Debilitating migraine.
Along with 1 billion other people on this planet, I have suffered with migraine. This debilitating condition started when I was fourteen years old. One morning I walked to school as usual. A couple of seconds after I had placed my school bag in the port racks I started losing my peripheral vision. At first, I chose to ignore it thinking it would go away, but the brown squiggly shapes began to grow and they started to block out more and more of my vision until I could hardly see. At the same time the right side of my forehead started tensing, I felt nauseous and a tingling sensation was forming in my mouth. Within twenty minutes I had excruciating pain in my head, my tongue and the left hand side of my body were numb and the brown squiggles had turned to jagged shapes of black, red, blue and grey. What was happening to me?
The pain was so bad I couldn't stand up. My friends took me to the school sick bay and I stayed there all day with my head feeling as though it was going to explode. There was no way I wanted to live that day. I thought I was going to die. That night a doctor's visit confirmed I had migraine. He gave me an injection and I went home and slept for the next twelve hours. I awoke feeling washed out. It was as if someone or something had stolen my vitality. With another twenty-four hours of disturbed sleep, I woke feeling more like me.
This pattern of migraine occurred at erratic times and I was unable to isolate a trigger for them. When I was pregnant with my son, I had them every day from the fourteenth week of my pregnancy until he was born. That was definitely no fun. The gynecologist told me the migraine was triggered by hormones. If that was the case why didn't I get them the same time every month? Also, I could eat all the supposed foods that caused migraine and I didn't get one. There was no way I could find a reason for these debilitating headaches.
Last August, the migraines started coming every day, and some days I was having two a day. Writing just wasn't happening and I was ready to jump off the balcony of my fourth floor apartment. Life was no fun and if I was to continue living, something had to be done about these wretched headaches. I googled "Migraine Headaches". There were heaps of links to help in the USA. I wanted help on the Gold Coast. I persevered and finally found The Brisbane Migraine Clinic. I was elated and was ready to travel Brisbane.
It is now 21 October and I haven't had a migraine since 29 August. How incredibly amazing is that! I have my life back. My treatment started with lots of questions about my migraine history. Bertrand was thorough in his questioning and I felt confident he covered every aspect of my migraine before he started my treatment. He asked me to lie down and the first thing he did was bring on a migraine. Ouch!! But within minutes he also was, to my relief, able to turn it off. Bertrand was de-sensitizing my brain stem. There was no manipulation only pressure that created a migraine which he held for several seconds until the pain gradually disappeared. This treatment continued for about twenty minutes. It was painful, but manageable. Bertrand gave me homework. I had exercises to do four times a day. It took a while for me to get into the rhythm of doing them but a reminder on my iphone helped me remember. Thankfully, I travelled by train to Brisbane for my appointment. On the way home I got another migraine and continued to have them for the next few days until my next appointment.
Was this treatment working? Was I wasting my money? The guiding voice inside of me said keep going. I continued my exercises and my appointments twice a week for several weeks and as the migraines became less frequent so did my appointments. I am now attending Bertrand's clinic once every three weeks and I have been migraine free since 29 August.
What a life changer!
I am continuing with my exercises. I believe they are working. Even my tension headaches have disappeared. So now I can say I am no longer one of the 1 billion people who suffer with migraine.
How about you? Have you lost productive hours because of migraine? Have you lost leisure hours because of migraine? Have you suffered with migraine for too long?