Posted by DR (141.214.74.47) on January 12, 2000 at 16:30:36:
In Reply to: In pain as we speak!! posted by Angry Scientist on January 12, 2000 at 12:43:38:
Hi Angry Scientist,
I'm a scientist too, and during this last cluster (which ended just before Christmas for me, I'm happy to say) I used oxygen for the first time and it worked great.
I used a relatively high flow rate (at least 10 L/min) and started as soon as I felt it coming on. After about 2 or 3 minutes, the pain was greatly reduced, and if you stick with it, for at least 15 to 20 minutes, completely aborted the headache. Personally I had best results standing while breathing the oxygen. Take long deep breaths and stick with it. While I was breathing it, if I moved my eyes around, I could still feel a dull sensation at the back of the eye. Once your eye feels totally normal, probably the headache has aborted and it's OK to stop.
Anyway, that was my limited experience with oxygen, others here have quite a bit more, I'm sure. But, I didn't use any other meds the entire cycle, and knowing the O2 was there made a huge difference.
Good luck,
DR
p.s. I should mention that I skipped the breathing mask, I just took some Tygon tubing and attached it to the output of the regulator and directly sucked the O2 into my lungs, exhaling through my nose...... maybe "bad form" (bad for the lungs?)... but, hey, it worked great.