I’m Alicia and I’m a 32-year-old living
in Dallas, Tx who develops migraine-friendly recipes (check out my website at The Dizzy Cook and over on Instagram too). I started having terrible
vertigo over 2 years ago after I got back from a trip around Asia. It started
with a fleeting lightheaded feeling and slowly morphed into being all
encompassing vertigo.
I felt like I was moving when I was
sitting perfectly still. My eyes couldn’t focus properly and I could barely
keep my head up. Sometimes I felt like I was walking on clouds or incredibly
drunk.
It got to the point where I had to take
short term disability while doctor after doctor was perplexed. They told me it
was “just stress” or a perilymph fistula and I would need to get surgery.
After months of not leaving the house, my
husband drove me to the Mayo Clinic in Arizona to meet with an ENT. He
diagnosed me with vestibular migraine, something the 7 other doctors I saw
never mentioned. When I came back to Dallas I sought out a neuro-otologist, a
neurologist that treats inner ear disorders.
Since I was considering having kids in
the future, we started on a low dose of ativan and timolol eye drops rather
than a preventative. It’s not recommended to be on benzodiazepines as it can
surprise your vestibular system, but within a short time I was able to wean off
the ativan successfully.
I also began taking Magnesium Glycinate,
Vitamin D, and B2 vitamins daily. Within time I added vestibular therapy and
enrolled in a beginner’s ballet class. While I felt incredibly awkward at
first, all those relevés slowly helped me regain my balance. I got better at
staying on my toes for longer!
What really pushed me to about 95% was
the Heal Your Headache diet. It’s an elimination diet from the Heal Your
Headache book by David Buchholz and the John’s Hopkins Headache Centre. I
strictly followed the diet for about 4 months and started to reintroduce foods.
At one point I thought it was stupid and I was fed up with all the rules. I
tried yogurt, a food I had previously eaten every day, and everything around me
immediately started moving. I couldn’t believe something I had eaten every day
was secretly triggering my migraines. I’ve been able to add a few things back
in, but I find the diet is a great way to help me prevent my migraines
naturally.
I make sure to do some type of exercise 5
times a week, practice mindfulness, drink at least 75-100oz of water and take
my supplements daily. I believe a combination of all of this helped me get my
life back. While I still have a bad day or two every month, I can work again,
drive again, and even enjoy happy hour with friends. It does get better and
there is hope, it just requires finding the right combination specific for you
and the willingness to try anything and everything. While I can’t say I’m happy
this happened to me, I can definitely say it made me a much stronger person.
