wretched thing and I bottled it. Ended up taking a sumatriptain tablet instead which has finally kicked in *thank God* but thats taken over an hour. I am knackered my eye still hurts and is still streaming and I feel such a pillock for not being able to manage to   make that mind leap. Hell I was even sitting there trying to think who I knew who was a trained nurse or doctor I could call and ask to come round and help as the GP is closed on sunday and knew if I used the out of hours service I would curl up and die to admit I had bottled it.
Did not want to go to A&E with take away drugs.

Ended up making an appointment to see my own GP tomorrow and ask for the sumatriptain nasal spray and ask how to get over this darn mental mind block and I am going to stuff it and use the OUCH UK helpline as the thought of being hit like that at Uni scares me silly although I may end up asking one of the docs who is on my course to stab me in class if need be if the alternative is behaving like a deranged howling banshee.
Darn it I should  be able to do this myself.

[smiley=hug.gif]

Sorry your day has been so bad.  I feel for you my clustersister.

Initially I had that dread of the needle.  I got past it pretty quick once I saw how fast it worked.

Any chance your hubby would be willing to do it for you?  He seems like he's willing to do what he can.  Ask him about it when you are NOT IN PAIN...

Give him a hug for taking such good care of you.

Good luck...

-Dennis-

A nurse, Dr. or someone who knows how to do this can show your Husband in less than 10 mins.  He can practice on an orange with a syringe with water in it. .   OR....you can get the auto-inject.  FAR easier than the syringe and vials.   Imitrex pills take far too long.  Why be in pain longer than necessary?

P.S.  [quote][I had begun to think Topamax was making the world a nicer place /quote]   For those of us who have been on Topomax....that there is FUNNY.  :D

:-[ It was the auto-inject ........even worse I trained to use an epipen on my son and can do that easily that is why I did not think I would have any problems.
I know your are right about the pain that is why I cannot believe I got into such a flipping mess and ended up throwing it across the room.

Thanks Dennis, I know once I get this through my head it will be fine its that initial getting it through your head and doing it yourself I have to 'get'. Damn it I even took part in the secondary trials for this drug before it came out and I am still being angsty over swaping from rizatriptain which works so well for migraine to sumatriptain for CH [smiley=worried.gif]

I have thanked my hubby but he sensibly remembered the advice he was given by the headache clinics nurse - if she is in a lot of pain and you suggest something she does not like - just run or it is you we will end up seeing in casulty. he has not forgotten the time he offered me his hand to bite once when it hurt and he needed his hand dressed and stiches afterwards. :-X

Maybe the thing to do, is when you THINK you are due to have a hit, before it starts, have your husband "help" you take the shot.

YOU take it in your hand, in the position to administer it, and then have hubby put HIS hand over yours, and then with his help (and maybe force), give yourself the shot, with his hand helping/guiding you.

I say to do it when you think you might be due for a hit, so that you do it while you are not in pain, and in a more receptive frame of mind.  (We don't want to hear of another "stitches required" episode!  LOL)  It may end up wasting a shot, but it may be worth it, if, with his guidance, you get over the fear of it.

Just a suggestion ...

Chuck

Took the auto-injector with me as I thought if I got the GP to show me how to use the wretched thing that would help. Nice GP tried to use the same auto injector pen - the thing backfired the injection at her. When she took it to pieces to look at it it looks like I was lucky enough to have had a duff 'pen' part. I have a new presecription for new injections and pen. Poor soul was horrified at how awful I looked with just the start of shadows for the 11am special and could understand why she had had so many people tell her about the sick person in the waiting room. Compared to how I was yesterday I looked a hell of a lot better too ::) the thing was only nudging a 5! I can now re-order any drug I think helps.

I now have the nasal version and discovered a new reason for drinking red bull ;) Absolutely delighted -that stuff works for me in 10-15 minutes but the after taste was truly nasty. I thought I was going to kiss the rest of today goodbye again to pain as I did yesterday but I am now sitting drinking tea an hour after using the drug. :)
Called the headache clinics nurse asking for help with learning how to use the auto-injectors. In the UK they produce 'blanks' you can practice with so you can get the hang of using the system on auto-pilot for when you need to be able to use the drug with a bad head. If the sumatriptian works that well in a nasal spray if I can manage the injectors that will give me something to hit the nasties that climb to 8-9s at the end of each cycle.

