Hey everybody.  Let me start by saying I am a clusterhead since around 1989.  For the past 6yrs or so I have been in recovery, no headaches.  This site saved my life. Thanks to all the great people out there who keep this site going.

A friend of mine in the Dallas area said she was recently diagnosed with clusters, got a script for o2, but can not get a tank filled??  Something to do with insurance companies. Can someone give me a lead on getting a tank filled in Dallas?

Many thanks. 

Hey Mike,

Trying to get medical insurance companies to cover oxygen therapy as an abortive for cluster headache was always a problem for a lot of CH'ers...  Now that obamacare has become law... Many CH'ers are finding insurance coverage for home oxygen therapy is nearly impossible.

There are three options.  Have your friend find a home oxygen provider, there are several in the greater Dallas area, order an M-size oxygen cylinder and pay cash... This works every time as long as you have an Rx.  There's usually a refundable deposit and $30 per refill.  M-size oxygen cylinders hold 3995 liters of oxygen good for 20 to 30 aborts at 15 to 25 liters/minute and have the best bang for the buck on refills...  The E-size oxygen cylinders cost ~$20 per refill but only hold 705 liters of oxygen good for 3 aborts.

The second option is welder's O2.  It's the same oxygen and a welder's O2 regulator runs around $30 at Harbor Freight Tools.  She'll pay the same deposit for an M-size oxygen cylinder and refills are also around $30.  Any good welder's supply will carry the needed equipment (less the mask).  Tell them you already have an acetylene cylinder, regulator and torch.  If the M-size O2 cylinder is too heavy to handle, get a smaller cylinder.

She can also go out on the Internet to pick up a 0-15 or 0-25 liter/minute regulator with a CGA540 connector for the larger “M”, “H”, or “T” tanks. 

She also needs to order a ClusterO2 kit (Oxygen Mask) from the yellow CH.com store tab at the left.  The following link will explain the latest oxygen therapy procedure and breathing technique that works very reliably with very short abort times.

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The third option (it should be the first), is start the anti-inflammatory regimen with 10,000 IU/day vitamin D3.  It's effective for 83% of the CH'ers who try it...  and if it works, there's no need for oxygen.

She can read all about this regimen at the following link:

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Shoot me a PM with your email address and I'll send some additional info you can pass to your friend.

Take care and please keep us posted

V/R, Batch

Thanks mike, thanks Batch.
Im the husband of the CH mike spoke of in the OP
my email is mpr7122 at gmail
Id appreciate anything you were going to pass on through mike
Thank you

Hi and welcome

If you could post more about how your wife is, what medication she uses, etc. then we may be able to help further.

Plus we have a supporters section where you can get some of your questions answered from other supporters.

Thanks Mike NZ

Brand new diagnosis,
No other mediations currently that are directly related to CH
Dr is really a D.O. and not a CH specialist.

This diagnosis was outta left field for us and we don't know anything yet more than weve been able to read here in the past two days thanks to our friend MIke D

Given that the doctor who gave the diagnosis is an osteopath (D.O.) I'd get the diagnosis confirmed by a headache specialist. Complex headaches like CH need someone with the appropriate skills and experience to diagnose, especially as for CH one of the key steps is ruling out all other possible causes for the symptoms, which is not simple.

If it is confirmed to be CH then your wife will need a preventive, something like verapamil or lithium, which will cut down how many CHs she gets, plus abortives, like oxygen and injectable imitrex, to kill off any CHs that get through.

An observation... or two...

A D.O., (osteopathic) shrink (neurologist) can be no better or no worse than an M.D. shrink (neurologist) when it comes to diagnosing and treating patients with cluster headache. 

Dr. Todd Rozen's survey of 1134 CH'ers, most of them members of CH.com, found that it still takes an average of 5 years for a CH'er to get properly diagnosed with cluster headache and too many are misdiagnosed on their first visit. 

From his experience working at major headache centers, (MHNI and Geisinger), with some of the top neurologists in the US skilled in treating hundreds of patients with our disorder, he found that unless they specialize in chronic neurological pain and primary headaches, the average neurologist (D.O. or M.D,) has never seen a patient with cluster headache.

Accordingly, getting a diagnosis of cluster headache right out of the box with a first visit to a D.O. is quite good.  The real measure is what did he prescribe?

I first met Dr. Todd Rozen, M.D., in 2007 when he was at Michigan Headache & Neurological Institute (MHNI), Ann Arbor, MI when I was briefing the benefits of the oxygen demand valve method of oxygen therapy as a CH abortive.  He was prescribing higher oxygen flow rates at 15 liters/minute than nearly all the other neurologists treating CH'ers.

He was fascinated with the efficacy of oxygen flow rates that support hyperventilation as a CH abortive.  I worked with him developing the cluster headache survey questionnair, and later analyzing the results.  In 2012, Dr. Rozen started a pilot study of the demand valve method of oxygen inhalation therapy at Geisinger in Wilkes-Barre, PA. 

I've kept him up to date with the latest data from the survey of CH'ers taking the anti-inflammatory regimen with 10,000 IU/day vitamin D3 to prevent their CH.

I was pleasantly surprised to have him show up during my poster presentation of the survey results at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, PA last April.

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What was even more exciting was what he told me...  He indicated that he was treating some of his refractive chronic CH'ers with 20,000 IU/day vitamin D3 and found it effective!

I've also spoken with a few other neurologists who have found vitamin D3 therapies similar to the anti-inflammatory regimen really work.  Dr. Stasha Gominak, M.D., a neurologist in Tyler, TX prescribes a vitamin D3 regimen very similar to the anti-inflammatory regimen for her patients suffering from sleep, chronic pain and headache disorders... 

The only difference is she also tests for vitamin B12 when she tests for 25(OH)D and she prescribes a 3-month course of vitamin B 50 along with the vitamin D3 and cofactors.  You can watch her videos on this topic at the following link:

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There are five men (cousins) in my generation of Batchellers, three of us went into the military, one in the Marine Corps and two of us into Naval aviation.  The other two are physicians.  One a cardiac surgeon and the other, an osteopathic shrink... 

Although he's retired, my cousin the osteopath now understands why it's important to maintain a healthy serum concentration of vitamin D3.

Take care,

V/R, Batch