Dollars for Docs

I've been meaning to share this link for a while, but I just now got around to it (i.e. I should be studying for midterms but I'm procrastinating). If you follow this link and look in the light blue box on the right, you can enter a doctor's name and state to see if they've received money from certain pharma companies that have disclosed payments for things such as speaking engagements.

I was not surprised to find that one of my former neuros (who was not exactly my favorite), received $92,000 last year for speaking engagements at a local pharma company. This seems to be a conflict of interest, since the company makes migraine drugs which the neuro prescribes. But at the same time, if (that's a big "if") neurologists are helping to increase migraine research by giving speeches to researchers, then maybe (that's a big "maybe") it's a good thing.

All I know is that's a huge chunk of money!

Good news: This Wednesday (March 2) I'll be doing a giveaway! Check back for your chance to win a new migraine book! :)

Stressed

I knew as soon as I posted my last post that my head would rebel...and it has. My headaches are pretty much daily, and I'm having lots more migraines too. Ugh!

While I'm still enjoying all my classes, I'm getting behind and the stress is killing me. I've started working at my old job 8-10 hours per week at the office on top of 16 credit hours of classes. For the last week I've been in "freak-out mode" trying to get caught up on my assignments, and I've been eating takeout and haven't made it to the grocery store in a long time. So much for regular exercise and fresh, organic home-cooked meals (let's not talk about the fact that a certain darling someone lives here too and is perfectly capable of buying groceries and cooking for us both - heck, maybe even helping me clean a little...I try to remind myself that he's working full time and is letting me pursue my dream job).

I just want *calm*, and my homemade juices. And I'm counting down the days until my next therapy session.

Breathe in...breathe out...

Thanks for letting me rant.

Life Change

Photo from weheartit

As you all know, migraines change your life, both for good and bad. Mostly bad, but over the last few years I have learned to, for example, say "no", thanks to my migraines. Recently, I made a big life change which falls under the good category. 

I've worked in public relations the last four years. I have a bachelor's degree in PR and worked at a fun and energetic agency. During the last four years, however, my headaches and migraines have taken over my life to the point where I realized that my body (physical and emotional) was deteriorating, and I think a lot of it had to do with the high level of stress that goes with a PR job. I've been doing therapy for a year to help me manage this stress, but my body was not dealing with it. So, in December, I quit my job.

A change of scenery seems to be what I needed. I'm still active - in fact, I'm now a full-time graphic design student at the local community college (and I'm doing some occasional contract work for the agency). I should be able to get an associate's degree in about a year and a half. I've always been artsy, and I'm loving my classes! Two out of the five I'm taking are online, so I'm able to be at home a lot more where it's peaceful and relaxing.

Now don't get me wrong: I still have headaches and migraines. But the nearly every day of head pain has lately been every other day or so, and my anxiety and IBS have gotten better. This is a big improvement (so big, in fact, that I've been scared to blog about it because I don't want to jinx myself)! 

Also, I don't want to say definitively that quitting my job and becoming a student is the main reason for this relief because I don't know that for sure. I'm doing lots of other things that could be helping, including:

• I still have my TMJ mouth guard, and I'm slowly cutting back the hours I have to wear it. Maybe the mouth guard and/or cutting back on the hours (down to wearing it 14 hours per day now) is helping.
• I'm on my third cycle of taking Progesterone (bioidentical hormone) pills day 22 through the end of each cycle. I'm almost certain this is a big factor in my improvement.
• My diet has been really good lately. Because I'm home more, I've been eating out less and cooking mostly from scratch, and mostly organic foods (especially meat and dairy because of the whole hormone thing).
• I've been exercising more. 
• My preacher is aware of my struggle and even used me (without naming me) as an example in a sermon after I told her I'd been questioning God about the pain and at the same time wanting to turn it into a positive to help others going through it. I firmly believe that her prayers and those of church members are helping. 

Whatever is helping, I'll take it! I'm still going to seek additional treatment; in fact, now that I have different insurance (through my wonderful husband who is supportive yet a little freaked out about me not working full time haha), I may have a better chance of getting approved for things such as Botox.

I'm so happy to be writing a positive update on here! There really is hope, as I've said all along! :)

War Veterans Health Resource Initiative

Happy New Year everybody! I received the below e-mail from an NHF rep. Since it's a resource for war veterans, I wanted to take this opportunity to THANK everyone reading this who has fought for our country and those who have family/friends/loved ones who are in the military. :)

Did you know that studies have shown veterans suffer from extreme headaches, commonly known as migraines, at more than double and as much as four times the prevalence of the general population? It’s unfortunate to see that at a rapidly increasing rate, military personnel are experiencing migraines, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other illnesses linked to traumatic brain injury. I am contacting you today on behalf of the National Headache Foundation (NHF), a volunteer non-profit organization, in order to shed light on this serious condition and introduce you and your readers to the War Veterans Health Resource Initiative.

