Does this mean a big one is coming soon? Havent had a Kip 9 or ten in about 7 or 8 months but i have been getting lots of shadows lately. Does that mean a big one is coming soon? I am getting nervous.

Not necessarily Bonnie.  After being 24 years chronic, my shadows were there in between hits.  Then I was PF for a year and started suffering more and more shadows than ever before.   Now I'm getting hit every once and a while and still the shadows continue.

There really is no correlation between what shadows are and whether your cycle is ending or starting so I would advise you to do what we  'old-timers' here tell everyone.  When you are out of cycle...stock up every month  on all your meds and oxygen.  Put them in a safe place, and then forget them.  Live your life.  Do NOT allow  CH to define how you live your life.  When it is apparent that you are back in cycle...bring out the meds, 02 and go to war. 

Energy drinks and some stiff caffeine shooters (espresso) seem to work on shadows as well as anything else.

Linda

Thanks Linda. Sometimes it's hard not to let it consume your life. It doesn't matter if the pain was 8 months ago it was so bad that it still scares me every day that it will return. Got a long drive to Arizona from Virginia coming up in a month. Will be driving myself but will be following my husband in his car. Just freaking out a little I guess. Don't want anything happening on the trip either.

What Linda said, BonnieLee. Stock up, be prepared. The beast is an unwelcome guest throughout our life, and while we'd rather he not show up, he comes at the least opportune moments. Have your O2 and abortives with you in the car in easy reach, and have a prearranged means of contacting your husband in the lead car in case you need to pull over. Daunting but you can do it! blessings. lance

I have been finding high dose soluble aspirin to be useful for shadows ranging up to around a kip 4. My doctor suggested trying 900mg aspirin (aspirin comes as 300mg per tablet here in Australia). I was a bit skeptical since I hadn't had any success with various pain killers. However this has proved to be useful for me. For really minor ones I just take 600 mg, stronger ones 900mg. Generally I get complete relief within 20 - 30 mins.

If I don't have to do anything of importance I often just ride out the minor ones without taking anything. But if I have to go out, or go to work etc I figure it is best to get rid of them so I take the aspirin.

While aspirin can have side effects, particularly gastrointestinal irritation, it has never caused me any problems personally. I feel better about taking it than some other pain killers since aspirin does have some health benefits (eg decreased risk of heart attack, stroke, bowel cancer). Nevertheless I generally try to stick to no more than two doses per day if possible.

cannula..02...6 to 8 lpm...shadow be gone.
tachead

I'm with Tac, I use full flow from a demand valve for shadows. For me, a shadow is just a full blown attack that's being lazy! I zap them fairly quick with the 02.

Joe

I have been using the energy drinks or energy strips and it seems to help. I was right though it did turn into a kip 6 or 7 I had weird feeling it would after awhile,
After that no more shadows and no other bad episodes so far.