Dec

11

Doctors Vs. Herbs - Who Has the Migraine Cure?

Filed Under Migraines 

My mom had been raised by country folk to believe that doctors make you worse and my dad never believed anyone when they said they were sick, even if they were bleeding or seizing or going into labor.  In our house there was no fever too high, no infection too green, and no blood loss to great to constitute a trip to the doctors. Subsequently my brother and I’s medical care consisted of vaccinations and crossed fingers.  I could tell you allot of weird stories of our surprising childhood survival but I am saving those for another day.

Because of our nonexistent health care it perhaps should not have been so surprising to us when after eight months of severe abdominal pain my dad relented and saw a doctor and was diagnosed with the colon cancer that would kill him five years later.  Those five years of prolonged life were owed purely to the help of surgeons and chemotherapy.  I learned to feel a sense of safety with doctors because of my experiences with my father and when I became an adult I quickly shook off the superstitions of my mom and treated my ailments medically.

 

The first big health problem began when I was nineteen years old.  I had chronic UTI (Urinary Tract Infections).  Of course when you go to a doctor with your first UTI you expect to treat it with antibiotics, which I did.  I had no idea that what appeared to be a single infection easily fixed, was to become a chronic and painful life sentence.  For ten years now I have battled Urethritis and Sistitus, which is like living with a constant UTI except you bleed more.  Never once has a doctor been able to offer me anything but antibiotics to stop the pain.  After the first four years of misery, two trips to the emergency room, MRI’s, bladder scope and one very painful procedure I would rather not talk about I began to realize that specialists , doctors and surgeons had no answers for me.  They had lots of bills, more appointments, more referrals and always a new prescription for more antibiotics but no cure and no compassion.

 

So I swung to holistic healing with one fell swoop.  I tried anything and everything someone would recommend and sat in ice baths when the pain became too much.  Months later I realized neither the medical world nor natural healing had a cure for me, at least not yet.  If I was going to find a level of quality in my life I would need to strike a balance between the two worlds.  Herbal remedies seemed to help prevent attacks but offered no pain relief.  Antibiotics did nothing to prevent but helped with the pain and a quicker recovery.

 

I have learned how to live with this balance.  I am not pain free, and some days are worse than others, but I have peace with my decisions.  I take antibiotics but not as often as I once did and I feel satisfied knowing that if I live all of my life with this condition I never stopped fighting and searching for a better way of managing it.

 

This theory of balance in my healing has become my standard for my health care and my family’s.  Doctor’s have no cures for migraines, cluster headaches and chronic headaches.  Depending solely on them to rid us of this tiresome pain is unrealistic.  Even if they find a cure someday I am not willing and hope you are not either to live painfully waiting for that cure.  This is true of any illness anyone suffers with.

 

Some people claim to have found cures for their headaches through natural means and that is wonderful.  I am not one of these people.  I have not found a natural remedy to stop my headaches but that is no reason to quit trying.  I have found allot of holistic treatments that help prevent migraines and general headaches from occurring but when they fail it does not bother my conscience to reach for the little orange bottles the doctors hand out so often.

 

There appears at times to be an all out war between the medical field and the holistic field.  I wish they could sign a treaty, make some compromises and maybe the rest of us could quit being stuck in the cross fire.  It’s like my dad said a few weeks before he died with his persistently sick sense of humor.  “You know you’re screwed when the doctors have run out of things to cut out or burn and the herb guy can’t find anything nastier for you to drink.  That’s when you go home and rent your favorite movies one last time.” 

 

We watched “The Fugitive”  for the last time together that night and thirteen years later I stop and realize how different from my strange redneck dad I really am.  For one watching movies is not on my bucket list.  I believe people when they say they are sick, and live life with thought and balance and I hope it serves me and my children well.  I Hope you and everyone else out there finds your balance in this shaky world.  Live well and always under your own power! 

 

 

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