Hey Jamie,

Welcome to CH.com.  You've come to the right place.  We've a few double-headers around here who also suffer from both CH and migraines...  some even experience them heal and toe like you...  so you're not alone...

The lidocaine drip, as you've likely found out from your reading, has mixed results when it comes to effectiveness in stopping or blocking a CH...  The biggest problem is hanging nearly upside down to get the lidocaine drip to land on your sphenopalatine ganglion at the back of your nasal cavity.

It's that little thing you've never seen... but you've likely felt it start to sting slightly in the back of your nasal cavity just before you sneeze.

It's the only nerve ganglion located outside the brain cavity of your skull.  It's also connected directly to a branch of the trigeminal nerve and it's the trigeminal nerves that ignite the pain of a cluster headache.

The thinking behind using lidocaine to block the sphenopalatine ganglion is the block can spread back up the link to the trigeminal ganglion and hopefully stop a cluster headache.

In theory it sounds plausible, but in reality... it's not all that effective done at home...

I tried it for nearly a week on every CH...  All I managed to do was put my nose and olfactory nerve to sleep to the point I couldn't smell anything or feel my nose run...  It didn't stop or block my CH...

You've far better off using oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation to abort your CH...  and migraines...

Yes, I know there have been several RCTs assessing the effectiveness of oxygen therapy as an abortive for migraine and all of them concluded that oxygen therapy was ineffective.

I also know that these RCTs used an oxygen flow rate of 7-9 liters/minute...  An oxygen flow rate that low is only partially effective as an abortive for CH and clearly ineffective for migraines.

What does work to abort both CH and migraine is oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation...  25 to 40 liters/minute.

I know that may sound spooky, but as a Navy fighter pilot with over 3,000 hours in jet aircraft and breathing 100% oxygen from takeoff to landing on every flight... It's no biggie... 

I never passed out from sucking oxygen that long and I could suck it down at flow rates greater than 40 liters/minute during air combat maneuvering where we pulled in excess of 6 to 7 G several times during engagements lasting up to five minutes...  That's a tough physical workout that leaves you panting like a big dog,,,

Even after all that, I always brought the jets back in one piece for a safe landing aboard ship...  Well... there may have been an infrequent hole or two from enemy ground fire or a few popped rivets from too many Gs... but the jets were always in one piece.

I also used this method of oxygen therapy for nearly five years several times a day as it was my only method of controlling my CH after I turned chronic...  I'm still here at 67 and ornery as ever...

The bottom line is this method of oxygen therapy is very safe...  Even our astronauts breathe 100% oxygen during suited operations...  None of them have ever passed out and drifted off the Space Shuttle, ISS or Hubble from breathing too much oxygen and neither will you.

The most recent news is both of these headache disorders appear to be related to a vitamin D3 deficiency and taking ≥10,000 IU/day vitamin D3 is proving to be an effective preventative for both types of headaches.

The following link will take you to the most recent posts about the anti-inflammatory regimen.

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When you get to the bottom of each page, just click on the preceding page number at the lower left to work your way back in time.  You'll find answers to most of the frequently asked questions as you brows back through this thread.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch