OK, what’s going on here?

Things were going very well, I thought. I’ve been taking CBD oil and the Aimovig monthly self-injection since about July 2018.
Gradually, the pain headaches subsided and I no longer needed migraine meds or Advil. The visual disturbances diminished in frequency, averaging about five/month, down from almost everyday, sometimes more than once a day. The vertigo stopped! THAT was monumental for me.

And then, something happened. Or maybe several things happened. My mother was shoved by an aide, and there was fallout physically and emotionally from that. There are constant things to look after and remedy. My husband fell a few weeks ago: that shook me up. A family member had a cancer diagnosis, same genetic outcome as mine with a few tangential differences: Bring on the PTSD!

But even before these incidents, something was subtly changing: visual migraines began increasing. Last week I had a brief issue where my eyes were seeing two different things. My stomach began to bother me. I smell strange things. And then yesterday I had a vertigo attack. I am not talking “a little dizzy.” I am referring to what I used to have where I’d feel like I was going into a sauna and my head would begin to carousel and then lose control. I was under many illusions, I suppose: That because things were going so well, the diminished symptoms would NEVER come back, That I was in control of my body. That it was all in my head.

It IS all in my head. It is neurological. The brain has a mind of its own. And then it happened again. Tonight, in the middle of dinner. Because that never happened before I assumed it couldn’t possibly.

This is what occurred today; these are all migraine symptoms:

• fatigue
• yawning
• runny nose
• oh I forgot to tell you: I had my annual appointment with the breast surgeon to follow up on a normal mammo/sono. I had a lot to tell her and then this: APHASIA! I couldn’t retrieve words. I couldn’t express myself. Me with the word overflow could not get a normal sentence out! Migraine symptoms mimic a stroke and that once landed me in the ER
• Odors that are not always there (I used to smell my father’s cigar)
• upset stomach
• migraine vertigo (I was tested for vestibular vertigo by my PT balance specialist and it is not my inner ear)
  sometimes nerves fire and cause itching or sharp stabbing pain
• Of all the migraine symptoms, vertigo is the worst. Then the ocular migraine. There is no predicting, they just come on without warning. This is why I will not drive, it is too dangerous.
• loss of appetite
• nausea

The AIMOVIG shot may not be working or maybe it never did; maybe it was a placebo. And at almost a $150 co-pay I am reluctant to continue taking it. Although a chat with my headache specialist in August indicated that it was probably the best of the lot of new stuff that came out.

But I will say that for the months I had a migraine-hiatus, and the year plus without vertigo, I am grateful. I was so relieved. I felt like life was normal. Now there is another quest. To continue looking for something, something that will cure this. In the meantime, I will continue with my CBD oil. Natural is the best.

The first of the series on CBD oil/medical marijuana, begins here.

The previous post is here

The next post is here