The War Veterans Health Resource Initiative provides military personnel with comprehensive information on dealing with migraines and their associated symptoms. Details can be found at www.headaches.org/warveterans/index.html, where other free resources are readily available as well.

Thousands of veterans return home suffering from invisible wounds that result from brain injury, emotional trauma, or both. In fact, 19 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq have migraine and migraine is suspected in another 17 percent! Few people realize that these wounds can disable even the most physically fit and mentally resilient men and women who serve in our armed forces. The NHF wants to do its part in helping them find the treatment and services they need.

The NHF is also encouraging our returning veterans and their healthcare providers to attend a 2011 regional conference to help fight the battle against migraine & headache and traumatic brain injury & posttraumatic stress disorder on Saturday, March 5, 2011 in Augusta, GA. To learn more visit the NHF website at www.headaches.org or call 1-888-NHF-5552 (M-F, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT).

Holiday Cheer

I'm having one of those migraines where the nausea is the main symptom, although I have head pain as well. Bleck. Luckily, I haven't thrown up (yet); I rarely do, but the nausea feeling is almost as bad. I'm eating lots of ginger mints. But before today, I'd been doing MUCH better on the headache front. This could be from several factors which I'll talk about in a later post. In case I don't get to that post before Christmas, I wanted to post these pictures in hopes of bringing you some holiday cheer. Merry Christmas and happy holidays!!! :)

Hormone (& Other) Test Results!

I got the results back from my hormone saliva test, and as suspected, my progesterone levels drop during my luteal phase. My gyno prescribed 100 mg of progesterone (bioidentical hormone) which I take at night on day 22 through the end of each cycle. I've only done this for one cycle, and I had two migraines pretty soon after starting it and have had really bad headaches most of the other days. I'm going to stay positive and hope that this is just an adjustment period and that once my body is used to the progesterone boost each cycle, I'll see an improvement in my migraines and headaches.

I also got blood test results back from my neurologist's office. She had all of the following tested:

We hadn't met to review the results, but from what I could tell from looking at them on the web portal, everything was normal except for my carbon dioxide levels, which were a little low. My next neuro appointment is in January, and we'll probably go over the results then.

Migraine on Thanksgiving, but Blessings Abound!

I

am

SO

blessed.

I don't know if I've ever felt so blessed by the Lord than I have today. Last Saturday, my mom and dad had me, my husband (Jonathan/J) and some of our relatives over for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Then Monday, Jonathan drove six hours to be with his dad for the week. His dad is 87 (even though J is still is his 20s like me), and his health has been deteriorating. J has been taking care of him all week, and I was planning to leave this morning to go join him (I had to work M-W).

Well wouldn't you know, I woke up with a migraine this morning. My migraines usually start as bad headaches that progress into migraines, but occasionally I'll wake up with them, and that's always a bad sign. I took two Butalbital/Fioricet, ate some eggs for protein, and slept a little more. All the drugs did was make me dizzy, and I still had my migraine, so I decided not to go to my father-in-law's, and J completely understood.

Here's the big blessing. My sis is a nurse and works nights (same for my mom), so I figured she wouldn't be doing anything for Thanksgiving since she worked last night and works tonight. Turns out, while she was sleeping during the day, her husband made her a HUGE Thanksgiving meal (from SCRATCH - even the bread!). They invited me over to eat with them (they only live about 45 min. away), so I didn't have to spend Thanksgiving alone after all! After napping most of the morning, I managed to bake a side dish and drove over there. I took two more Butalbital Fioricets when I got there and then took their dog (my nephew whom I love dearly) for a walk. Not sure if it was the walk, dog or drugs, but I felt much better. Unfortunately my migraine came back, along with nausea, but I was still able to eat a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.

Even with the migraine and being without my husband, I still had a wonderful Thanksgiving thanks to my loving sis and bro-in-law. I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful too. :)

Sorry to do a "teaser" but this post is already long so although I have lots of test results back, I'm going to hold off on sharing them until the next post. Plus my head is pounding and I can't think straight, as I'm sure you can understand. Stay tuned though.

