Today, like so many others, I was experienced treatment worse than the condition. This is yet another reason that I started Plexus yesterday.
It started as a typical Sunday morning with us getting up and heading out to church. Shortly after arriving, I noticed that I was having some visual difficulties. Everything looked much more vivid and full of color which normally wouldn't be a bad thing. However, after a few minutes, I realized that just around the periphery, things seemed "muddy". An aural migraine.
Chronic migraine sufferers often finding themselves in a vicious circle of treatment from which escape seems hopeless. This is the first in a series about the vicious circle of migraines.
This vicious circle of treatment is a never ending cycle of relief, pain, side effects, etc. When the migraines start, we are focused on anything that can give us even a moment's relief. Eventually we start looking at triggers and journaling our experiences. Then, our initial "relief" system stops working and we being increasing doses and switching medications. Finally, everything seems to stop working and the cycle starts over.
I found this article yesterday and thought I'd share. It should give you an idea what a migraine with aura looks/feels like. I currently have about 2 of these a month these days for the last few years.
It is sometimes difficult to explain this symptom, but this is a pretty good illustration by the Mayo Clinic.
How many of us have had someone ask, "Can't you sit still?" Sadly, for many of us in the world, we truly can't. For some, it's just shear hyperactivity, but for others, it's a troublesome medical condition called RLS.
For those of you unfamiliar, RLS stands for Restless-Leg Syndrome. Many doctors still deny the existence of RLS even though an estimated millions of people suffer from it. RLS is difficult to describe to those who do not suffer from it but this comes close:
Until late 2015, I had never heard of a cervicogenic headache let alone that I had been suffering from them for years. I began "real" treatment for my migraines in late 2007 after we saw an ad for the St. Vincent Migraine Center on TV. After years of failed attempts to control them, I found Dr. Edward D. Zdobylak who promptly put me on Topamax. Topamax controlled my migraines (15 a year down from 150 a year) for about 8 years and it just stopped working. It was time for Dr. Zdobylak to try something new and in early 2015 we tried Botox for Migraines.
Sounds like a silly question doesn't it? YOUR headache? Isn't a headache a headache?
Take it from someone who knows—headaches come in many forms. They can be tension, sinus, stress, migraine, cervicogenic and many more. For me, the two most common headaches I have are migraine (About 40% of my headaches) and cervicogenic (the other 50-60%). Furthermore, migraines come in all forms as well—and I've experienced nearly all of them.