Alternatives

I've embarked upon a number of searches to find ways to manage my migraines other than medication.

Acupuncture: I still do this, once a week when I feel up to the drive on a Saturday morning. It kills a migraine dead, plus I like my acupuncturist a great deal (he's a fellow krav student). I have no idea if it has any lasting effect, but a short term effect stronger than meds? I'm all about that.

Biofeedback: I probably gave up on these sessions too soon. I admit I balk very quickly when a doctor's front desk people give me grief, but still. I got to the point where I could increase the blood flow to my extremities mostly on demand, and that could help alleviate migraines if done really early on. I still use that now. The problem with the other stuff was that I can't tell the difference without the monitoring equipment. I mean, I managed to do it, but only because I could tell by reading what was working and what wasn't. The memory of the effort wasn't enough for me to be able to duplicate it when unwired.

Pain management: This is totally apart from migraine meds. I've had two things--nerve blocks (2 of the 3 worked really well), and trigger point injections (oddly, the ones given to me by my pain management guy worked less well than the ones from one specific ER doc, or my primary care physician).

Dietary modification: I have some really obvious triggers. Artificial sweeteners and nitrites are pretty much guaranteed to cause a migraine. All the migraine specialists I spoke to said to keep avoiding what I could tell was a problem and to ignore anything more subtle. However people more into dietary mods keep telling me it's gluten or it's yeast or some other thing that would stop me from eating bread. I admit, I'm not that open-minded about giving those things a shot. It's not that I think the solution to the migraine problem needs to be easy--just that I don't know I have the energy to stick to anything that's not. My ER escort, as noted earlier, thinks that more salt=fewer migraines. He enjoyed forcing me to finish my bacon last night. Does that still count as sadism, if it's for my own good? Well, it probably doesn't count as sadism because I got a chocolate cupcake for my troubles. Still, pretty close. (side note: bacon's nitrites have never sparked a migraine, but most other meats will give me the whammy)

Physical therapy: This is either good or bad. On a delicate day like yesterday, they can't really touch me without triggering a migraine. I quit my last PT guy for a number of reasons, but even if I hadn't I was going to make sure he stopped working my neck. The pain bounces right up into a migraine, and he provoked at least one sick day before I bolted. The current PT people--well, I get a light massage, some ultrasound, heat, ice, and electrical stimulation, and then they watch me do my daily exercise. The best thing about them is that I get no grief for last-minute cancellations. My life has to be as cancellation-friendly as possible, sadly.

Psychotherapy: This is pissing me off. This post became more urgent because of the call I just took. I decided to go to a therapist to get coping mechanisms for my response to migraines. The guy decided he wanted to cure them. Admirable, but not the point. Not my point, anyway. I saw him 4 or 5 times, and was never able to get him back on the track *I* thought I needed. So, with the impending hospitalisation, I cancelled my upcoming appointments via phone message, telling him that I'd re-evaluate my direction after the DHE infusion. The bit where he calls me a couple days later to ask me to go over my intentions at least twice? Not endearing him to me. The bit where he tells me that my neuro and migraine guru want me to see a therapist? Not convincing me to make that therapist *him*. I hate being nagged, and he's nowhere near enough to me to get away with it.

Botox: Boy, did I hate this. I lost the ability to furrow my brows. And that's a key part of my teaching style. But seriously--it made no impact whatsoever on the frequency or severity of my migraines, and even the partial paralysis (didn't affect the lower half of my forehead) wore off pretty quickly. Figures, doesn't it? My body killed that toxin right dead.