Posted by John R (209.240.200.112) on January 25, 2000 at 00:30:22:
In Reply to: C-pap possible help? posted by soooz on January 24, 2000 at 22:59:11:
My clusters started back when I was still relatively skinny & I don't think I had apnea back then. A few years ago I got a CPAP machine, but I don't think it helped much with the headaches. As best I can recall, I still got the headaches about one hour into sleep, but maybe not every night.
As far as oxygen goes, I've never heard of being successful at preventing headaches by breathing it before bed. I tried it myself with no help. But it is great at stopping a headache if you are breathing it at a high enough flow rate through a mask. You have to have a regulator that goes up to 10 liters/minute. I get no relief at 4 liters/minute, but almost every headache is knocked out at 10 liters/minute if I start the oxygen at the start of the headache (and sometimes when I've waited several minutes).
Good luck & may you have pfd&n,
John R
P.S.
Also try: hot sauce under your tongue at onset,
breathing cold air at onset,
rapid exercise like jumping rope at onset;
All these can abort the headaches for some folks....the last two worked really well for me, but I didn't hear about the hot sauce till my headaches had already stopped this time (a week or two ago). Hey, here's an idea: put hot sauce under your tongue, put on your oxygen mask at 10 liters/minute (chilled tank that you left out on the porch or in the garage) and jump up & down for five minutes (can't use the jump rope while you're hooked up to the oxegen). Or any combo of those ideas. So if you don't have oxygen, go outside into the cold and jump rope with hot sauce under your tongue... Well, I'm getting carried away, but I have definitely jumped up & down with the O-2 on before, and it seemed to work better.