Breathe Deep, it’s a Migraine

I’ve had migraines for at least the last 35-40 years.  Seems that the older I got the more difficult time I have had managing those awful headaches.  In the last couple of years I would have 2-3 migraines a week.  No fun.  The medication I used to get rid of the migraine would cause other problems.  For me it was severe muscle cramping.

Last fall I changed doctors.  I had been to the new doctor once already when I suddenly had a heart problem during the worst migraine I’d ever had.  When I went to the doctor she asked me about the migraines and the medicine I was using.  She told me to stop taking the migraine medicine that I had used to alleviate the episodes each week.  This could have caused my heart episode.  Her suggestion was to try oxygen.

I’d never heard of using oxygen for a migraine, but I was game.  I went home and with the next migraine I tried the oxygen.  8 liters for 15 minutes was the dose.  It worked!  Wow!

I had an appointment a couple of weeks later to have a treadmill test.  That day I had a whopper of a migraine and I couldn’t take the oxygen with me.  So I took a small dose of pain medicine and went to my appointment.  I was miserable.

A treadmill stress test is difficult.  That is putting it mildly.  And with a migraine I felt like I just wanted to die.  However, as I got to the end of the test, wanting to vomit and feeling like I was going to pass-out, the migraine seemed to be getting weaker and weaker.

Of course the stress test caused me to breath deeper and faster, and I used lots of oxygen just trying to get through the test.  This got me to thinking about my oxygen need.  I had to wonder if I took a number of deeper breaths during the day would this help my situation?

That was in November, and at least 2+ migraines a week.  Since then I spend a little time each day taking very deep breaths.  And when I do get a migraine I start the oxygen right away.  I can’t use the 8 liters of oxygen as was suggested because it burns my nose up.  But I turn on 5 liters of oxygen and use it for about an hour. 

Now, after these months of breathing deep and using oxygen the migraines are less than 1 a week.  I no longer use migraine medicine because I’ve had at least a 99% success rate with the oxygen therapy in stopping the migraine.  I never would have thought this possible.  I am SO thankful. 

So any of you out there who have migraines, take a very deep breath, literally, and then ask your doctor about oxygen therapy.  It really works. 

Thanks for listening ~