Healthy Living

October has been a very interesting month; I started seeing a naturopathic physician and I feel like a new person!  First I suppose I should share a little background from the past 15 mos of my life. 

My fourth baby was born in July 2009 at which time I had my first epidural (I do not reccommend them by the way) during the epidural my spinal sac was punctured which led to a spinal (or positional) headache.  For those of you who have had one nothing more needs to be said; however if you have never experienced one here is the somewhat abbreviated version.  A spinal headache (click here for a link) is like the worst migraine you have ever had multiplied many times over; the only good thing about this headache is that it mostly dissapears when you lay down.  The reason this headache is so bad is because your spinal fluid is leaking out of the spinal sac (I think its called the dural space) the lack of fluid means that when you sit up all the fluid that surrounds  & cushions your brain is all of the sudden leaking out of the hole the puncture left.  The only treatments for a spinal headach are: 1- basically living with it and hoping it heals on its own in which case the only pain management that really helps is massive water and caffine intake, or 2- to have a blood patch done.  I had a blood patch where basically they take (their words) "a little bit of blood" and inject it back into the dural space.  The point is that it equalizes the spinal pressure and creates a scab so no more fluid leaks out. This really is a quick and relatively painless "fix" but the "little bit" of blood is really 2-3 of the biggest needles I have ever seen filled with blood.  Anyway since all that happened I have basically been living with severe headaches and migraines (although none of the doctors will say they are related to the spinal I really belive the trauma of it has lasting effects on your body).
In this time I have seen many physicians, including neurologists with no results; my only relief started to come when I persued natural and alternative therapies. 

Around October 2009 I started seeing a chiropracter and massage therapist and after a few weeks my severe headaches reduced greatly and were all of the sudden managable but I have still been getting them every day.  Now that I have started seeing the naturopath they have been reduced again and I feel like I finally have someone who is as commited as I am to banishing these headaches for good.  In one month I have gone from daily doses of pain medications to 2-3 doses a week.  The solution to get to this point was actually pretty simple- cut out white sugar, white flour, and milk (the only dairy I eat now is hard cheeses and yogurts).  I also increased my water intake, started doing accupuncture, and some natural remidies.  This is all much easier than it sounds and I feel like I am really not giving up anything at all because I have been learning how to replace the things that I took out of my diet.  I hope that now since we have discovered that I have low magnesium that I can get rid of these headaches for good but if not at least I can be confidant that the naturopath will work with me until they are!