irismigraine-blog

[irismigraine-blog]

More Pati Less Migraine

The only thing i was ever sure of was that I’d be in pain. Most big events turned into stress knowing at some point I’d start melting and throbbing from pain.

I assumed my pain was different but normal. Why ? Oh why do we tell ourselves the pain is normal? Or that it must be made up, or at least exaggerated. That in the end, medicating ourselves and pushing through the pain is the best we’re going to get. That all the painful side effects are needed because “now i have one less headache a month”.

I was always uncomfortable with people’s reactions to my pain. If they were sympathetic I started to feel bad and try and convince them it wasn’t so bad. If they told me to take a Tylenol and move on I’d be grumpy and then question if i was making it seem worse than it was. Migraines and anxiety feed off of each other constantly. So I usually hid it. Hid the physical pain and definitely the emotional pain. Hid it from family. Friends. Even from myself.

One day at work my cooworker, Mike, looked at me as I was holding myself up with the desk and trying not to shake.

“ You know, Its not normal to be in that much pain, and not at all to have it that often”  - Mike

“ Thank you, I appreciate your concern but I’m aware, thanks” - Me

“ You say that, but are you really aware ?” - Mike

I’m not sure if his concern was different from the usual, or if it was just the one that clicked in my head. All of a sudden I remembered all the times someone had shown real concern. All the different suggestions and ‘cures’ became attempts to help from people who were just as lost as I was.

I realized we all wanted a cure but no one had any clue, so in the end we assumed i was incurable. I would have given anything for a pill to cure my migraines, but what if my issue wasn’t froma medication deficiency?

Mike introduced me to his wife, Carleigh Tenzin. She sat down with me to really understand me and my migraines. She reinforced that the way i felt was not normal and should not be accepted. She took time to understand me as a person not only as a migraine. She asked about what pain mattered the most to me, and how my pain and life style affected each other.  I started thinking of the pain not as a separate entity or gremlin running around inside me, but more as a signal from my body.

She explained the 3 causes of illness. Chemical , Physical and Stress. How everything in our body is interconnected and having an imbalance in one area can affect all the others. She found several imbalances in my body and started working on counteracting them with acupuncture and herbs. At first I was amazed at the way one treatment could reduce my symptoms. How with one application I felt my head and neck break out of the pressure mold they lived in. But only through more sessions did we realize that the healing was acting on a much deeper level. The more we worked the better my entire body felt. I knew I had to share the knowledge when i forgot the constant neck pain and when i started to be able to differentiate muscle soreness due to activity from the constant pain that I was in.

I had forgotten what it was like to have a constant headache! After the treatment I had another one of my previous migraines that stuck around for 2 days. After feeling better for so long and suddenly having this pain back I immediately ran to the ER. I was hydrated and drugged and the pain only went away for a day. I went to see Carleigh the next day and she gave me an acute migraine Chinese herb to take at home. I slept the whole afternoon and woke up migraine free.

After this episode we realized we had more work to do. We took a more in depth look at my diet, stress level , emotional state , water intake, and trigger points, to name a few. I knew I had no food allergies but we found several food triggers. We also found ways to eat them in balanced meals to reduce the pain. We added Yoga poses to work on my tightness. And found meditation exercises to get myself to eat when I get headache nausea.

This experience has changed my life, hugely by getting rid of my horrible debilitating pain and also by changing the way work with me. By learning that sticking to a program with Iris Migraine can basically eliminate my pain, I learned I really can do anything I set my mind to.

[irismigraine-blog]

[irismigraine-blog]

Together we can work to have a life where pain only sometimes comes for a visit ! 🎉 🎉 Our bodies are hurting and trying to tells us they’re having a problem. We’ve been told to give them medicine until they feel better. But our pain is not a Tylenol deficiency!! Come see us and we can work on understanding your body and your pain !! Www.irismigraineandwellness.com (at Seattle, Washington)

[irismigraine-blog]

Yoga is a great way to get the body moving and all those tight muscles to start unwinding. 

One of the best ways to wake up and start preventing pain from the morning. Is to do five minutes of yoga every morning. 

Let’s work on our muscles together !