I am a doctor - an anaesthesiologist (consider the irony :( - I treat and relieve pain. Today its been a month since my diagnosis, and I had my first attack after 20 PFDs today, lasted almost 3 hours with brief periods of respite. Today was also another landmark in that i found this support group. I am on prednisolone, and verapamil. I had my first session of oxygen inhalation today, and although I felt better briefly after 10 mts of inhalation, it came back with a vengance. Can somone tell me how it works, and how long I have to breathe oxygen?

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Read this.

       Potter

Welcome to the board. The link Potter gave you has all the info you'll need for succesful aborts. The keys:

Pure 02 to the lungs, no outside air, no exhaled air. Best accomplished using a Non Re Breather Mask...(or if you can spring for it a demand valve...they ROCK!!!)...and a high flow regulator, minimum flow rate of 15 LPM, some see no relief until they hit 25 LPM or better.

Remember, the CH is NOT a function of low arterial 02 levels.....but hyper ventilating with pure 02 will abort the attacks.

Many of us are having luck with a regimen to alter your arterial PH, making you less succeptible to attacks:

Magnesium, Zinc, Calcium Citrate with Vitamin D, washed down with fresh lemonade, up to 4X a day. Got me through a tough patch on my last cycle.

Welcome to the board, sorry you drew the black marble but great to see more people in the medical field to help us get the word out.

Joe

Hi Apsara Nair,
Welcome to the board!
You have at your disposal here, a wealth of helpful information to give you comfort with this beast...
Your Knowledge and Experience will be Priceless here....

Respect

Gary

Hey Doc,

Welcome aboard.  You're a very special member not only for the training and skills you bring, but also as a credible voice within the medical community who will be able to speak with first hand knowledge and experience about what it's like being treated for our disorder.

We're not doctors here at CH.com.  Having said that, collectively we bring thousands of years experience in living with and being treating for CH.  Much of that knowledge has doubled in the last few years.  You can find it in the tabs at the left and also in the permanent "sticky" sections at the top of the first three fora.

One of the best guidelines and standards of care in treating our disorder can be found at the following link:

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Here you'll find the EFNS guidelines on the treatment of cluster headache and other trigeminal-autonomic cephalalgias.  The neurologists on the European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) task force who generated these recommendations number among the brightest minds in the field of neurology and all have many years in a clinical environment treating patients who suffer from this terribly painful disorder.

As an anaesthesiologist you're better prepared than most neurologists when it comes to respiratory physiology and hopefully, the use of oxygen therapy as an abortive for cluster headache. 

Many of us have found that oxygen therapy at flow rates that support hyperventilation is very safe and very effective in aborting our CH with exceptionally short abort times that rival that of sumatriptan injections, but without the invasive side effects.

Knowing we can abort our CH with this method of oxygen therapy gives us a sense of confidence that eliminates the anxiety and fear of the next attack. I've sent you a PM with some info on this method of oxygen therapy.

Again, welcome aboard.  We look forward to reading your posts as you come up to speed with the treatments and learning to live with cluster headache.

Take care,

V/R, Batch

I just want to add my greetings, doc. Please don't make this a one shot-get your answer-go deal. Stick around. We won't be looking for medical advice (I won't) so no worries there, but we would very much like to hear your story unfold. We struggle so much with the medical community it is frustrating at times. One sufferer just posted his (her?) doctor was googling CHs as the appointment began. You didn't mention the dosage levels of the pred and verapamil. As with O2, we seem to need much higher levels than is common for the label use of the meds. Pred tapers beginning as high as 100mgs/day for four to five days, and then slowly tapering from there...verapamil in doses as high as 960mg/day ( take 400mgs/day)...and O2 rates as high as 60lpm with hyperventilating technique. So share some more and keep us speed dial! Blessings. lance