Hello all, truly and honestly grateful to have found this site and have the opportunity to learn from so many beautiful people. The anti-inflammatory regimen has been the thing of dreams for me, and allowed me the opportunity to look at the beast, not with fear, but with respect.
All little about myself. I’m a 24 year old episodic CHer living in the good ole honky tonk capital of the south! Where the only things that are certain ais crazy weather volatility, broadway girls, and the reimmergence of the beast. My first memory of the beast was when I was in highschool at 14 years old. I remember being in Spanish class early in the morning in 2nd period during the middle of October right around homecoming, and getting these incredibly painful headaches right behind my left eye that came out of absolutely no where, leaving me FLOORED. I did what any 14 year old would do and ate my body weight in Advil and Tylenol for weeks on end. This stupid headache was hitting me at the same time every damn day, and that’s when I started experiencing the classic rebounds. Holy shit I was NOT ready for that classic beast escalation. Compounded by the fact I had no idea what was going on inside my brain. I saw my pcp who said migraines (of course) and put me on Celexa. Then one day after about 5 weeks they just stopped. I woke up one day gripping the Advil bottle waiting for the first sign so I could take 4 of them bad boys. It never came. Yay, let’s forget about it and move on, yeah? I experienced 2 of what I consider mini cycles, I don’t know what else to call them since at the time I had no clue what was going on. They lasted each about 5 days a piece and happened at seemingly random times throughout the year. I hadn’t connected the dots yet and just disregarded both as “getting sick” or something. Fast forward to November 2020, the beast returned and made his presence KNOWN. This time there was absolutely no way I could disregard it, and I knew something was wrong. 7 weeks of misery, tears, anxiety, and everything in between that we all know too well. I had my tricks that I had learned through the years to help, sure. Wrapping a shirt as tight as I could around my head, pushing my thumb into my eye at a very specific angle and pressure, hot baths/showers (my personal favorite), etc… but it just wasn’t doing the trick anymore. About 3 weeks in I had a mental breakdown and found my way to a nice week long vacation in the psych ward. It actually helped me, believe it or not. Gave me just a little ounce of motivation to find out what this shit is. So then starts the slew of drs appointments, all the way to a neurologist at a well respected hospital who listened to me and gave me the answer I had been looking for. Gave me a verap script, immitrex injection script, and sent me on my way. (No longer my neuro) but I had my answer and decided to hit the good ole internet -> Reddit -> here! I then found everybody’s favorite, Batch! And he guided me through the next 2 weeks of taking his regimen to a T. And it fucking worked. I never even had to take the verap or use a single injection (partly because terrified of going chronic and rebounds) After 2.5 weeks my headaches went away and I was PF. I stopped the regimen shortly after and remained PF for THREE years!!!!!!
Until Sept. 28th. I had just sat through a 6 hour tattoo session and I guess I just hadn’t gone through enough pain that day. Immediately as we finish up, shadow city. That went on for a few weeks until it turned full blown and I KNEW the beast had returned. What did I do? Waited a few weeks to do anything of course because 3 years of not keeping up with this does a number on your coping mechanisms. Anyways I found myself back here a few weeks ago and it literally brought me to tears. Hit the D3 regimen again, same routine as last time with all the new updates, and here I am 14 days on the loading dose. Still having shadows, very very minor in comparison. Around day 4 I stopped having massive attacks and it went purely shadow. I plan on staying at this dose for a few more days or until PF, but im going on 10ish weeks and honestly I am struggling. My body is tired. My head is tired. My anxiety and depression are at war with each other 24/7. I seriously feel I have a PTSD like response to these attacks. I’m working on seeing a therapist to help with the mental health issues. But thanks to you guys I keep fighting. Seriously, I have actual hope because of the knowledge I’ve gained from this place. Don’t worry my next step is working on getting O2, and getting off antidepressants for a proper busting experience. I also want to stop smoking cannabis as I rely too much on it as a crutch and feel I lack the ability to process negative emotions the correct and healthy way, but thats for another conversation. I love every single one of you, and I owe you all so so so much. I will attempt to be more active in the future moving forward in this community, but I just had to tell someone a little bit of my story… Someone who would understand and not say “yeah I get headaches too”
Thanks for reading if you made it this far! We are so incredibly fucking strong, you know that? I wish we didn’t have to be but we are. And we’re fighters. I look forward to getting to know some of you more! (I’ve already read damn near every post from the last 5 years). Hoping to go to the next conference and meet some you lovely folks!!
