Halloween 1989, my friends and I attended a "Heaven and Hell" party. We entered the house on the bottom floor, "hell" and went up the stairs to "heaven." Downing a shot of tequila with a beer chaser were required to pass through the "pearly gates." I obliged even though I have never been a big drinker. The party was dull and we left soon after, little did I know how much that night would change my life.
We went home, I did some homework but could not figure out why I was having trouble seeing. Strange. What followed is an experience I will never forget. I spent the rest of that night in the most excruciating pain of my life. My head was exploding in conjunction with waves of nausea. My friends told me I drank too much, but the one shot was it. Couldn't be. Through more conversations, the explanation was a migraine headache. I prayed it would be the only one I would ever experience.
Fast forward a month, another migraine, 6 months later, another, 4 months later, another… This went on for years. I tried every medication in the book and nothing worked. For no reason at all, I was wracked with awful, debilitating migraines. I tried herbal remedies, cutting various foods out of my diet, yoga, etc. etc. etc. Nothing worked. I would get them no matter what I did. There was no pattern to their appearance either. Sigh.
I figured out some things in my journey with food though. I discovered that I am sensitive/allergic to MSG (monosodium glutimate) and many preservatives. Taking these out of my diet helped lessen the frequency of my headaches. I also discovered natural foods and co-ops. Of course, it was not cool to shop at these types of stores as a college student, but I was desperate. One of the things I noticed was many of my fellow shoppers used their own bags. Huh. Being a child of the 70's a.k.a. the age of "disposable" plastic, this was new to me, and clearly made an impression.
Fast forward to the present. I still get migraines. Not as frequently as I did when I was younger (thank God) and they are not as intense (thank God again). I attribute much of this to changing my diet to mainly eating whole foods, vegetarianism, and avoiding MSG, preservatives and most kinds of alcohol. I have recently discovered I am sensitive to red dye as well. No red velvet cake for me. And, that Big Girl has the same issues. Another HUGE sigh.
My husband read about magnesium helping migraine sufferers and immediately bought me some. I have been taking it for over a year and have only had one migraine in that time. Yay! I think there is hope for me. If you get migraines too, I am deeply sympathetic. The lucky ones that don't get them can never understand how horrible they are. Try magnesium or some of the other ideas above, it might help you have more heaven and less hell in your life too.
Hugs to all you readers, thanks for visiting, you are wonderful, your comments make my day! Teresa
5 comments:
I am glad they are finally getting better and i am sorry sweet girl has them as well...good post you wild teenager!!!
Yes, it crushes me that M gets them too. Ugh. Not so much of a wild teenager! :)
I too suffer from the occasional migraine, so you have my utmost sympathy! Before I had my first one, I thought migraines were just really bad headaches, but now I know better. Dizziness, nausea and slurred speech are what I get, even more than a headache. Crazy stuff. I'm intrigued about the magnesium. I'll have to give that a try! Thanks for sharing your story Teresa!
me too, teresa. both my mom and older brother as well, so i get the family connection. mine started later than theirs, and i got a great respite during pregnancy and up until about a year ago, when quinn was three. i think my diet could definitely have been a factor, since i got healthier and healthier about it as soon as i knew i was pregnant, but i also am continuing with that and they have come back now, so i think there was also a hormonal component. (once the happy preg/breastfeeding hormones tapered off....) but i think that even if we eat super healthy, there can be minerals missing, and i'm glad you've found one that is a factor for you. magnesium... hmm i want to say beets have a lot of it? so potentially a source in your diet. but i could be full of it. maybe that's why i've been craving beets in my green smoothies (it turned them a prettier color also). i add kelp to food randomly, to get my own minerals balanced out, and also eat a lot of stinging nettles and wild greens like that, which are also high in the minerals. ugh and lately i have been contemplating excusing coffee from my daily routine- hard to let go. :) but i think it would help with the headaches, as it is another thing i did not indulge while pregnant, so maybe important in my case.
i love your reflections on when you first discovered reusable bags. :)
Good to hear from you Rachel and Mary Beth. Maybe magnesium can help both of you too, here is the link to the article:
http://www.thedailyheadache.com/2007/04/magnesium_migra.html
There is more info out there on the web too if you do a search. I take 500 mg a day and my daughter takes 250mg.
I don't drink coffee and avoid things with sulfates too as I know that can be a trigger. sigh Sorry to hear that both of you suffer as well.
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