Hi,
I feel I need to share my severe migraine life, I’ve suffered from severe cluster migraine attacks for 30 years, in a way they have ruined my life, my gp and local hospital have tried me on every single tablet you could ever imagine, in the past I would get attacks maybe 2-3 times a day, the headaches can last 5 mins or 2 hours, I cannot lay down, I just sit up close my eyes and suffer the severe pain with my eyes watering, not nice..
The headaches could be in clusters, i would suffer for weeks & weeks then not have one for 6 months approx, then they got more frequent and the lengthy gaps between them narrowed & narrowed, i new my life style was so so different to nearly every person on the planet (or so i felt), i could be out socialising with friends then get a headache and have to go sit alone anywhere, even in toilet cubicles, so long as i was alone, anything i planned in my life i was thinking omg what if i get a headache!!
About 7 years ago a doctor in our local gp saw me for they first time, looked at my past medication and just said wow you’ve seriously had some prescriptions!! We had a chat took away yet another prescription to try, the next day this gp doctor rang me totally out of the blue and asked if I’ve ever tried 100% medical oxygen, my reply was “no I’ve never heard of it or tried it” but I am prepared to try anything, so a few days later 2 medical oxygen bottles arrived with breathing mask and a demo from the delivery guy on how to use this stuff, i can feel like a normal person and within 1 minute can be having a serve headache with pretty much no warning, so then the new thing in my life came into force (oxygen) these 2 bottles would live at the side of the bed because most of my headaches came at night, what a miracle i thought when i first tried the oxygen from the start of a severe headache, a few puffs of oxygen and heyho the headache goes, i was totally gobsmacked, so over the last 7 years I’ve pretty much let medical oxygen own my life & control it, i have 5 large cylinders & 6 small travel cylinders of medical oxygen, that go anywhere & everywhere with me, the headache attacks are much more frequent now-a-days, and i can be using oxygen guaranteed daily anywhere i am, abroad this is very costly (approx 500-1000 pounds) to buy oxygen which I’ve been told i can claim back but never had any luck with doing this!!
Lastly to my girlfriend & life partner for the last 8 years, hoe the hell have you put up with me & my life??? She is amazing.
Currently i use all my cylinders at least twice a week, the oxygen company provider & there drivers are great people and helpful with many questions i ask.
Although medical oxygen owns my life, i would love to hear about anybody who has ever encountered these awful attacks and how they manage in life.
Many thanks for reading this, hope to hear back.
Chris Bancroft