65 yr old female. I have just about given up on the D3 regimen and am at my wits end. I normally cycle every 2 years in the late winter/early spring for about 8 weeks.
This cycle began in August and was very erratic..mostly day hits along with PF nights and some days too.. I have been on 5,000 D3, 400 mag, 2,000 fish oil since my last cycle in March 2012. Although I ran out of mag 2 weeks before this cycle started so figured that was the culprit.

Restarted 400 mag, upped by D3 to 10,000 the end of August and added calcium citrate. Still hit or miss hits with PF days off and on and nothing over a 4-5..something I could live with. The 1st week of Sept. my hits switched to nights and were 8-9's but except for a shadow now and then my days were pain free. I then upped my D3 to 15,000 and my hits went down to nothing higher than a 5 once a night with PF days 2-3 days in a row. Now I was really excited!

I had my D25 tested in June 2013 (42ng/ml) and retested the end of Oct when it was 62ng/ml. My PCP asked me to cut back to 10,000 as it was higher than it needed to be...still taking 15,000.

The 6th of Nov. I started getting hit 2 times a night 7-8 kip so I stopped the calcium (getting desperate for something to get better) and they dropped to 1 a night at kip 5-6 with a few shadows that passed in 5 min.

November 14th getting hit 3 times a night kip 7-9 and the dreams before I got hit were so vivid they were scary. Needless to say restarted the calcium citrate on the 16th. Still getting hit 2-3 times a night kip 8-9 for 25-30 min.

What am I doing wrong? I guess I need to get my D25 retested? I am like a zombie during the day and tend to cry for no reason but can take a nap w/o more than a shadow when I wake up so that helps a little.

I saw my neuro in Sept and he prescribed O2 along with a prednisone taper that I won't use. I finally got the tank filled and last night was able to abort one hit in 8 min. Was too late on the other 2 and quit after 20 min. I stayed up for 2 hrs after the last hit and fell asleep for 3 hours  and woke PF.

Maybe it's just the length of this cycle (4 months) that is getting me down but I'm not sure I can take this ramping up of my hits anymore. I need someone's wisdom to tell me what I am doing wrong.

Taking..
Drs Best D3 15,000 (taking with 1 fish oil at dinner)
Fish Oil 2,000 (1 in the am)
Calcium Citrate w 500 D3 (split doses)
Ultra Mag 400 (split doses)
Centrum Silver
Verapamil 240 twice a day (high bp)

Thanks in advance for whatever advice you can give me. This site gave me back my sanity when I was 1st diagnosed 8 yrs ago...just knowing I was not alone.

Hi Rumeke,
Maybe try this.         Vitamin D3 20,000iu /day.
                              Magnesium citrate 500mg /day.
                              Calcium citrate 400mg /day.
                              Plus one loading of D3 50,000iu
                              once a week. Plus your fish oil.

                              You need a serum concentration
                               of around 80ng/ml to get the best
                               results. Also with this regime you
                               need to take it all with your main
                               meal of the day and at least 7hrs
                               after you've taken your last Verapamil

                                Hoppy.

                               
                                  

You could take the first Verapamil at say 10am, have dinner
together with the regime at around 6pm, and then the second Verapamil around 10pm. That should be ok.
Hoppy.

Hi

Zinc is very importtant co-factor in the regime. I take 50 mg per day.
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Thanks Vikinggirl for the encouragement! This cycle has lasted longer than any other for me and was getting me down!  Guess the D3 has pissed off the beast. Starting the increased dose tonight with dinner!

Happy... I noticed this am that my calcium is 600 for 2 so that works out to 500 a day when I take the Centrum Silver and 1 calcium. Perfecto! Thanks for alerting me!

Judy

Hoppy wrote on Nov 20^th, 2013 at 5:23pm:

Me too 

Connie

Shooky.. you are so right about the O2! My neuro prescribed it for me 4 years ago and the next day my cycle ended suddenly, never had it filled. This time he told me...you must get this filled..it will change your life! I started 2 nights ago using it and have been so tickled. Stopped all hits in 5-8 minutes so i don't even know what kip they would have been! What a dummy I was to suffer needlessly!! He only prescribed 10 lpm but told me if I relax and just breathe normally it would work.

I wondered about the melatonin..my daughter takes it to help her sleep.

Judy

Thanks Shooky! My regulator goes up to 20lpm..10lpm is what the neuro prescribed and what it is set at now. I figure I can always up it if the current setting stops working. I found breathing slow and deep kills the hit in 5-8 minutes..10 minutes when I was a tad late getting to the O2. I tried breathing regularly and my body kept trying to deepen the breaths..so I listened to my body. That could be because before O2 I would go outside in the cold air and do the deep breathing and it helped.

I may start the melatonin if the upped D3 doesn't pan out. I do miss my sleep!

The O2 is now my lifeline...I may be still having 2-3 at night but without the pain of a kip 8-9 I am not as drained the next day, even with broken sleep.

I learned my lesson this am..woke with what felt like a shadow and laid back down...bad move! By the time I realized this one would be bad it was too late for the O2. A not so gentle reminder to hit the O2 because you never know what's lurking! lol

Oh no! I don't know about you but my dreams are so vivid when I'm in cycle. I dreamt one night that my husband had invited all these women into the bedroom and they kept waking me up and were giving me a headache so I couldn't sleep. Yep, a bad one and my first instinct the next morning was to punch my hubby! 

LMBO! And on that happy note..I'm headed to sleep for hopefully more than 2 hrs at a time. But hey, with O2..I'll take what ever I can get!

Rumeke - when an attack becomes too strong and O2 won't abort it, it's a good idea to chug an energy drink than go on with the O2. One of the nice things about O2 is that it works well with other abort methods - including cold/hot pads, trigger points, triptans etc.

Also, one of the greatest tips I think: applying pressure over the effected side helps aborting faster. I do O2 while lying on my side with my face pressed to my arm and shoulder. Found it to work MUCH faster.

Damned glad to hear that!

Joe