Lifeunwitnessed- Healing Journey

 Today is day 28 of my trigger-free diet, and during that time, I have had four migraines.  The first was on day 1, so doesn't really count, but, it seems that maybe I'm still eating something that is a trigger. Before I started the diet, I had gotten in to some bad eating habits which probably didn't help the migraine situation at all.  For example, I had Cacao (chocolate) powder in my shake every morning.  There were Smarties in my freezer that I would snack on after dinner.  I ate a lot of parmesan cheese and goat feta.  I drank at least two cups of decaf tea in a day.  There were hamburger buns and chicken fingers full of gluten.  I wasn't exercising very much (that's not eating but it has an effect).  So, even though I knew all of these things were potentially causing migraines, I didn't want to give them up.  I wanted to be normal, to eat whatever I wanted to.  It felt like so much work to eat 'healthily'. COVID has actually b...

 Before I started out on this food exploration, I already knew a few things that would cause me a migraine without a doubt.  They are as follows: -Sun:  If I end up out in the sun for too long, it is inevitable that I will end up with a migraine.  No amount of water seems to work. -Stress:  Following a period of stress, I will most likely get a headache at the end of it.  I'm not sure if that's from the stress itself, or because I tend to eat a lot of comfort foods when I'm stressed and most of them are triggers. -Menstruation:  When I first got migraines, it was always one week before my period.  Now, it seems to be on the day I start my period.  Either way, not fun. -Alcohol:  I've never been a drinker, and maybe it's because alcohol gives me migraines.  It's also probably because I have control issues, but that's another story. -Caffeine:  Never been a coffee drinker, but I used to drink tea and Coke.  A little bit of c...

 Looks like I spoke too soon yesterday- I had a migraine last night.  I immediately started to look for the cause.  Did I eat anything different or unusual yesterday?  What was going on during my day?   I did have a peach tea that made me feel a little off, maybe it was that.  I also had some crackers and a gluten-free ginger snap, maybe it was those.  Or maybe I just got a headache. This leads me to another dimension of my migraine journey, and that's whether on some subconscious level, I am causing my headaches as part of my upper limit beliefs.  In the book The Big Leap , Gay Hendricks writes about how upper limiting beliefs can lead us to self sabotage our happiness.  For whatever reason, some of us feel like we don't deserve or aren't worthy of happiness.  Because of things that happened in our past, we feel that we are only allowed so much success.  We have beliefs that there is an upper limit to our own happiness and tha...

 In his book Medical Medium , Anthony Williams addresses migraines in its own chapter.  He begins by suggesting that there are multiple causes of migraines which makes it very hard to determine the cause or causes because they overlap and many doctors aren't actually aware of all the causes.  Now, I must tell you at this point that Anthony Williams is not a medical doctor, nor is he a researcher.  He is a medical medium and most of his information comes from Spirit but he's also been doing this for many years and has a significant amount of anecdotal information. He first suggests that you look at physical causes in the brain and nervous system such as concussion, stroke, brain tumour...if you do not have any physical causes then 'you are in the mystery realm'.  Many doctors leave you here and suggest medication to deal with the migraine pain.  However, Williams introduces a series of other potential causes of migraines.  They are as follows:  Eps...

As I've already written, I've been struggling with migraines for the last 25 years.  During that time, I've looked to various healers, doctors and research to try to determine their cause.  I have a friend who also gets migraines.  She has it worse than me.  She gets around 10 a month.  Her neurologist has basically said to her- you get migraines, don't waste your time trying to figure it out.  I can understand that logic, but there's something in me that refuses to just live with the headaches. I know that one migraine a month is related to hormones.  My doctor's response to that was to put me on birth control pills and never take a break from them so that I just didn't menstruate.  It worked some of the time, but not all the time and being on the pill made me fill ick most of the time, so I stopped.  I believe that the act of menstruating brings wonderful clearing to our bodies and isn't something we should play with. I've seen an osteopath...

 I've really been missing tea.  I used to drink 2-3 cups of decaf tea a day.  I'm now pulling out my favourite pottery mug and filling it with hot water, just to continue the ritual of having something nice and warm to drink.  I also have a guilty pleasure- Chai tea lattes.  Full of milk, sugar and caffeine, they are a definite no go for the Migraine trigger-free diet. So, why don't I just drink herbal teas?  Well, most herbal teas started as medicines.  If you look into the history of mint tea or camomile, they have medicinal properties (mint is good for digestion and camomile is for relaxation).  To me, drinking herbal teas feels like taking medicine in a way.  My body really reacts to them, usually with a feeling of discomfort. So, I haven't found an herbal tea to replace my decaf tea, although I do like lemon balm, but it is too soothing to drink during the day. You may ask why not just continue to drink decaffeinated black tea.  Wel...

I had a migraine last night and it was a doozy. I've been feeling pretty good that last few days.  My head felt clearer.  I didn't feel as foggy or sluggish.  It's been a bit of struggle to find interesting things to eat but, have been doing ok there too.  But I could feel the headache coming on last night as we were finishing dinner.  Just a faint ache at that point, but by 9 o'clock, I was sensitive to smells and noises and was starting to feel nauseous.  By 11:25, it was full blown.  Took my meds but it still wasn't gone until I took an Advil about an hour later.  This morning, I had the usual dopiness from the medications, but thank goodness, the headache is gone. So, where did this headache come from?  There are a couple of different things that might have been the culprit.  First, we ordered in burritos Wednesday night.  I thought I was being good- I got a burrito bowl so as to avoid the wheat; no cheese, guacamole or beans b...