Britt,

Not bad for a first attempt with oxygen therapy.  The first time I tried it at 9 liters/minute it didn't work at all on a high Kip-8 and I gave it 45 minutes.

They had given me a flow meter type regulator like the kind you see on the wall in the ER and hospital rooms with the calibrated plastic tube on top and needle valve to control the flow so I cranked the output up to 15 liters/minute for my second attempt an hour later on another Kip-8. 

That flow rate was only marginally better as it only brought the pain down to a Kip-5 after 25 minutes so I cranked up the flow rate to an estimated 30 liters/minute for the next attack and was rewarded with an abort in 15 minutes.

I finally got what I considered was an effective abort time of 10 minutes to a pain free state with an oxygen flow rate around 45 liters/minute.   

All these cluster headaches were hitting while I was sleeping and I was slow to start the oxygen therapy.  Most were between Kip-5 and Kip-6 before I started the oxygen therapy.  I found that my eye started to water at Kip-6 so that made it easy to calibrate my sensing of the Kip Pain scale. 

It took a while but like so many other oxygen therapy user's I discovered that starting oxygen therapy as early as possible at the first sign of an attack while awake or as soon as I woke up with one resulted in the shortest abort times.

Before I get off the topic of oxygen therapy...  It is very safe...  even at higher flow rates.  I'm an old Navy pilot with over 3000 hours flight time in fighters and all of it was spent breathing 100% oxygen from takeoff to touch down.  Moreover, Navy and Marine Corps pilots have been breathing 100% oxygen this way while flying since 1942 and we all get annual flight physicals with chest X-Rays just to stay in the cockpit. 

I can also assure you that when maneuvering at high Gs, the work load is such that we suck down that 100% oxygen at flow rates of 50 liters/minute and higher.

What flow rate did you use during your first attempt with oxygen therapy and what kind of oxygen mask did they give you?

Most successful oxygen therapy users find that an oxygen flow rate of 15 liters/minute is the minimum required and then it only works effectively for cluster headaches at the lower pain levels if they start early.

The most successful users of oxygen therapy use oxygen flow rates that support hyperventilation.  We've found that 25 liters/minute is the minimum to do that and there are several that use much higher flow rates to achieve very short abort times to a pain free condition.

Nearly all of us use one of the O2PTIMASK™ kits from the CH.com store at the left.  The 3-liter reservoir bag on the O2PTIMASK™ makes it possible to inhale a lung full of oxygen with each breath.  You can't do that with the POS, disposable NRB masks with a 1 liter reservoir bag that the home oxygen therapy providers deliver.

Take care and keep trying the oxygen therapy.

V/R, Batch