Posted by Ueli (195.162.170.208) on January 18, 2001 at 11:14:36:
In Reply to: Newbie seeks advice posted by Mark T on January 18, 2001 at 08:38:36:
Welcome to the family to which nobody wants to belong.
I hope you'll get some more responses and your post is not lost in the deluge of posts from this scam artist.
You did not say what pills your doctor gave you, but if they are some sort of pain killers, they will sooner do some damage to your liver and kidneys than abort an attack :-(
Very few GP's are knowledgeable on CH, and if possible you should try to get a referral to a good neurologist.
The fight against CH has two routes:
1) Prevention: Medication to prevent attacks altogether, or at least to diminish their frequency and/or severity. The first choice here is Verapamil (a calcium channel blocker), otherwise used for heart diseases. The trick here is to take a high enough dose, usually more than prescribed for heart conditions. From what I have learned from this board the useful dose is for most 360 mg / day or more. There are more preventatives, but with far worse side effects, so you should insist to try Verapamil first.
2) Abortives: For attacks breaking through the preventive barriers an effective abortive is needed. Many have great success with breathing pure oxygen at a high flow rate (7 - 10 liters/minute or more). The other successful abortive is Imitrex (Imigran in the UK), either as jabs or as nasal spray, the tablets are often to slow to kick in. Pain killers (including narcotics) usually are only helpful to count the minutes until they (supposedly) kick in.
Last, but not least, I recommend that you visit Simon's UKCH site, he knows the ropes with the NHS.
PFNAD's (Pain Free Nights And Days)
Ueli