July 16th - Optimistic Future

Even though I had to interrupt my vacation yesterday to drive down to the Twin Cities for a 5 hour appointment with a headache specialist team, I am extremely optimistic that my future of headache relief is looking much better.  To help reduce the frequency and intensity of the migraines, I was prescribed Topamax which is an anticonvulsant medication that also works well with migraines.  Also, the specialist said that due to my history with binge eating disorder, the Topamax has a side effect of "weight loss" or "decreased appetite".  While I still need to work on controlling my urges without the use of medications, I am happy to know that I will have some added help to hopefully reduce the amount of food I am consuming and slow my weight gain.  For my acute treatment to use when getting a headache, I was switched off of Imitrex and prescribed dihydroergotamine (DHE) to be also taken with 3 tablets of regular strength Aleve.  If all else fails from the 3 injections of DHE I can do then I was also prescribed Toradal which is typically what I would get when I would have to go to the emergency room when everything else I had tried would not work.  This I am very thankful for because this should hopefully keep me out of the emergency room and save money and the stress of being there.

As far as an update I am so far I am 42 hours without a migraine and have been able to finally enjoy some time on vacation.  We all have a laugh at how big the bag of stuff was I got from the pharmacy due to all the syringes and sharps container and everything.  Overall from the perspective of my migraines, it has been a good last couple days.

On the other side of things with my binge eating, I have actually been doing pretty good there.  I am still averaging about 1-2 episodes of wanting to binge which usually is preceded by something stressful occurring around the cabin.  However, when I am getting the binge urges, it is feeling a little easier to ride through the wave and if anything, eat a few packs of "100 calorie" size snacks out of by "binge food bag".  My binge food bag is something I have brought with me on any out of town outing I have gone on which is basically a backpack filled with a cornacopia of various snacks that I like to binge on.

All in all I am building off of the positivity of the little victories I am having and grasping onto any coping techniques that I am doing that is successful.

One thing I am finding that has given me success in staying strong and keeping hope up that things will get better is reciting every morning The Serenity Prayer which states:
"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".  This prayer is often used in addiction counseling but also has conotation in so many other areas of life.  As I am progressing through my journey of binge eating recovery and migraine relief, I have realized that I need to realize there are things I can't control or change but the things I can change I must stay strong and keep up hope to know things will get better.

Thank you all again for reading my blog and the kind words you have all passed on to me.  Your support has been amazing and has only strengthened my resolve to push forward.