Posted by Ted (205.188.197.46) on November 21, 2000 at 08:46:08:
In Reply to: 11/21/00 day 19 posted by Jennifer on November 21, 2000 at 07:59:25:
Periactin is helping you, probably, because it's another name for Dramamine. Well, it's really not helping you because it goes by another name but is probably helping you because it's supposed to prevent you from getting into REM-phase sleep, which is when our nighttime hits occur the most. It won't do anything for your daytime clusters.
The Prednisone is only supposed to be used in the short term, as you probably know already. When you taper off it you may want to try Verapamil as your next choice of prevention. What do you use to abort the attacks when they come? Just as many here find Verapamil as the drug of choice to prevent the attacks because it's got a pretty good success rate O2 (pure oxygen) is also the primary choice to use as an abortive. If you get that you'll need to use it with a NON-rebreather mask and have your tank set at 8-12 liters per minute.
As far as they not understanding. Well, many don't understand. But take heart because you just fell into quite a large group of people who do understand. Please use this board to ask questions, vent, cry, joke, or even discuss what term you use to call the attacks (sorry Sailpappy. I had to. :-) ).
If you want your docs to understand better what you are going through and how best to treat it, explore the vast amounts of info to the left of this board, print it out and have them read it.