Hi everyone and thank you all! My name is Mark and have been suffering with CHs for 9 yrs now. My story is very much simular to most all of you. I have been misdiagnosed all this time so I did all the reasearch on the internet and presented this info on CHs to my GP and he didn't have a clue what to do. His ego and pride were threatend, he took a bad attitude with me. Well he FINALLY refered me to a nerologist and then Hallelujah he said I have CHs.So now I'm going through the Medical dog and pony show like MRIs an stress test so I can get imitrex injections. I have been waiting 2 weeks for my insurance company to approve oxygen, I guess they don't want to pay for this. I just finished up my second steroid "Methylprednisolone tabs" pack. I have 2 cycles per year, fall and spring.This cycle I am in now has been the longest and most painfull yet as they always seemed to end around the first week of December so I am waiting for "The Beast" to leave me. I guess I will learn all the CH lingo better while I am here! What a relief it is to know that I am not alone! Thank You Mark

Welcome mark. Nope your not alone. Sorry to hear about your insurance, that seems to happen alot around here. Keep reading you will learn so many new tricks now. I hope your cycle ends soon. Coach Bill

Hi, Mark!

Welcome to the loony bin family!

MANY of us have had the problem with the insurance companies paying for oxygen.  After all the years I have been using oxygen, I am back to fighting my insurance company (AGAIN) to pay for it.

If there is any way you can swing it, pay for it out of pocket, until the insurance company unlocks a small portion of their wallet, and starts paying for it.

You should not have to suffer, while they sit there picking their a$$ and scratching their nose!  If there is any way you can squeeze that into your budget, DO IT!  An "E" tank (the one you can carry around with you, in your car, or into your office at work) usually costs about $15.00 a fillup.  It is considerably cheaper than any other abortive medication!

Let us know how you are doing.  We CARE!!!

Chuck

Yeah Mark - what Chuck said. I don't even fool with the insurance on O2 - it's the cheapest thing out there. At $15 a tank - I don't even mind paying for it. It's cut out all the other stuff (I take ergotomine - or USED to - now I"m on O2 completely).

But I'm OLD and getting on Medicare in March so I think I'll let them pay for it after March.

Welcome to Clusterville and all the loonies here (Chuckles especially - we DO let him out of the "home" occasionally to talk about O2, but then he has to go straight back!). Read all the stuff here (that should take a few years) and go to the neuro armed! We're our own best advocates. You'll find that very little you say - someone hasn't been thru. We're here to HELP and SUPPORT.

Hugs BD