I am a chronic sufferer.  Come February I will have been in cycle 4 years.  I have constant shadows and 5-6 hits per day.  Usually a 5-6 on the kip scale.  Thankfully I have only had about 5 or six kip 10's in the past four years.  Doctor has prescribed 2400mg Neurontin per day, 1800mg Lithium per day, Imitrex injections as needed.  O2 tank (it works about 40-50% of the time.  I'm starting to feel like a walking zombie.  The latest thing we are trying is a 5% Lidocaine spray.  I've tried it twice so far and it numbs the pain down a notch or two but only lasts for about 30 minutes.  Most of my spikes are small (30 minutes to an hour) but I have a nasty one at night that lasts 2 1/2 to 3 hours.  Anyone had any better results?  4 years chronic is beginning to wear me down.  :(

To answer your question: No. I tried Lidocaine in both 15% and 20% solutions and it only had very minor impact - not worth the effort.

Additional comments:
- Neurontin at over 4,000 mg didn't do a thing for me.

- Verapamil regular release (not SR) at 480mg+ works very, very well for me. For chronics like us, the combination of Verapamil and Lithium is often a great treatment program.

- Oxygen used at very high flow rates with the proper mask lets me abort virtually every attack in 3-6 minutes without ever being in real pain. For ME, the O2 flow rate needs to be 25 lpm or more. 15 lpm or less is worthless for ME.

I am really serious when I say that oxygen at 45 lpm has given me my life back. It's nothing short of a miracle, so I'm never more than a feet from a tank.

Marc

Never did much at all for me (although it's been many years since I used it).

If I recall correctly, there was talk some time ago that HOW it's administered makes a difference.  Simply squirting it up your nose while in a sitting position is allegedly less effective than lying down with your head tilted back.

Perhaps someone with experience can add something useful to this.

Best wishes,

George 

I tried Lidocaine in the mid 80's. Lay back with your head hanging off the bed, squirted into the nostril same side as the CH. Would back a hit down maybe 1-3 notches. Side effect was I always vomited it back up!

Now my armor is 1200 mg of lithium a day while on cycle, Oxygen for the hits.

Joe

Used it during a cluster 10-15 years ago.  Didn't do much for me.

Lidocaine didn't do a thing for Gary.  That said - nothing has.  At least it had very minor side affects (numbing part of his face) vs. the others that came close to killing him.

Be celebrating 3 years with not one minute of pain relief in January, four years of chronic clusters in March.  He's worn down.

Hope you can hang in there and find something that helps.  Please make sure you're using the 02 efficiently, as how you use it can make a big difference, and the folks here have great insight into this.  Hasn't helped Gary, but it may help you.  Sure hope so.

It put my throat to sleep, woke the head up.

Right now my regimen is about 1900mg of Kudzu/day and O2 to kill the leakers.  Never tried Neurontin.  Didn't like the side effects and wouldn't try it after what Dopeykote and Dopeymax did to me.  Used Verap for a while.  780mg a day if I remember right.  Added Lithium at 480mg.  Bad side effects and walked around like a zombie with no interest in life at all.  Still have some of the side effects after 4 yrs away from it. 

Right now O2 at 25lpm works for me within 5-8 mins, and doesn't leave me dopey.

Jerry

Perhaps it works better to use lidocaine as nose drops, not as spray. Please see:

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pf wishes,
Friedrich