Just wondering what peoples experiences have been on prednisone.  My doc has given me 100 mg and it has knocked out the day headaches, but I still get the 1 am one.   I have also read the when you taper the beast comes back.  I hope not.  Any thoughts?  O2 doesn't work for me.

Canes93,
Prednisone is a transitional med to be started at the same time as a preventive med such as Verapamil, Topomax, Lithium, etc.

The concept is that the transitional med is just that by definition.  Transitional is a temporary process between two processes.  Such as childhood is transitional between babyhood and adult.  Prednisone will typically provide relief to the CH sufferer by reducing the frequency (amount of daily attacks) and reduce the intensity (pain level) while on the higher side of the Prednisone taper.

Start high as you mentioned you are doing and over the transitional period of the taper (usually 2 weeks) you take less and less, as prescribed until you are no longer taking any Pred.

The preventive med usually takes about 2 weeks to build up therapeutic blood lvels in the body during ths transitional preiod.

So in a perfect world, the preventive med begins to take over, when the Pred leaves off.

It is common for the attacks to return when a CH'er reduces the Pred toward the end of the taper period. 

There are plenty of side effects of Prednisone that are not pleasant.  "To each their own."  Risk VS Reward!  This is a very personal decision you and your doctor should agree on before starting any medicine.

As for o2 not working for you....my guess is you are not using it properly.  There are plenty of threads about o2 therapy that should be of assistance to your learning how to provide relief for yourself with o2 therapy.  Start at the left side of your screen on a yellow tab titled Oxygen."  I'm curious if you don't mind sharing....

Do you have respiratory issues prohibiting your lungs from functioning 100%?

Do you have rib or spine injuries that are painful while using o2 therapy?

What size tank do you have? 

Are you using prescribed medical o2 or welders o2?


How high of a flow rate are you using? 

Are you using a Non-ReBreather (NRB) mask? 

When do you start o2 therapy, immediately at onset or several minutes into an attack?

Are you sitting, standing, laying down when using o2?

How many minutes do you breathe o2 before you determine it doesn't work?

Please share the speed of your inhales and exhales?

Before giving up on the least expensive, most effective and safe abortive treatment; do yourself a favor and read everything you can about o2 therapy again, ask more questions that are misunderstood and practice again on your next attack.  I am confident we can assist you with successful relief from o2 therapy.

-Gregg in Las Vegas

From my own personal situation, I found that taking the Pred at dinner worked MUCH better than taking it at any other time.  It knocked out my night time HA's pretty well and gave me time for my verapamil to build up in my system.

Brew wrote on Jan 16^th, 2012 at 4:00pm:


Yep, that is exactly how my neuro recommended taking Pred

I am currently on a pred taper, and i take all mine at lunch. I and on day 4 right now, will start the actual taper in two days. So far it's been the first PF day/nights in a really bad 30 day run i've been having since the Solstice. i'm chronic, and seem to have high attacks during winter. just got to be too much with only getting 2 hrs sleep a night, so dr put me on the pred to give me a few days breathing room while we try to figure something else out.

Here's to wishing PF days to you all.

-Matt