Hey Balanchine,

I am SO happy for you that you are in a period of - hopefully permanent - Clusters remission. I have been saddled with Chronic attacks so the Topiramate is helping at the moment, although I have just had to up dosage after 60-odd days of relentless pain again. I have a short list of meds at my GP's, culminating in Lithium to work through, put together by the ONLY good Neuro I have ever seen. I saw him for TN and Neuropathic Facial Pain and had a Cluster Attack in his office. Easy dx then?!

I recently went back to see a (different) Neuro after years of avoidance. One of my hopes was for Oxygen Treatment. I got no answers to anything I needed. Never going back.

As for kratom, like most meds and natural substances it is abused. Here it is overwhelmingly sold as a "legal high" at the moment, even though there are numerous strains developed for treatments. But because there is a reported death caused solely by the toxic build-up of mitragynine and 7 hydromitragynine from heavy recreational kratom use, it is on the cards that it will become illegal - as it is in Thailand and Australia.

Of course, the medicinal benefits are swept under the carpet. Far more people have died from abuse of prescription and OTC meds. If I were young again (and not so conservative, without the underlying health problems of heart/diabetes…), I would probably have chosen something like this over mixing pain killers with dangerous amounts of alcohol and marijuana. This was my strategy when trying to cope with "simple" spine injuries and Anxiety.

Dave.

Add: While the above is caused by the attitude of the stupid re: kratom as a legal high HERE, I found a huge amount of information from the US regarding different strains for pain relief and anxiety etc.