Posted by Graham (195.92.198.72) on October 01, 2000 at 12:58:44:
First of all I would like to apologise for the delay in posting an update. I was VERY busy last week at work and had some problems with my PC at home!
I did take a second dose of shrooms (slightly higher than the first) last Saturday night. You may remember that the first dose kept me cluster free for 2.5 days and reduced the number and frequency of attacks over the week; though I did shadow more than usual for a couple of days. However, the ‘full blown’ attacks that I did have were more painful than usual.
Now, I thought that the shadowing and increased pain in the few attacks I had was maybe due to the fact that I decided not to drink alcohol for the week after the initial dose. Before you all ask me why I drink when I am a chronic, the reasons are simple. Firstly, I like going out drinking with friends, and yes, it does usually bring on a strong cluster. However, as long as I carry on drinking after the attack I get 100% relief from clusters the next day. If I don’t drink for any length of time I get hit every single day (one nights drinking = 1 cluster free day!). Believe me, I have stopped drinking for several weeks on many occasions and the frequency of attacks ALWAYS increases significantly! Therefore, I use alcohol to control when and where I get many of my attacks. Anyway, to cut a long story short I decided to drink as normal (which is around two nights a week-but never in the day or with meals) after the second dose last Saturday (but not on treatment day).
The good news is that the frequency of my attacks has further reduced again this week, and in total Ive had 4 clusters. This is opposed to the twenty odd clusters I had in the week leading up to my first treatment. I also drank beer last Friday and did not even shadow! However, the bad news is that three of these four clusters were stronger than usual and two were an absolute nightmare.
1st cluster: Last Sunday night, Kip 9, 1.5 hours long and went to hospital for oxygen to abort it.
2nd cluster: Monday night, Kip 2-3, not even annoying, 20 minutes long.
3rd cluster: Wednesday night, Kip 10, my worst ever cluster (even considered knocking myself out due to the pain), 3.5 hours long, ALCOHOL INDUCED I THINK!
4th cluster: Last night, kip 8-9, awoke me from sleep and around one hour long.
From this, and my other posts, you may form your own conclusions. In my opinion I currently think that the shrooms have had a positive effect and that these strong attacks will subside. Perhaps they were the ‘Storm before the Calm’!
I must also admit that my sleeping patterns over the past two weeks have been anything from consistent. This usually causes problems as far as my clusters are concerned. So perhaps this and my recent week off the beer was the reason for the abnormal severity of the few attacks Ive had. Also, even though I am chronic my attacks are not consistant. There are times when I have a bad week or two in which the intensity and frequency of my attacks increases for no apparent reason. Perhaps these last two weeks were one of these times. There are so many variables!!!!!
I am not planning another treatment, as I now feel its time to sit back and wait to see was happens. I am going to continue to take Verapamil for the near future, but if I don’t get an attack for a significant amount of time I may reduce the dosage.
I will continue to keep you updated on my progress and please feel free to reply with any advice or opinion on my experience.
Take care everybody and best wishes,
G.