Well, after 10+ years of suffering from clusters, I've had a kip 10.  I guess I've only had kip 9's before.  I have never in my life felt such pain before.  My husband literally had to hold me down while half my body kind of seized (the cluster half) and I rocked back and forward.  We ended up going to the hospital as soon as I could move - and of course by the time we got there, I was ok.  They wanted to give me atavan and reglan in a drip, but I stay away from narcotics, so I declined, opting for the compazine and toradol instead.  That got me through the night without another hit.  I had been ramping up on topamax and verap (again) - and have another appt. with the neuro on the 29th to re-evaluate things. 

All this to say - wow.  I hope that *never* happens again.

Joshua - sorry you had to feel that one. Have you used O2 at all to abort CH?

I have used O2.  My tank was running in empty as it happens.  :(

They really suck! Don,t they

I know you said your o2 was running low, just wondering if it is effective for you on a regular basis?

All the best :)

To be honest I have never really used it enough.  I always freak out when they come on, even at home, and go right for the meds.  I obviously used the o2 enough to empty the big tank, but it was only when the meds ran out, and I guess yeah, it did work, but I can't remember how effectively.  It always feels like an eternity.  When I get a refill.. I will try to train myself up to use it first when I'm home.

Have you read the "oxygen info" on the left of this screen? You owe it to yourself and loved ones.

It takes some personal effort to get an O2 setup that supports hyperventilation. 99% of Doctors are not aware of modern CH O2 use. O2 suppliers are the same.

Getting the best mask and regulator is something we have to do ourselves. Doctors will only prescribe 15lpm, and this is very helpful but, to acheive hyperventalation many of us need higher flow rates. It works....

The info is here on this site, or if you can't find it we will help.

Don

K10 - Been there twice.

Not goin' for a hat trick.

Sorry I skipped the meaning of this post. I thought I had experienced Kip-10's for a few years before I actually had one. Our pain of CH is relative to what we have experienced.

What has been our worst CH pain is our K-10, if we have an even worse pain, it is now our new K-10.

Sorry to hear you've had something worse but my experience is K-10's are rare. praying the same for you.

Don

Never had one, don't fancy getting one either..!
Anything over a Kip 8 becomes a blur...

Suffering six kip 9's a day adds up to a kip 54.. :'(


Lefty..!

I had my first kip 10s last year. 3 bouts. This year because of my abuse of sumatriptans I went through a dozen kip 10s.

Here's what happens in my case:

Having been trough kip 8-9 for about 30 mins, adopting many stretching postures or softly banging my head on a wall, sometimes the beast seems to break lose and at that moment the pain seems to skyrocket for 30 mins to levels I would never have imagined were possible. I have only time to reach a cold shower and stay there screaming for 45-60 minutes.
I just scream as I don't know what else to do at that point. I couldn't scream louder if I wanted to. The screaming has the advantage of covering my thoughts which are always death related in these moments. I hang on to the knowledge that every attacks eventually goes away. I just stay there screaming to avoid reaching for the pills and taking them all at once as I view this as letting the beast win.

Sometimes I even started to laugh at some point when the level of pain is too ridiculously high to make any difference any longer.

When the pain subsides, I have a feeling that I have achieved a great victory.  8-)