Chiropractor v's Migraine

Another year and another possible cure for my migraines.  I am working my way through them all, just for you dear reader.  Today it is the turn of the chiropractor to see if he can click my migraines away for me.  It started with the usual slew of interrogations and form signings, the type of which we become accustom to when entering the realm of a new practitioner.

Once we got down to the matter in hand, my shirt was off and I was lying on my front ready to be clicked.  Only he isn't the sort of chiropractor who clicks.  He can click my back if I want, but he doesn't.  Apparently there isn't any benefit to it and other practitioners only do it for show.  I have to say that I was a little disappointed as I was expecting one huge clunk and my migraines would fade into the distance.  Ok, maybe I was hoping for a bit too much, but one can dream.  To his credit, he was very methodical in his methods.  He actually runs a migraine clinic so specialises in treating people with head pain so my hopes were high.

The aim of our sessions was to work the muscles that get tense when I get a migraine.  After a brief feel of my back, he sat me up and started by working the muscles in my cheek, but not just from the outside.  I was a little put off by this intrusion into my mouth.  Yes, that wasn't a typo.  He massaged from inside my mouth.  A very odd start to the session, but surprisingly I could feel the tension there, so kudos to the doc.

From then on things got... well even stranger.  I was expecting manipulation of my back and neck with a bit of arm bending and head clicking.  I wasn't expecting the mouth, ears, arm-pits or eyes.  This man was on a mission and that mission was to find the route cause of my migraines.  He was chasing tense muscles around my body and as soon as he felt happy that one area had been calmed, he followed the muscular path to the next. 

Let me tell you, manipulating muscles in your arm-pits is something that I would not recommend you try.  There are certain parts of your body that you know are off-limits and then there are others that you randomly discover and very quickly add to the forbidden list.  Arm-pits are now on mine.  Try as I might, I cannot find the words to portray the odd, stabbing, penetrating, pressure that felt almost as if he were inside my body.  Ok it seems that I have found some words to describe it and I will add another one for good measure.  Bizarre.

There were some interesting side plots to his quest.  My shoulders clunk when I raise and lower them.  Apparently this shouldn't happen and he was determined to stop this from happening.  I am sorry to say that he failed in this quest.  I am also sorry to say that he failed in his mission to cure my migraines.  He did change their nature somewhat.  It is hard to describe but my migraines felt different.  Like an old friend suddenly turning up all smiles riding a brand new bike when you know that they've never ridden a bike before.  Same friend... same smile... different mode of transport.

After six treatments of chase the pain around my body, the doc finally admitted that he wasn't getting anywhere and that he didn't think that it was worth me spending any more money.  Again, kudos to the doc as I was ready to hand over my hard earned cash for more hope.  But it seemed that was it.  Back to the drawing board again.

Massage Giants and Migraines

There is a knock at the door and a 17 1/2 stone giant turns up with a Yorkshire accent declares; "I'm here to give you a massage".  In he trundled with a 21 year old folding bed (much stronger than the cheap ones they make nowadays he tells me) and a bag full of oils and gadgets (only a few of which he ever uses).

So why not.  I've tried so many other possible treatments to alleviate my migraine, why not massage.  This is why I booked him for a home visit.  If nothing else, at least I would feel relaxed afterwards.  So I undress my top half and get on this antiquated bed with a little trepidation but it did feel quite sturdy.  Then he prepared the hole.  You know the one.  It allows your head to point straight down so you don't have to bend your neck through a 45 degree angle and force your body to twist behind it.  Well my massage giant put a clean, but well used towel over the hole.  That's over it.  Not around it.  And told me to lie down.  So breathing wasn't quite as easy as perhaps it should be but I'll be ok.

As he grabs my right arm and pulls it sharply upwards (I am lying down by this point so imagine a half way arm lock) he starts to regale me with stories of his working life.  As a prison guard.  I can only imagine that he uses a similar technique on the inmates.  It wasn't the most pleasant massage position I have ever received.  Then he shoves his fingers underneath my now raised shoulder blade and thrusts them back and forth.

Um... permission to scream in pain???  Oh, ok permission denied.

