Years of life lost but now Migraine Free for 3 months!

When describing how migraines have affected my life the only way I can explain it to people who aren't migraine sufferers is to compare migraines to an alcoholic. In this sense I mean how it impacts my quality of life and my family's quality of life. I am a single parent of 2 small children and a teenager. I have missed out on life and my children have missed out on life with their mommy. When you live with an alcoholic, you never know what the day has in store for you. What kind of mood will he/she be in, can we have a good day or will there be another episode.

I spend years of my life lying in a dark room, in unbearable pain, or medicated to the point where I could not function. No trips to the park with the kids, missed family events and always waiting for the next migraine to hit. Thankful that in between you feel ok, but so exhausted from day to day and always trying to catch up with the things that take the back burner during a migraine attack.

As far back as I can remember I have suffered from chronic migraines and headaches. I think back to my high school days and remember there was not a day that I didn't have some kind of headache. I suffered like this for many years until after a 4-day episode in my early 20's. I finally had my mom take me to urgent care. I received my first dose of Imitrex and less than 10 minutes later I felt completely better. My doses of Imitrex started at 10 mg and eventually ended up at 100 mg, injections and nasal spray. My doctors prescribed everything over the years from anti depressants (Nortriptyline) anticonvulsants /anti seizure (Topamax) you name it I tried it. One thing did however work which was acupuncture, after receiving 3 months worth about 2X per week of acupuncture treatments I didn't get migraines for 2 years. The Dr. was treating me for weak liver and kidneys (not migraine).

My Medical diagnosis was hormone related migraine, and nothing made more sense. It was like clockwork, every 14 days (ovulation) and 14 days later I would get a migraine that would last up to 5 days. I would get migraines at different times during the month too, but usually attributed it to tension or neck pain that turned into a migraine, not eating or stress.

I'm 37 now and this had been going on since about 13 years old, I was not medically diagnosed until 15 years ago because I just suffered through the pain for so long. 3 months ago I started a diet (HCG diet) its a very low calorie diet with a strict menu and you take HCG drops. The basic meal was 1 lean meat, 1 vegetable and 1 fruit plus a melba toast or breadstick (tiny)...Basically nothing processed and no sugar (I had cut a great deal of carbs out of my diet). I went 4 weeks with no migraines thinking I was lucky a fluke (At this point in my life I had been suffering from 15 or more migraines a month) I hadn't realized that my diet had to do with me not getting migraines until the 4th week it was back to school night and I had pizza for dinner. I felt so sick and got a migraine in less than 30 minutes. I thought it was strange, maybe msg, preservatives, something in the cheese. It was definitely worth the research! A couple days later I cheated and ate a pop tart and had a migraine within 30 minutes. I heard mention of people cutting out gluten and all their health problems disappeared. So I specifically researched gluten intolerance and non-digestive symptoms of gluten intolerance and wouldn't you know headaches and migraines were among the first symptoms listed. I started posting things on facebook and a friend asked me what my blood type was and stated that people with O type blood tend to be gluten intolerant. I said "you're kidding... I have O type blood" So I continued with the research and started reading Eat Right For Your Blood Type and indeed it says type O's should avoid WHEAT, GLUTEN and ALL BREADS. It has been 3 months now and other than the pizza and pop tart incidents I have been MIGRAINE FREE, I have never felt better my entire life. Why did it take over 20 to hear about this???

I don't know but I am here to share my story so everyone has a chance to live a normal life. I NEVER thought I would be migraine free!