When Life Without Migraine Is Abnormal

I had a normal childhood. Normal, at least, by my own standards. I thought it was normal to get headaches, just like my mom always did. Who doesn't get headaches? No one told me that being stuck in bed with nausea for days was not a normal symptom of headache.

Motion sickness?

I had a happy childhood. Sure, it was perforated with days of pain. Somehow the nostalgia of those blissful rides in the back of the van with a stack of library books 2 feet high and a stash of MSG-loaded snacks is not overwhelmingly tainted by the taste of the subsequent violent vomiting and headache that I chalked up to motion sickness.

My family was not one to go to the doctor unless one needed stitches or surgery. But by the time I was a young adult I knew I had chronic migraine and that there was nothing a doctor could do to cure it.

Encouraged to see a doctor

I was married at 25 and my husband was horrified to see migraine in action. He seemed to think I was in danger of death each time an attack came around. He pushed for me to get examined. I instinctively kicked back against going to see a doctor. Migraine is not so bad, I told him. This is just my life. I always get through it. I consulted with older migraineurs whose paths had crossed with mine. One told me that an ER visit would get you triptans, which cause rebound. One told me a sinus surgery cured her migraine.

A period of relief

I went to an ENT at my husband's request and found via CAT scan that nothing was amiss with my sinuses. Just previously I had had a tooth removed, the roots of which had grown into the sinus cavity, being promised by the dentist that this would cure my migraine. A few happy months followed with little headache (which I now know was because I was pregnant).

After having 3 children and several months of relief during pregnancies, chronic migraine returned in full force.

Returning migraine

I would have 5-day attacks twice a month. During these attacks, I could not eat, drink, take medicine, or do anything but puke, and puke, and puke. The pain in the side of my head was indescribable.

In between attacks I had a constant, daily headache of a duller variety. I was constantly foggy-headed and drowsy. I have never taken a preventative, having been told by other migraineurs that the side effects would make me even less capable of caring for 3 toddlers.

I went to a neurologist. He prescribed me sumatriptan. Enter heavenly music and singing birds. Where had this been all my life??

Bad reaction to treatment

Then, rebound. I quickly fell into the vicious cycle due to bad advice from a cheap neurologist and now was having 5-day attacks EVERY WEEK. My neurologist patronizingly told me my migraine was "not getting worse." I fired him. I borrowed Buchholz's Heal Your Headache and followed his retinue as closely as I could, despite the 10-day sugar/caffeine withdrawal migraine. I acknowledge this book is outdated and incomplete, but I have to give it credit for the lifesaver it threw me when I was in danger of drowning in the sea of rebound headache.

Some relief from diet changes

Suddenly, my attacks went down to once a month. The daily constant headache was gone. Diet was the answer to my headaches. I tried Whole30. It helped. I tried Whole60. It helped more. But I missed bread. I tried Trim Healthy Mama. I lost weight and had more energy than ever. I love this diet more than any other. But I still had migraine.

My husband convinced me to try the ketogenic diet. That fad diet that I despised. But if the epileptic children in the '20s could do it, I would give it 2 months.

Ketogenic diet

I came across My Migraine Miracle founded by Neurologist Josh Turknett. I followed his plan of ketogenic eating, using the controversial supplements of salt and fasting to aid migraine prevention. Most of all, I stayed away from meds. That was three years ago. I am still on the ketogenic diet. I am now migraine-free 28 days a month on average. I will sometimes get a mild, 2-day headache once a month at the most.

And I can hardly believe it. Every day that I wake up without that tension in the right side of my head, I bask in wonder. This can not be normal. This life is wonderful. For 30 years, chronic migraine was all I knew. I have entered the realm of surrealistic bliss... "normal."