Happy Thanksgiving, and blessings to each and every one of you! <3

I *heart* my neuro

As I write this post, I'm drinking homemade apple carrot juice. Thanks for the suggestion, Jessica! I added a little celery, splash of OJ, and honey too. And the apples are Pink Lady apples, fresh from the mountains. YUM. While I haven't noticed a change in headaches (yet), the juice is without a doubt clearing my face.

Last week I finally got to see my neurologist, who is back from maternity leave. She spent a lot of time with me and I feel really good about things! I had been keeping a list of things to ask her, and we went through them all together. My Twitter friend Gina suggested that I write down every health issue I've ever had, even minor ones, and share it with her to see if the list would trigger ideas or show that I might have an auto immune disease. My neuro looked it over, commented that a lot of the ailments are common for people who end up having migraines (such as colic which I had as a baby), and decided to have me do an infectious disease blood test. I'm still waiting on the results. My neuro also is going to contact my insurance to see if they'll cover Botox for me, but I'd be in complete shock if they do (at least any time soon).

Speaking of tests, I finished my hormone spit test and mailed in the tubes, so now I'm in waiting mode for that one too.

In the meantime, I've started a new non-pharma treatment, Butterbur, which may prevent/reduce migraines. I got the pills from Whole Foods and they contain feverfew too.

I'm still seeing a therapist, and I still am wearing my TMJ mouth guard, but I'm slowly tapering down the hours - right now I wear it 17 hours a day. It hasn't helped my headaches, but I do have less jaw pain in the mornings, so I'm probably going to wear it every night for the rest of my life.

For emergencies, I had my neuro write me a prescription for Butalbital (Fioricet), and as long as I take it as little as possible, it helps my migraines (if I take it too much my body gets used to it and it stops working, and plus it can cause rebound headaches). I can generally handle the almost-constant headaches, but if they get really bad I'll take two Aleve pills. I'm starting to feel ulcer-type pains again, so I'm trying to take as little Aleve as possible.

I'll keep all of you up to date on the results of all the above. Thanks for all your thoughts, suggestions, comments and prayers. :)

Homemade Juice!

Lately, I've started making my own juices, and it's SO much fun! I don't have a juicer, but I saw this video that explains how to make juice with a blender using a nut milk bag. So, I ordered the one I linked to and started making my own juices. I don't go by recipes; I just buy a bunch of organic produce and add what I think would be good.

Here's the one I made tonight. It has grapes, cilantro, grapefruit, water, and a small amount of kale (which I bought for the first time and tried steaming but I discovered I don't like it, so now I'm adding small amounts to my juice to make it even more healthy).

I do exactly what Natasha does in the video, storing it in glass jars, and then I have a glass every day or so. I'm hoping to get more servings of fruits and veggies, clear my acne, and maybe even have more energy. If it helps with my headaches, I'll let you all know, but I'm not expecting it to. But you never know.


On a different note, I'm sure you've all heard the big news about Botox being approved by the FDA for treatment of migraine. If you haven't, just google "Botox" and "migraine" and take your pick. Soon, insurance may start covering it, and then I might be tempted to give it a shot (bwahahaha).

Hormone Spit Test

I haven't been to any doctors for my headaches in a while (except for my therapist) but over the summer I went to a new gyno for a hormone consultation. I have headaches all the time, but during my period, they're constant, often migraine-level, and drugs don't seem to touch them. The gyno suggested I take a Female Hormone Panel saliva test. I've had my hormones tested by a former neurologist, but it was soon after I stopped hormonal birth control and it was a single blood test (results were normal from what I remember). For this test, I have to fill 11 tubes with spit on particular days throughout my cycle. It's supposed to work better because it's taken before, during and after ovulation, and saliva carries a certain kind of hormones, or something like that. The cost will be $200, but I haven't been taking regular meds or having frequent copays, so that's my justification!

In addition to the test, I've been charting my cycles by taking my temperature every morning, using instructions from Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler. From what I can tell, my luteal phase is too short which means I have low progesterone levels. The former neurologist I mentioned above suspected I had that problem and had me visit a compounding pharmacy to get bioidentical progesterone, but then I saw a new neurologist and she told me stop taking them.

I have 10 more spit tubes to fill, freeze and mail, and then the company will send my gyno the results and we'll review them together. Side note, it's tough filling a tube - maybe 3/4 inch, with spit, not including the foam. The directions say you can chew sugar-free gum a few minutes beforehand, but I've cut fake sugars for good so that's not an option. I tried visualizing myself biting into a juicy strawberry, but that barely made my mouth water. Next time I'm going to look at pictures of food or maybe smell stuff in my fridge and see if that helps!