Posted by gary (209.187.113.167) on November 29, 1999 at 17:10:29:
In Reply to: chamber pressure posted by glenn on November 29, 1999 at 12:01:13:
in glenn's example, I suspect the oxygen used in the chamber had more to do with the relief than the pressure
hyper = excess
"bar"ic = atmospheric pressure (as in "bar"ometer)
it COULD help I suppose - but I think the O2 is the major agent of relief
I find the pure o2 inhalation therapy VERY effective BUT 3 things seem to be close to "absolute":
must start on the O2 at the VERY FIRST twinge of an impending attack - wait til pain starts and it often doesn't work
must stay on the O2 until the attack has FULLY cleared - or it immediately resumes
must be PURE oxygen at a relatively HIGH flow rate (8-10 liters/minute) inhaled in such a way that you inhale ONLY the oxygen (usually through a nonrebreather type bag mask)
(low flow, nasal cannulas, oxygen concentrator machines, other types of masks don't work - according to the overwhelming experience of 100s of folks who have discussed it on CHMB over the last couple years)
if you go a while (say an hour or more) after O2 before the attack "comes back" I believe it's a whole other attack - a discrete event - NOT a resumption
for me I'm on the O2 anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes total, each attack, guided by the "cues" mentioned above
in last fully developed cluster, I used the pure O2 for the last 8 weeks and got 100% relief from each attack that I started in time (about 40-50 attacks) -
I procrastinated a couple times, until it began to truly hurt and then it didn't work (but may have reduced the intensity - that's almost impossible to tell)