I'm becoming concerned about my dh's CH pattern. We're on day 10 of the loading phase of the anti-inflammatory regimen. Unfortunately things are getting worse rather than better so far.

I'm trying understand if allergies can be a trigger for attacks - OR - the attacks are preceded with allergy-like symptoms that are part of the cluster symptoms. This is important because I need to make inconvenient but necessary changes if home allergens are triggers.

suspected home allergy triggers:
1. guinea pig cage (size of a small bed) in living room - includes hay, paper-based bedding and two animals. cage is cleaned and bedding is changed weekly, but I've noticed mold in damp areas anyway. Room is very well aired with open windows at this time of year.
2. bedroom: old carpet, old boxes of stored items. window always open.

pattern:

* attacks are almost always at home, in the evening/night
* that pattern also occurred at his previous home as well (where he had 4 dogs and a cat)
* most attacks seem to start in the living room or bedroom currently
* for example: last night he sat down in the living room at 7 PM, immediately started sneezing like crazy and half an hour later he had an attack
* the night before he hung out mostly in his home office and sat down in the living room at 9:00 PM, and the attack hit about half an hour after that
* when we went out of town for 4 days early in the cycle, his attacks continued, but he was having such bad allergies there (to airborne pollen?) that Reactine could not control them (area has different pollen profile than here)

I could board out the animals and move our bed to a non-carpeted room as an experiment. That would be very complicated because we live in an apartment so there are no "bonus" spaces (makes shifting things around a big project). I'd like some feedback before trying that.

I've not seen people mention things like allergies to cause CH.

The standard list of things which can trigger CH for people include alcohol, stress, over tired, solvents, dehydration and over heating. Some people have also linked food with nitrates too although this seems to be less common.

Plus there are CHs people get with no obvious trigger.

Thanks Mike. I think I might be at the "grasping at straws" stage.

Even if you are, good on you for doing all you can to try to make things better for him.

For the first 2 or 3 years that I had CH, and didn't know what it was or what to do about it, I saw several GPs and a few specialists too. I told them all that I only ever got this pain when I had a cold. This was because I always had a stuffed up, runny nose and watery eye, which of course are typical symptoms of a cold. More than one of them suggested it could also be hay fever as symptoms are very similar. I also worried about why I was catching so many colds.

Then I found out about CH and realised my symptoms are all part of it, and not a cold at all. In fact, if I think about it and remember correctly, I haven't actually had a cold in years.

If your husband is prone to allergies I would certainly consider it a possibility. I do understand how difficult it will be to move the animals though as our house is fairly small too and even when the boys wanted to swap bedrooms it was a major disruption.

Here's a thought, but you probably won't like it. Do you have family or friends nearby, who don't have animals. If your husband could stay with them for just a week, and the symptoms and CH eased off then at least you would know before you disrupt your home. Or could 2 of your children share a room, so you then have a spare room for the animals which would take them away from your husbands space. Not very good suggestions I know, just as you said, grasping at straws that you could experiment with.

Of course there is every chance the animals have nothing to do with it. The fact that your husband always gets his attacks at home is most likely the body clock/time of day thing. It's uncanny the way this thing in our heads can tell the time.
Maz.

Sneezles and CH are related and I'll never be talked out of it. Which causes which I don't know, perhaps they have a common cause, but they walk hand in hand in my life!

I've not one shred of evidence to back this up, but it's true.

True, TRUE, TRUE!!!!!

Maz and AussieBrian, interesting that you both have noticed that association between cold/allergy symptoms and the CH.

Maz, those are good ideas for experiments, but dh has nixed guinea pig moving experiments for now. He wouldn't be willing to stay elsewhere either - it would be too weird with the O2, etc. I'll wait and see if he suggests it himself.

Thanks for your thoughts.

