During the first few months of introducing the Magnesium Citrate, I wasn’t taking as much as what I needed initially, so therefore, symptoms from the Vestibular Migraines would still be quite strong at times; nausea, paralysis on my left side when the migraines were at their height and slurring when I would speak…”Suffering Succotash”…(my time as Sylvester the Cat).  Over time, those symptoms decreased incredibly as I increased the magnesium.

My family doctor also started me on Triptans; Frovatriptan then Zolmitriptan to take instead of the Atasol 30’s to stop any major migraine coming in between my doses of Codeine. The triptans were more of a rescue medicine. They did work for a short period but I found I didn’t need them as much after increasing my magnesium citrate.

Weeks had passed recovering from the major gallbladder/liver attack episode, and finding food that did not hurt me from the moment I started eating until it left my body became extremely hard to find. I asked about going Gluten Free again and was pretty much told if I wanted to I could try it but it would be better to just maintain the rationale of anything in moderation. Once again, “I do eat moderately and that is not working.” I found that after eating sandwiches, not only would the rock in my stomach get bigger, but my headaches would increase. Then I began to realize that anything made with white flour was contributing to both pains. I took it under my own pursuit to give up wheat/gluten for a few days and see how I would feel. At this time I didn’t know that this was something I would really need to stick to for a period of time and that I would be going through a detox to get rid of the wheat from my system.

My headaches/migraines did decrease a bit and my digestive system was definitely much happier within the first few days but around 5 days in of giving up the wheat, my body was not feeling the best in other ways. I was even more nauseated and tired. I had increased muscle pain and shakes and I became very moody. I could feel myself wanting to get angry but tried to control my emotions as much as I could, feeling that this was more then likely a reaction. As I kept going, the days became even harder to handle with headaches now returning more rapidly. This scared me, and I went back to wheat/gluten containing foods, afraid I was doing more damage then good. Once again not getting results or answers, I returned to as many books and web pages I could find on Gluten Free Lifestyles.

At the same time I was also concerned about cows milk, should I go soy or almond or, or, or, or??? I just desperately wanted answers. I was told changing to soy is more of a personal preference. I should just maintain the montage of anything in moderation and I would be ok. I literally said “Ok listen, do I look like I’m not eating in moderation… like seriously… there is something not right here and I think it has a lot to do with food.

My final push to have a complete lifestyle overhaul happened on a weekend in July and at this time my husband was gone on a small trip to a concert with friends. I had to decline due to the drive, sharing the RV with a couple couples, and not because they are loud, just because any noise would bring about a migraine. Knowing sleeping patterns would be disrupted and the concert alone would push me over the edge with the loud sounds and lights flashing, I was out.

I don’t like calling them “migraines” because I have a hierarchy of the status of what type of headache mine could be at any given time. First there is the basic headache, the stress headache, the sensitivity/light headache, a migraine and vestibular migraines! YIKES! The vestibular migraines are the Grand Daddies. First is the off balanced, nauseous urging followed by the paralysis and loss of speech. Then pain builds and becomes sooo atrocious that when you feel like you were about to fall asleep it would pierce your brain back to consciousness with a brutal massive sharp stab and the only way you could finally fall asleep is when that pain got soooo agonizing you would soon pass out and thankfully sleep. When you wake you can hardly remember how or when you finally passed out, it’s a scary feeling that feels like that’s what it must be like to die, and you wake thankful that you didn’t.   I will go into detail for each in a bit. But this day I got walloped with a double, triple, quadruple vestibular migraine.

I lost feeling on my left side and my speech was slurring worse as each 20 minutes progressed. I could hardly move my left side at all and I barricaded myself in my migraine chamber (bedroom). I had everything in me to even get a text out to my friend to please come over for my little one’s sake, for the light from my iPhone was piercing through my eyes like knives. It takes a lot for me to ask for help but as the paralysis got worse, I my own self wanted someone home with me in case it was going to go badly. After all, the vestibular part of the migraines were still relatively new to me and felt like what a stroke gets described like. Once again my daughter is left with ghost mommy, a faint shadow of what mommy used to be. My friend came immediately and stayed all afternoon. I think she got a bit of a scare herself to see me drop so fast. I knew in a few hours though, it would pass.

It’s intriguing to know how migraine sufferers know a timeline. It’s like …uhm… nope, this one will be a few hours …or… this one might be the whole day …or …this one is here for a few days… or … wow it’s a double medication one …or …a half medication one. I can tell by the different level of pain and body symptoms to how long it might last…usually.

I know my friend wanted to take me to the hospital, but I tried to console her that I knew in a few hours the symptoms would relax. My main concern was, I needed someone here with my daughter so I could sleep peacefully and so she would not be stressed. By early evening I was coming around and able to get up. I was extremely appreciative my friend was there for my daughter and me. But after this being one of the worst symptomatic vestibular migraines I had so far, I was done with the pain! The headaches would last all day everyday, just depended on the severity. Then, it would evolve into a massive migraine where it could be a day or days on end before lifting. Each time my daughter looked at me I saw the worry grow and thought… Okay, lets fix this Felix!

Choices were going to have to be made…time to start trusting my instincts.