This year my oxygen providers have stopped offering it.  I may be able to get a tank with a concentrator and a lot of other useless stuff for a lot of money, but the former providers who rented me a tank and topped it off periodically are saying that since cluster headache "is not a respiratory condition" they won't help.  I live on the Monterey Peninsula and spend part of the week in Silicon Valley.  Can I use welding oxygen, or does it need to be medical oxygen.  Oxygen works for me, so I am pretty upset about this, not to mention that the people they hire at outfits like Apria Healthcare are very unpleasant to deal with.

Welding oxygen is just the same, kiritz, and used by many CHeads. Also, at the top of the Medications Board above this thread is one called Help In Getting Oxygen.

Good luck, and let us know how you're getting on.

Hey Kiritz,

You can thank obozocare and the nanny state, liberal progressive bureaucrats at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for your problem.  I threw down on them once, got bloodied, then joined forces with the American Headache Society in 2010 in another effort to overturn their non-coverage determination on oxygen therapy for CH'ers on Medicare. 

I tried to warn the AHS team working the coverage determination effort, that the bureaucrats at CMS didn't respond to prevailing practice, standards of care Level A recommended treatments or Type I medical evidence from gold standard RCTs as to the efficacy and safety of oxygen therapy as an abortive for CH...  They didn't listen...

The idiot bureaucrats at CMS, (none of whom are physicians and I suspect some are on the take from the big medical insurance companies), make up their own rules, and interpret results from gold standard RCTs to meet their warped political agenda... in order to deny coverage for oxygen therapy for Medicare beneficiaries with CH... but it gets worse as you've already noted...

Thanks to obozocare, these same idiots are now forcing their non-coverage determination for oxygen therapy on all CH'ers obtaining medical insurance through obozocare state exchanges... not just Medicare beneficiaries.

Elections have consequences...  The only way out of this mess is to vote the pinko-commie social progressives who did this to us out of office and repeal obozocare.

In the mean time, your story is you want to take up oxy-acetylene welding as a new hobby...  Lots of CH'ers have been doing this for years... but they never tell the welding supply company what they really plan to do with it...  Once you buy the first O2 cylinder (I suggest an M-Size or larger) or make a deposit to cover its cost (~ $230), you turn in empty O2 cylinders and pick up a freshly charged cylinder.

The cost of an M-Size refill will run $28.50, plus a $5.69 Hazardous Material Charge and State Tax... $2.95 here in Washington State for a grand total of $37.04 cash and carry.

You'll also need a cylinder caddy cart - $40

At this point with the M-size O2 cylinder and caddy cart in hand you've got a few options.

1. Buy a Welder's O2 regulator - $35-$50... and you're good to go if you've got a ClusterO2 kit from here at the ch.com store at the left.   Welding regulators regulate the output pressure so there's no flow rate...  You just keep increasing the output pressure until you reach a comfortable flow rate you can use without overfilling the reservoir bag on the ClusterO2 kit.

2. Buy a 0-25 liter/minute oxygen regulator with a CGA-540 connector from over the Internet and connect directly to the M-Size O2 cylinder.

3. Buy an M60 medical oxygen cylinder a transfiller adapter CGA-540 to CGA-540 to refill the aluminum M60 from the welder's M-size O2 cylinder, and a 0-25 liter/minute regulator with barb fitting.

The M60 shown below will cost $159.50 plus tax and shipping at the following link,

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Yes, welding oxygen is just as safe as medical oxygen.  It usually comes from the same distillation plant, shipped in the same LOX truck, and stored at the refill facility in the same LOX tank...

Hope this helps...

Take care,

V/R, Batch

Three cheers for Batch!  I now have welder's oxygen and am getting a transfiller to fill my small e tanks I need when traveling.  I also have a demand valve and a 0-60 lpm regulator with a DISS valve for the demand valve.  So far I have found higher flows (around 25 lpm) seem to be helping so I am taking advantage of the nipple rather than using the DV.  In addition I am taking a host of Batch's recommended vitamins.  Yesterday I had an occipital nerve block.  My cycle has gone on for almost four weeks with at least 3 attacks a day.  2 shots of imitrex daily is expensive.  We all have an amazing resource here in Batch...I'll keep y'all posted.

When you step into the world of trans-fill rigs, be very, very sure that you have learned all of the basic precautions.

Oxygen in general should always be used/handled with basic precautions. Oxygen at very high pressure will do some dangerous things that are not obvious or readily intuitive - even to very experienced people.

I have been filling my own tanks for many years and have never had a problem of any kind. But, I did my homework because I knew that I was stepping outside of the box.

Marc

I'm thinking about taking up welding ;) I had welding class in high school so I don't need a course on welding ;) ;)
I know the O2 used in welding comes from is the same as medical O2 and comes from the same facility in the same vessel... but what about the tanks/cylinders you get from a weld and/or gas supplier? Should there be any concern with cross contamination from what may have previously been in the cylinder, or other contaminants that may come from the cylinder being used in a 'shop' environment? (oils, dirt, dust, rust, etc.?)   

CHaStever wrote on Jun 16^th, 2015 at 5:02pm:

I'm thinking about taking up welding ;) I had welding class in high school so I don't need a course on welding ;) ;) I know the O2 used in welding comes from is the same as medical O2 and comes from the same facility in the same vessel... but what about the tanks/cylinders you get from a weld and/or gas supplier? Should there be any concern with cross contamination from what may have previously been in the cylinder, or other contaminants that may come from the cylinder being used in a 'shop' environment? (oils, dirt, dust, rust, etc.?)

  It's the same stuff.  Don't overthink it just get it.

               Potter

Hi kiritz
Those shots can be split if you have the right kind. Half a shot is enough to kill off a CH - save the other half in a diabetic syringe. Google "cluster headache splitting injections". There is a guy wearing a cap on you tube showing you what to do.

Try to get some when you are not in cycle. Not only will you be well prepared but it helps to spread the cost.