I was just about to post this quesiton, but looks like you already did. A couple of hours ago i almost felt like i couldn't breath, like the air was stuffy, i had to go outside to calm down. I had already gotten shadows and the pain was mounting, so i used the oxygen. This helped but shortly after it started to come back again. I have been coughing in the apartment sometimes for what appeared to be no reason. Recently i was tested positive for allergy's to mold, trees (pollen), grass (pollen) and Dust mites. I am already "Immune" to the dust mites. After finding out of the mold allergy i noticed black mold growing on the ceiling of my bathroom, but im too afraid to clean it off because i am allergic to it. Thats when i got the idea to check out my HEPA air filter, i opened it up and i discovered it was very much due for a replacement filter. I popped the new one in and cranked it on high, within 1-2 minutes the air was already much better, the pressure went sometime around midnight and i feel better now. So yes i think allergy's can be triggers! For me it inflames the nasal passage ways (i think that happens to everyone, causing congestion, a lot of congestion!) and i think anything that inflames the sinus, or anything that is close to where the CH pain is located would be much more likely to give people a CH. I think you should get a HEPA air filter, clean up things as much as possible and he should get tested for allergy's. If he is allergic which it sounds like he should probably get the immunotherapy.

If you don't want to touch the ceiling mold you can spray it with bleach to kill it. If you leave it it will only grow more. And why is it there, a water leakfrom above?

Im guessing when we take showers it gets up there somehow, maybe from steam/mist. Mold is very common in wet places like the bathroom. My bathroom is also very small, when you open the door it hits the toilet and barely misses the sink and shower by a few inches. The fan is also full of dust (another one of my allergy's) and it turns out mold grows on dust (arg). I ordered a HEPA mask last night, so maybe if i wear that with long sleeves and rubber gloves i can clean stuff.

Hi Anon,

First off....what AussieBrian said IS TRUE...and I won't be talked out of it either.....

Now for more practical stuff.....For 29 years I was tormented by a 200 x 30 foot freezer wall that grew BLACK mold like it was duty...turns out the knuckleheads who built it put the vapor barrier in wrong.
Anyway, I'd hit it with steam, pressure washer (bad idea, spreads it everywhere), heat gun, chlorine solution, or quaternary ammonium (hospital style residual anti microbial)......none of em worked for more than a few months and it was back again taunting me.....

That's when I found Sporicidin (brand name)....it's what the professionals use after floods and hurricanes and such...and my last year at work I used to walk by that wall every day and smile like the fool I was...even the forklift drivers in the warehouse would smile and point....cuz that damn stuff is gone and it looks like the beautiful plain cement wall it was meant to be....

it's a 2 stage operation...first an enzymatic cleaner then a disinfectant solution to maintain. Much more benign to people than most other cleaners....a little on the pricey side (you won't care)...available at Amazon and specialty cleaning companies...a quart of each will do ya forever...and bytheby, I own nary a cent of stock or have any financial interest whatsoever...it just works!!!!

Best

Jon

Thanks for the tip, i just cleaned it today, if it grows back ill make the purchase :)

hi anon,
          cleaning wont do much about stopping it returning
a lot of factors contribute, but jon has got it right, good advice.  you clean what you can see, but you must kill the spores otherwise its   'ground hog day "

colin

I've read before, mould is a trigger for some folk, maybe
look into this being the cause.

Hoppy.

wrote on Oct 22^nd, 2014 at 3:27am:

hi anon,           cleaning wont do much about stopping it returning a lot of factors contribute, but jon has got it right, good advice.  you clean what you can see, but you must kill the spores otherwise its   'ground hog day " colin

I got this product at home depot Link: START PRINTPAGEMultimedia File Viewing and Clickable Links are available for Registered Members only!!  You need to or END PRINTPAGE

it was less then 10 bucks, says it will kill it and prevent its return, i sprayed it yesterday, today ill probably spray it again and then try to wipe it off with the mask, long sleeve shirt and goggles. If i can get the stain out of there it will be able to tell if it comes back or not. Ill try to post the results if it grows back (ill likely remember, i love this forum :) )

AussieBrian wrote on Aug 1^st, 2014 at 4:34am:

Sneezles and CH are related and I'll never be talked out of it. Which causes which I don't know, perhaps they have a common cause, but they walk hand in hand in my life! I've not one shred of evidence to back this up, but it's true. True, TRUE, TRUE!!!!!

I cannot scientifically back it up either, but I totally agree with you.