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| Migraines can be like a needle digging into your brain |
Migraines are still not always taken serious enough. Maybe it is because we live in a male-dominated world and much more women suffer from migraines than men, or it is because you can seldomly "see" the pain, headache-patients are often considered crop-outs; too lazy to work or using the pain as a kind of excuse for cancelling unwanted appointments.
I wish everyone suspecting this could have a migraine-attack once in their lifes, to experience the hammering pain, the feeling someone is carving out your eye with a blunt spoon and the bolts of pain that light or sound can shoot into your brain.
As you can tell I have been suffering from migraines for years and it is - thankfully - the only chronical disease I have to deal with. My attacks ususally only last a few hours, while other patients may suffer for days, but in the beginning of last year I had to deal with the pain quite frequently, usually once or twice a week. This had been going on for roughly twenty years, and as the attacks started to get more frequent, I was desperately searching for something to help my heacaches.
During my university time I took part in a study about accupuncture and migraines. The neurologist I went to had spent several years in China and I trusted his skills completely. After a few sessions I was pain-free for four months after the last treatment. Probably the longest I have ever been without migraine since I was about ten years old. I wanted to go on with accupuncture and found a doctor near my place who offered it. I had to pay for the treatments myself which meant spending more on that than I spent on rent. While I was a student. Long story short: It did not help me. Neither did a second doctor I tried out. Maybe it was their skills, neither of them had been trained in China and I suspected that one of them had only done a weekend-seminar on accupunture as he always placed the - very long - needles in different parts of my body everytime I came there. It just didn't seem right. After blood sputtered from a spot in my forehead where he had placed a needle, I never went there again
I have tried quite a lot of things to treat my migraines. After years of suffering and of trying things out I decided to let you know about my experience, maybe you can find a method that is working for you:
butterbur powder, taken preventative
high dosed magnesium, taken preventative and in case of an attack
nutrition: not eating sugar for six weeks, resigning from alcohol, meat, cheese, none of them had any effect whatsoever
sports, will help to make you feel good anyway and might have helped a bit to prevent attacks
change your cosmetics, they might make you suffer. I just changed my toothpaste which basically is the only cosmetic brand I always stick to usually. To make it short: it did not help.
atlas nerve-correction: I had heard about this method from a colleague whose wife got healed from her headaches by a simple correction of her atlas (the most supervior cervical vertrebra of the spine). I went to a clinic to let them do an mri-scan of the spine and it turned out mine was fine, but I know people whom this method has helped big time, so no harm in checking it out.
The only pills that have helped me to ease an attack so far are triptanes, originally developed to help people with epilepsy, they also ease the pain and help you to fall into a unconscious dreamless sleep, that can be really mercifull, if you have an attack. They are the only medicamentation that have helped me so far, the problem is, they can damage your liver and kidneys and are very extreme methods If you take too many of them - as with every painkiller- your body might get used to it and react with pain if you try to live without painkillers.
Acupunture: As I mentioned above I have done acupuncture with amazing results. I started it again last summer and it is amazing ! This time I went to an expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM, whose place - tadaaa- is just across the street from our flat. I am paying for the treatments myself and it is rather a lot of money, but it is the only thing that helps. My migraines have become a very rare occurence and I am so grateful to my doctor. I guess doing Yoga much more often and the relaxing atmosphere in the doctor's office with meditation music, warming lamps and blankets help the needles do their work, but after years of suffering from this horrible illness I feel blessed. We often only appreciate our health once we loose it and I invite you all to celebrate the pain you are not feeling right now.
I hope that maybe I could help some people with migraines to ease their pain a bit and to regain new hope that you might be able to change something about your situation.
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