Thursday, January 21, 2010

LJ medical update

MRI was today. Nothing bad found. It was cool looking at the images with the doctor as she explained what they were looking for.

As for what is causing my problems, the new leader is something called Vestibular Migraine. There are many variations of this, the rarest seems to be the one I possibly have - the one without the headaches. There is an outside chance that this is all allergy related and that theory will be examined more closely if in the next couple of months my episodes do not stop.

As for treatment, it is a 2-pronged attack. First is medication that I start in small dosages and increase only if the episodes continue. The second avenue is food. While the causes of migraines are not completely understood, certain foods and food types are thought to be triggers. So I'm going through the process of eliminating certain foods, then re-introducing them one-by-one to see which (if any) seems to trigger something. I started this process back in early January and get to add something starting today. If after adding them all back and nothing happens, then the process starts over with a different type of food group (elimination, then adding one-by-one). I think there are 4 food group/types, so this could be a rather long, drawn out process.

One last note, that is a bit negative in my case - driving. While they didn't tell me to not drive, they did suggest I limit my driving, at least while I ramp up on the medication. Neighborhood and very local driving seems to be OK - anything more than that they wanted me to be cautious about. Bummer :(

9 comments:

Stephanie said...

Great that the MRI was clear!

Serious bummer about the driving for the time being.

Seems nearly impossible to figure out food effects, when you were going spells without incidents. What foods are potential culprits?

love johnson said...

First food group is amine foods, many of which I don't eat much, if any, anyway. The ones that I have cut out include:

aged cheeses
yogurt
soy sauce
beer,wine
peanuts
oranges, citrus fruits
cola drinks
avocado
chocolate
cheesecake
yellow cheeses
cocoa
beef, pork
processed meet
tomato, tomato sauce, tomato paste

In some cases I've totally eliminated them; in others, drastically reduced my consumption (I'm not going to totally give up beef or the tomato trio).

While a part of me wants to add chocolate back first, I'm going to add red wine back first. What does that say about me???

Stephanie said...

Oh man. That's a list I would be miserable without. I would add back Coke first, then beef, then chocolate. Do keep us posted on your food progress. I'm fascinated.

love johnson said...

I don't drink that many cola drinks, so that wasn't a big deal.

Next group is going to be tough...caffeine!

Anonymous said...

Wow. You didn't tell me about that. That's terrible.

Stephanie said...

Coke is my caffeine source, so I hear you about the caffeine.

love johnson said...

As of 6pm tonight, I get to up my dosage (I would hope that I can be excused for language)...

shit :(

Stephanie said...

So that means you've had more episodes? Shit, for sure.

Stephanie said...

Story on migraines: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/30/health/30patient.html?em