Freedom after a lifetime of suffering

I remember spending the bulk of my youth in the nurses office in elementary school. Mrs. Hickey and I actually became friends. My migraines began at age nine. The harsh fluorescent lights was my mortal enemy. Many times I would vomit violently and as a child, teen, and young adult I was always underweight. I often struggled to eat and assosiated food with vomiting, so I chose not to eat instead. At 18 I weighed 83 pounds.

My seventh grade year I missed three months of school. I had chronic migraines, however, I didn't begin treatment for them under guidence of a physician until I was almost twenty. I have been on over thirty pain medications and preventatives in my lifetime. I have tried every natural pill remedy, accupunture, chiroprators, massage, hormone therapy, you name it. The only time I ever felt human was when I was pregnant with my two children. I credit my divorce partially to my migraines. My ex-husband could only be so supportive, even going on FMLA to care for me at one time in our 10 year marriage.

When I remarried six years later; my husband noticed certain triggers that I didn't pay any attention too: certain foods, suttle scents, light early in the morning, etc. He essentially chronicled my life over the period of a month, and documented my triggers, and the severetiy of my migrines. Here I thought after 33 years I had been so in control, how wrong I was. He began changing things in my enviornment: my body wash was a trigger, any artificial light before noon, certain seasonings, and the list goes on and on. Because I am a stay at home caregiver to my two children: my enviornment is east to control. Today I manage my migraines with a preventative, OTC meds, professional massage, and cold therapy (sooth away system). I went from five migraines a week to two to four migraines per month. I still have a headache almost daily, but having migraine free days is a freedom that only other sufferers understand.