Chuck I will give that a try with the blanks when I get them; when it hurts a lot for a long time I end up not being a nice person to be around and I for one do not blame my family for leaving me to it. Some days the rotten pain wins.  

Sorry to hear what a bad time you are having. I must say I can understand how you feel. Been a suffer for 2 yrs now and about a month agao had a nerve block done which has lasted for an amazing pain free 4 weeks but it wore off a few days agao and started to have attacks, its strange after just a month brake how much of a COWARD I had become as when I had the first attack I couldnt face the injection, I was banging my head with the pain and I still couldnt inject myself! Finaly I did it and I was right it does bloody hurt injecting myself and how I forgot with just 1 month brake, stuip isnt it the CH is just off the scale pain and I was worried about a neadle!

Good luck and hope you get sorted and find the care of a good nuro

Not so dumb.......I despise needles and still look like a spaz trying to give myself the stat pen shot of imitrex! But WOW...amazing how fast it chases the beast away. Hang in there.

Joe

Katie,

What flow rate are you using with your oxygen therapy?

Good luck with needle fever....

Take care,

V/R, Batch

Val at OUCH UK has sent me a nice full colour guide on how to use and reload the 'pen. When I spoke to her on the phone she quickly worked out I had been given a euro version rather than UK specific.

So glad she did today has been a little slice of hell and I hope I never have another hit like that in a lecture again and that I have enough O2 left to last ill they re-deliver on Friday, wretched thing has ramped up to 4 a day with the ones at 11.15am and 11.10pm turning into things to dread so I am now hanging on to the sumatriptian for those like its a kids cuddly teddybear.
I think I have hit the point of this cycle where I am too darn tired to want to keep coping, so tired I want to sleep but know that if I do thats waiting. I need to get another repeat prescription for sumatriptain and order more O2 before the weekend and I can NOT get my SiL to understand a nice meal out saturday evening is not something I have the energy to face. This thing sucketh.

Katie wrote on Mar 8^th, 2009 at 1:11pm:

I have thanked my hubby but he sensibly remembered the advice he was given by the headache clinics nurse - if she is in a lot of pain and you suggest something she does not like - just run or it is you we will end up seeing in casulty. he has not forgotten the time he offered me his hand to bite once when it hurt and he needed his hand dressed and stiches afterwards. :-X

When we had to evacuate from hurricane Gustav, my Aunt, Boyfriend, and I were all tuck in a tiny car. Gasoline is a huge trigger for me, so I was getting hit pretty often during the evacuation...

At some point, I wound up biting down on his shoulder and gnawing. He didn't offer, but he didn't say anything because he assumed I must be in pretty severe pain. The next day I saw him looking at his shoulder and he had a HUGE nasty bruise and I was like "What the hell happened to your shoulder?"

"YOU!"
"What?"
"You don't remember?! You started gnawing on me during a cluster in the car. I figured you must have needed this so I didn't say anything."

Moral: Don't sit near a clusterhead in a cramped car. It may lead to injury.

I've had the injections for over a year now and still feel like you do now.  If my partner is home I make him inject me.  He hates doing it as they always sting and he says it feels wrong but knows the benefit.  But if I'm home alone I lie with a loaded needle hovering above my leg willing myself to do it!  Eventually the pain of the CH makes me do it. Thye only advice I can give you is to get your other half to do it, the more jabs you get under your belt, the more you realise how quickly they work and you'll be begging him to inject you...well maybe not...but you won't hesitate so much.  Good luck xxx

Unfortunately my evening hit comes right in the middle of my Japanese evening class on mondays so I had to get out of the class sharpish mid lesson and dash into the toilets to do my 1st injection. It was pretty easy but sure is a painful needle! Decided I dont like autoinjectors lol! I've injected myself with heparin in the past no problem at all, little needle and syringe, easier if you can do it gently I think. The autoinjector just felt a bit brutal, but I know what it feels like now so thats ok.

But, I WAS back in my class 10 minutes later, albeit with a slightly foggy head (the injection kicked in between 5-10 mins - I am so impressed)

Still prefer the nasal spray to the injector unless the pain is greater than my thing about needles but then the spray does not make me throw up as it did to you.

So glad it worked as well as it did and you could get back up and running in life so fast.