My Migraine History

When I began my ketogenic journey I wasn't focused on losing weight at all, but rather on improving my health.  I was plagued with a number of health issues that were beginning to snowball out of control and I felt really awful.  All of the time.  It was horrible and it was getting scary.  In my mind I was too young to be feeling this way.  

The crazy thing was, that the things I was most worried about wasn't what concerned my doctor.  He was most concerned with the fact that I was having migraine headaches every couple of weeks and they were lasting anywhere from 3 to 10 days.  Sometimes I'd just get over one and a few days later get hit again.  Something needed to change.

I was fourteen years old and sitting in English class taking an exam the first time I ever experienced a migraine headache.  I had no idea what was happening as my vision became obscured, there were zigzags in my peripheral followed by confusion, as well as numbness and tingling on one side of my body.  It scared the crap out of me.  I left class, climbed onto the school bus and went home where my mom knew what was going on.  Her mother had been a migraine sufferer and I never knew that.  She gave me some aspirin and sent me to bed in my darkened room where I stayed for three grueling days until it went away.  Worst pain ever.

And so it began.

When I was nineteen almost twenty years old I had a stroke during the night, in fact I had two of them that day.  I didn't know I had had a stroke and dismissed it as a pinched nerve or something.  But later that evening when I had the second one I knew something was wrong and went to the hospital.  Doctors looked for everything from MS to a brain tumor not even suspecting it was a stroke, simply because I was so young.  The cause was never really determined at the time, however my neurologist was certain it was likely related to my migraines.  The type I have, where they interfere with my vision, speech, cognition and cause numbness on one side is the worst type of migraine you can get.  He also diagnosed me with Inflammatory CNS Disease and sadly, there was not much they could do to treat me other than to prescribe steroids for the inflammationand pain medication for the headaches.

As time went on the migraines worsened.  Steroids didn't help and the pain medication was as debilitating as the migraines.  As a single mom I had to push through and go to work and manage it as best I could and I did.  Over the years these migraines were taking their toll.  I've had some TIA (mini strokes) activity over the years and two of them in the last year.  Something had to change.  I knew I was in trouble.

With no viable medical or pharmaceutical options available to me at this time I was open to trying anything, within reason of course.  When my doctor suggested giving the ketogenic diet a try I didn't even really know what it was.  But, I figured why not?  What did I have to lose?

Now I know a lot more about health and nutrition than I ever thought possible.  And I am so very happy that I am doing this.  For me it has been an incredible transformation and I feel like I have my life back.  I have only had one migraine since I began my journey.  That is a HUGE improvement in and of itself.  But, in addition, I am seeing some dramatic improvements with my other health issues as well.  I'm getting better!  Every day!

Now instead of just hoping, I feel much more confident that I have a good solid future ahead of me.  It's going to be a great life.  And I'm really looking forward to it.