On ending migraines
Wednesday, 8 July 2009 08:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
da[I've not posted this partly because I don't want to jinx it, but at the same time- good news!]
Excellent news even- I have a non-drug remedy for my headaches.
It may have had something to do with:
- a bunch of physio appointments to un-stick a few vertebrae in my neck;
- a few (possibly ineffectual) acupuncture visits with same physiotherapist;
And it definitely had to do with:
- 9 days away at the Quaker confab, including some sort of "stress reset button" when I got handed an entirely different things to fixate on for the time there;
- five minutes with my friend Amy, who is an acupuncturist/acupressure practitioner.
- other factors, such as the very mellow massage I got from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
peaceofpie.
But the real biggie was Amy's accupressure points- on Tuesday morning I mentioned to her I was disappointed that the acupuncture back home hadn't had any positive effect, and she said, why don't you try pressing your thumb fingernail on your other hand right [here] in the web next to your thumb? On the right hand if the pain's behind your left eye, and vice-versa? So I did, and blam, the headache went away in under 5 minutes of pressing on my hand! Woah.
I got goosebumps. And the headache came back, and I did it again, and it went away again.
I had read about those pressure-points before, and tried them, to no effect, but I wasn't pressing hard enough, and I didn't have the right part of my hand.
All week I expected the migraines to come back just as bad. Instead they came milder and easier to get rid of. Like magic. And maybe there was magic involved; I don't know what all my friends were doing for me there... :)
All the old triggers are still triggers: not enough sleep, stress... But the pressure-points win over both of them. Wow.
Wednesday as an experiment I spent the afternoon in sun without sunglasses, and I got a dull headache. Yes, a boring dull headache- the kind I remember getting before the migraines took over a few years ago.
The other big factor is stress- on Saturday morning I was feeling quite stressed about travel and having to re-enter normal life again- and the migraine went away with the pressure points, but I found I could affect how it came back, by doing bits of meditation and by telling myself sensible things like "I don't need to do everything on my todo list on the day I get back." "I won't forget my passport again, I've already checked it's in my pocket." And so on.
This has felt like a successful science experiment- at this point I'm dealing with figuring out what I should do with the stress-factors so that they don't even get me to the headaches.
And also, it still feels like magic. And I have yet another thing to be grateful for.
Excellent news even- I have a non-drug remedy for my headaches.
It may have had something to do with:
- a bunch of physio appointments to un-stick a few vertebrae in my neck;
- a few (possibly ineffectual) acupuncture visits with same physiotherapist;
And it definitely had to do with:
- 9 days away at the Quaker confab, including some sort of "stress reset button" when I got handed an entirely different things to fixate on for the time there;
- five minutes with my friend Amy, who is an acupuncturist/acupressure practitioner.
- other factors, such as the very mellow massage I got from
peaceofpie. But the real biggie was Amy's accupressure points- on Tuesday morning I mentioned to her I was disappointed that the acupuncture back home hadn't had any positive effect, and she said, why don't you try pressing your thumb fingernail on your other hand right [here] in the web next to your thumb? On the right hand if the pain's behind your left eye, and vice-versa? So I did, and blam, the headache went away in under 5 minutes of pressing on my hand! Woah.
I got goosebumps. And the headache came back, and I did it again, and it went away again.
I had read about those pressure-points before, and tried them, to no effect, but I wasn't pressing hard enough, and I didn't have the right part of my hand.
All week I expected the migraines to come back just as bad. Instead they came milder and easier to get rid of. Like magic. And maybe there was magic involved; I don't know what all my friends were doing for me there... :)
All the old triggers are still triggers: not enough sleep, stress... But the pressure-points win over both of them. Wow.
Wednesday as an experiment I spent the afternoon in sun without sunglasses, and I got a dull headache. Yes, a boring dull headache- the kind I remember getting before the migraines took over a few years ago.
The other big factor is stress- on Saturday morning I was feeling quite stressed about travel and having to re-enter normal life again- and the migraine went away with the pressure points, but I found I could affect how it came back, by doing bits of meditation and by telling myself sensible things like "I don't need to do everything on my todo list on the day I get back." "I won't forget my passport again, I've already checked it's in my pocket." And so on.
This has felt like a successful science experiment- at this point I'm dealing with figuring out what I should do with the stress-factors so that they don't even get me to the headaches.
And also, it still feels like magic. And I have yet another thing to be grateful for.
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no subject
Date: Thursday, 9 July 2009 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Thursday, 9 July 2009 02:26 am (UTC)you can't see the dance i'm doing on behalf of your head, but believe me, i am doing it.
you were definitely sleeping much more clearly by the end of the week. you finally started breathing like a sleeping person instead of like...i dunno how to describe it in human words, but at the beginning of the week you weren't breathing like you were getting good sleep.
fun tidbit about those acupressure points: you are never supposed to squeeze them on someone who is pregnant, unless you're trying to induce labor. there's another set like that near the achilles tendon, and another on the top of the shoulders. so if you find yourself pregnant, you'll need to find a different method. ;-)
i had totally forgotten you were needing help with headaches when i worked on you, since you specifically mentioned your shoulder at the time. i get so focused when i work on someone that i forget things like that they have told me at times when i'm not being their massage therapist sometimes, and my brain was going "he said to work on his back and shoulder!" and my hands were going "work on his head and feet!" (foot reflexology is totally kick-ass for headaches!)
regardless, you were/are in a REALLY good space for some hardcore energetic healing and it's awesome to see you opening yourself to that and letting it work. i feel like you've got a lot of good internal cleansing going on, pathways opening that have been blocked or even just unused.
you are taking such good care of yourself! this makes me really happy to see. :)
you're a rock star, daniel allen. keep on rocking! :D