Needles/Chinese Stuff and Other Headache Associated Escapades

My battle against headaches began a long, long time ago.  Over the years, along with varying stress levels, my headaches have also waxed and waned.  Over the past year however, I had reached the number of sick days that I personally considered acceptable, and simply from migraines.  No hospitalizations, severe illness or near death experiences.

I started getting concerned that someone in my office would start to wonder if I was out playing hooky instead of having my head actually buried in a dark room, under 10 layers of blankets, noise canceling headphones on my ears despite no sound in the house and a sleep mask over my eyes waiting for the 2nd dose of the triptan to start working.

I am in no way trying to down-pay these headaches/migraines.  They are the absolute worst.  They are severely debilitating headaches.  Hit in the face by a 2x4 headaches.  Vomiting inducing headaches.

I have dabbled over the years in something called complementary alternative medicine (CAM).  Alternative medicine.  Hmmm, sounds interesting.  The first time that I was referred, I really thought that my doctor was sending me there because she thought that I was pretending.

I was given a handout by the neurologist and given the name to the doctor for biofeedback.  I made an appointment and showed up open to the idea but 10% skeptical.  Over the next 2 sessions, I sat in a super cozy room and was taught how to calm my body, look at the back of my eyelids, relax, and feel my blood pump through my body.  This was actually really cool and I was able to relax very quickly and raise my body temperature in my fingers and feel 100% better by the time I left.

Although I didn't stick to it, I think I still able able to use some of these techniques today.  I never found the time in my busy work day to have a "time-out" and use my finger thermometer to calm myself and warm my body to reduce temperatures.

With yet an increase frequency of headaches, my medicines were simply not working again.   The migraine relief medications were not working.  And the  headache prevention medications were not working either.  Not one of the THREE of them were working and not to mention the terrible side effects that they cause.  It is truly difficult to function as a professional (yes, sometimes, I try to call myself this) when I cannot remember words.  One of my medications (Topamax) has a lovely side effect that causes patients to have an inability to remember the names of things.  I can describe the word, but simply cannot name it.  Perhaps an example will help.

Describing the events of the weekend to a co-worker on Monday, I described "We went to the… the… the, the water museum this weekend." She skeptically replied, "Do you mean the aquarium? You went to the aquarium?"   This happens much too frequently and I usually talk slower than normal so I can avoid that word in conversation.  This has become what is is known as a classic Topamax moment in our office of pharmacy humor.


The next escapade in my quest for a better head was Botox.  And not the kind of Botox for wrinkles, but Botox injections in my head for headaches.  I showed up at the appointment, signed consent forms, and the doctor came in with a big needle to stick in my head.  Now, I have had nerve blocks in my head before, so the needle did not scare me, but what did scare me was what the doctor brought along with the needle.  She had what seemed like a well-loved printed black and white paper diagram of where to give the injections.  

I laid on my back and the doctor placed the diagram next to my head and started sticking the needle into my head into where I would assume it looked like the diagram showed.  Seemed pretty accurate.  I turned onto my stomach and she repeated on the other side.  All done.

Two days later, after washing my face, I looked up into the mirror and found a Halloween character that was myself!  Serious!?  Half of my eyebrows didn't work anymore.  This is what I looked like.  Well, pretty much.  That f-ing diagram!  

Two short months after the Botox experiment, I had a trip to the ER for a 5 day long persistent migraine.  This was really the first time in all of my pharmacy profession that I actually doubted the efficacy of medications.  Maybe there was really something to that complementary alternative medicine business or the link between food and the utility of a headache diary.

I jotted down a few notes at work to remind myself of my new ideas.  At the end of the day, I came back to my to-do list to begin my google search.

Well clearly, I was clearly having another classic Topamax moment when I wrote this down.  It is obvious that I meant was acupuncture.  Had I not added Chinese stuff, the to-do item may have easily misinterpreted.  That was smart thinking.

Before I knew it I had booked my first my first appointment with a Chinese trained acupuncture guru.  I waited anxiously until my first appointment.

I arrived to find the most charming man who asked important questions and followed up with statements like: I should have seen him sooner (true, my bank account agrees), he believed he could cure me (score, I only have one direction to go!) and I need lots of needles (yikes!).  And away he went, gently and quickly poking in tiny needles in and putting a little pressure until I was covered head to toe.

He asked if I wanted to be covered with a shiny heat blanket and if I wanted music and told me to relax.  Lights off, and away I went into a mental exercise of keeping entirely still.  If I even thought about moving, ouch I felt the needle stabbing into the muscle.  No other choice but to breathe and keep calm.  The blaring Chinese harp music lulled me into sleep until my whole body flinched into a state of awake and stabbing.  Ouch, better stay awake.



He came into the room to quickly remove the needles.  My head already felt better.  He told me he had high hopes for me and I was trilled.  I had high hopes too!  Upon leaving the room I scoped out the needle collection and giant sharps container.  It looked like a porcupine had shed everywhere.  Stay away from there.  Good thing I didn't look in there first!  And I'm not even scared of needles.

I have been back to see my favorite guy 2 more times and my headache frequency had decreased probably 80%.  That is incredible!  Forget the science.  He was right!  I should have been there sooner. I don't need to have paralyzed, crazy eyebrows and have the inability to speak.  I just need to have my body poked with little needles and relax every couple of days for a little while.

For the past week and a half I have had manageable headaches.  Needles/Chinese stuff is the best Topamax moment I have ever had!