It's been a
wild ride, the past six months or so. Through the grace of God I have survived and come out the other side stronger and wiser!
Here's my story of my migraines...
At the end of last summer I noticed my health began to decline and my sleep was greatly disturbed. When fall season approached my allergies hit me HARD and took over my body negatively affecting every part of my life. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't function! If I wasn't sick, I was either getting sick or getting over being sick. I had cold after cold and sinus infection after sinus infection. I was plagued with headaches and sinus pressure and stuffy noses and achy throats and sore muscles and low fevers. I felt defeated everyday.
I never felt good. My life showed it. My house was a mess. My car was a mess. Everything felt like it was out of my control. I felt like grocery shopping and running any small errand was SUCH a hard chore. Life was challenging for nearly five months.
When the cold weather
FINALLY set in knocking out the ragweed I was allergic to in early December my allergies disappeared! Woohoo! But I noticed my headaches were still there and had been definitely getting worse. I had been having migraines for several weeks at this point. I would have to stop what I was doing and lay in a dark, quiet room with a heating pad wrapped around my head for sometimes an hour to get the migraine to lessen. No medicine would work and the heating pad was starting to not work as well.
After a particularly bad migraine, I made an appointment a neurologist. He set me up for an MRI, CT scan of my brain and an EEG. Everything came out normal. Whew. Then came the meds. But nothing worked. Medicine after medicine failed to take the pain away. At this point the horrible headaches were coming more frequently, almost daily. After reaching out on Facebook, nearly desperate for relief one day, a church friend recommended another neurologist. I quickly made an appointment. I really clicked with this doctor. He was friendly and easy to communicate with. Unfortunately he said he could not help me at this point. BUT. He gave me the name and number of a well-known neurologist in Houston who could. Dr. Ninan Mathew in the Museum District. Thankfully I was able to get an appointment within a week, which was amazing since people come from all over the world to see this doctor.
Dr. Mathew wasn't the easiest doctor to communicate with but he knew his stuff to say the least. After seeing me for the first time (I had a horrible migraine while at my appointment) he guessed the cause was a combination of depression, anxiety and lack of sleep. He admitted me to the hospital right away. I was given a combination of several IVs and pills to STOP the cycle of the daily headaches and intense pain. It sort of worked, off and on. I was in the hospital for three days.
When I was released the pain came back immediately and came back with strong intensity. I felt so discouraged.
What was the answer? Who had the answer? Where was I to turn? I prayed hard, but felt lost and anxious.
At this point I was simply loading up on Maxalt daily, the only medicine that seemed to work. But my insurance wasn't covering as much as I needed since I had to take the medicine every single day! I prayed and prayed asking God for guidance. I asked him for peace. I prayed for rest. I prayed for hope to find the answer. My migraines were now affecting my life in a very negative way. Everything was falling apart. I struggled to hold it all together. Every morning I woke up telling myself to be positive and sending prayers up to God giving him thanks for ALL He has blessed us with. But I still felt disheartened. I just wanted relief.
The pain was wearing down my mind, body and soul.
So back to the hospital I went. Dr. Mathew admitted me again, but this time for nearly a week. And this time around I had relief! No pain during my entire five-day hospital stay! Although the hospital made me quite anxious, I stayed strong through prayer and support from family and made it pain-free. Things were definitely looking up. Finally something, some combination of medicines and IVs were working. My head felt numb with meds and it felt amazing.
I was released on a bitterly cold and windy Thursday. My mom picked me up from Park Plaza hospital. We were both so at peace with my situation. It had been a long road and my journey of painful migraines was nearing the end.
Then Friday I woke up feeling like I had been hit by a truck in the face.
It was all back. Every bit of it.
Just like I had never been in the hospital. The ironic thing here is now I had HOPE! God had graced me with His peace and His hope and His comfort. I felt strongly even though this evil pain was back, I was SO close to finding the root of all of this. After months and months of praying He had answered me. He
covered me with peace. I thanked Him over and over. God is SO great and faithful. I knew He would be there for me and not forsake me.
That weekend I very randomly (or
not so "randomly"!) met a friend of a friend at a gathering. I overheard this lady talking when something caught my ear. I jumped in asking her more about her discussion. She continued to say she had Celiac Disease and talked about how she discovered she had it a year ago. I then told her about my migraines and other odd symptoms I had been having the past few months. We both got chills as she said that
ALL of the things I just listed are symptoms of Celiac Disease. She quickly gave me a book on it and said here's my number, go get tested for Celiac and call me if you have questions.
And so began my journey with Celiac.
I dove head first into "googling" that night. Again I found I had 10-15 symptoms of this disease. It's sounds ominous, saying I might have a disease. But Celiac Disease really just means your body cannot process gluten. It's an autoimmune disease, not a food allergy, as many believe it to be. So to cure the symptoms, you must live on a
gluten-free diet.
I have been on a gluton-free diet for almost three days now. And guess what? Yep.
No headaches.
No migraines. More energy. More smiles. Life is good. No, life is spectacular. I feel like I can conquer ANYTHING.
I was tested for Celiac last week but will not know the results until this week. There is a good chance I will not have the disease, and I may just be what they call "Celiac sensitive" or "Gluten sensitive". There is also a good chance I may not have the disease OR be sensitive. But either way, I have staying on this diet to cleanse my body and improve my low immune. My immune has been low for years and it's time for that to change.
This entire process had been trying. And exhausting in every single way. It's stretched my mind, body and soul. And it's still not over with. But
wow have I grown! And I know that it's part of God's plan for me. He continues to use these trials in my life to transform me from the inside out. God has shown me how to be
patient,
obedient and
positive. I'm a more peaceful, calm person after this experience. I understand how crucial it is to have a peaceful, restful mind, body and heart. He has proven how powerful this is. Before, I was so anxious and never slowed down to focus on myself and simply BE STILL. "Be Still, And Know That I Am God." I remind myself that every single day.
Thank you for listening to my story. I hope part of my story inspires you or touches you in some way. Life is FULL of hardships. But take comfort that we are never
ever walking this life alone. He is with us
every step of the way...
Walking beside us, loving us, holding our hand and sometimes even
carrying us through the pain.