But then the strangest thing happened.  Whatever muscle he has been pummelling must have decided that under the circumstances, after taking each view into consideration and looking at all of the options from each perspective, considering that there was a 17 1/2 stone giant attacking it, the best thing to do was probably to do what it was being asked to do and relax.  The pain under my shoulder blade disappeared.

Gently placing my arm by my side he decided to turn his attention to my neck.  This involved standing at the top of the bed, holding my head in both hands, and pulling.  Really pulling.  I mean really, really pulling.  You can stop now as my head might come off pulling.

By this point I was starting to get a little scared and decided to try and steer things to a conclusion.  As it happened, this was pretty much all he had to offer.  There was a bit more light pummelling on my back, but it felt like a bit of an afterthought and that was that.

As I was about to get up he grabbed me with both hands and lifted me, horizontally, off the bed, twisted me forwards to a dead vertical stop with my feet on the ground glad to be under my own control again.  He didn't want to put any undue strain on the legs of his bed.

The next day I got a migraine!  Yes I know that you are meant to give these things a while to start working... But would you have done???

Botox for Migraines - The Results, part 1

I had Botox treatment for my migraines nearly 3 weeks ago (http://anothermigraine.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/botox-for-migraines-part-2.html) and it's time to report back on how it went.

So let's start from where we left off.  At the end of my last post I reported that I had a migraine threatening to come out.  Well the bad news is that it did turn into a full migraine.  The good news is that following a triptan it disappeared within 15 minutes.  This is much better than the normal reaction I get to taking triptans. Normally the migraine will get worse and then about an hour later I realise that it is fading and has gone.  As I was told that the effects of the Botox could take up to 2 weeks to fully work, I saw this as a really good sign that it was working.

Day two was clear which was also a good sign.  At that point I was getting 25 days of pain ever 30 with 15 of them being migraines and the others just being background pain.  I was long overdue a clear day by this point as I had just gone 11 days straight with either background or migraine, so this wasn't conclusive proof that the Botox had worked, but certainly another good sign.

Day three and a migraine was forcing it's way out, but it disappeared before it really started.  Day four was another clear day so we are down to 23 days of pain and 13 migraine in the last 30.  This is starting to look good.  I was getting a little excited that this might actually work.  I mean, I had only been waiting for the treatment for the last 14 months.

Day five and another migraine trying to get out only this time it succeeds.  Strangely it is on my left side again, just like the last one.  This is unusual as most of my migs are on the right.  I hate left sided ones as I am not used to dealing with the pain on that side.  It's funny how your body adjusts to cope with situations.  The other strange this about this migraine is that it was all in my shoulders and not so much in my head.  My wife offered to massage them as this often helps to relieve the pain.  But, the second she touched my shoulders, I hit the roof!  Wow they was sensitive.  A sort of buzzing, bruised pain.

The good news was the the triptan got rid of it really quickly again.  The bad news was that the next day  I got another really sensitive shoulder pain, but not quite migraine.  A nurofen took the pain away which made a nice change as usually, normal over the counter medications never touch my migraines, so again, this wasn't such a bad development.

That is until the migraines didn't stop coming.  The shoulder pain thankfully died down, but was replaced with my normal migraines.  Let's fast forward 2 weeks to today and I am up to 28 days of pain out of 30 with 14 being migraines.  Interesting that the migraines are slightly down and it is the background pain that is up.  The only thankful thing is that my migraines don't incapacitate me.  I am still able to function, most of the time, if a little groggier and so I have been told, at time a little more grumpy.  But at least I don't have to lie in a darkened room with a flannel over my head, and I have heard of those who do!

I put a call in to the doctor last week and his secretary told me that he was away until today so she will speak to him to see if there is anything that he can suggest that might help until I can have the treatment again.  Oh yes dear reader, I am not giving up that easily.  Attempt one may have dismally failed, but the next time they can up the dose and I am going in armed with more information.  I can't have the next treatment for 3 months after the first, so I have until the end of February to wait, so stay tuned until then and I will update you...

(Sadly, due to the amount of false & spam comments, as of March 2015 I am not allowing any more comments to be placed against this single post.  Feel free to contact me if you have any genuine comments to make).