Hi,

Being in the UK, I placed an O2 "HOOF" Application via my "Locum" GP about 2 months ago.

Today I received the following response from the locum GP:

"I have now received a reply from the oxygen assesment clinic following my referral to them to assess your sutiability for oxygen therapy.  Unfortunately they feel you are not suitable for oxygen therapy, and it is due to the fact that you continue to smoke"

I am presently on 480mg Verapamil and 200 mg Tegretol which mostly manages the beast, however now and again I have to inject with sumitriptan which gives me horrible side effects, hence the 02 application.

Do you think that this is the end of the matter or could I pursue further.....

O2 issue is best taken to OUCH/UK. You need someone with experience dealing with your health care system.

What are the side effects of sumitri. ? Wonder if the use half dose approach (see buttons, left) might be worth a try. Several people here use with success. And there are other triptans to try.
---------

Headache. 2005 Sep;45(8):1069-72.

Treatment of Cluster Headache Attacks With Less Than 6 mg Subcutaneous Sumatriptan.

Gregor N, Schlesiger C, Akova-Ozturk E, Kraemer C, Husstedt IW, Evers S.

Background.-Subcutaneous (SQ) sumatriptan 6 mg is effective in the treatment of acute cluster headache attacks. However, patients sometimes benefit from a dose less than 6 mg. Objective.-Therefore, we designed a prospective open study to evaluate how many patients benefit from a dose less than 6 mg SQ sumatriptan. Methods.-We enrolled 81 consecutive patients with cluster headache and recorded their use of SQ sumatriptan and oxygen. Patients regularly using SQ sumatriptan 6 mg were advised to treat attacks with doses less than 6 mg and with oxygen. Efficacy and side effects of the different treatment options (6 mg, 3 mg, 2 mg, and oxygen) were evaluated. Results.-As a result, 74% of the patients using SQ sumatriptan 3 mg showed efficacy and 89% reported efficacy after 2 mg. Seventy-nine percent reported side effects after the use of SQ sumatriptan 6 mg (29% severe side effects). After the use of 2 mg SQ sumatriptan, only 50% of the patients reported side effects, none of these were classified as severe. Patients' preference was 41% for 6 mg sumatriptan, 28% for doses less than 6 mg, and 31% for oxygen. Conclusions.-We conclude that sumatriptan in doses less than 6 mg can be effective in the acute treatment of cluster headache attacks. We suggest that patients should have experience in their individual efficacy of sumatriptan doses less than 6 mg. (Headache 2005;45:1069-1072).

PMID: 16109122 

"Whoops. Did I check the box that says I smoke? Silly me. I meant to say I don't smoke. Sorry for the confusion."

Brew wrote on Aug 23^rd, 2009 at 7:51am:

"Whoops. Did I check the box that says I smoke? Silly me. I meant to say I don't smoke. Sorry for the confusion."

Now we're playing the system!  8-)

I don't think anyone asks of you smoke when buying welding oxygen.

In this country, they are indeed the identical product coming off of the same production process.