Migraine Headache Relief - The Winds of Change

November, 2007 was a pivotal month. I was at a point where I did not even want to live. I was through with neurologists (I had been to at least 3) and their pills that kept draining me of my energy. I went back to my M.D. once again who told me straight, there was nothing else she could do. She recommended that I go see a naturopathic physician, Dr. Teresa Latendress. Shocked that an M.D. would make that recommendation I didn't waste a lot of time. I made an appointment and went to see Dr. T. right away.

Dr. T. immediately encouraged me with her positive outlook. I told her all that I had done for the headaches and that nothing had produced lasting results. The first appointment I had with her took quite a while! She asked me several question and we had quite a dialog. The amazing thing was that I came away from my first visit with her with a renewed enthusiasm that there was something that could be done.

During that time frame my wife Amy pointed out to me something she saw on the internet. Something that I had never heard of before, the patent foramen ovale. She read in an internet article that this can lead to frequent headaches. Let me quote the ClevelandClinic.org web site a little on this subject. They can describe the condition better than I.

"The foramen ovale is a small hole located in the atrial septum that is used during fetal circulation to speed up the travel of blood through the heart. When in the womb,a baby does not use it's own lungs for oxygen-rich blood, it relies on the mother to provide oxygen rich blood from the placenta through the umbilical cord to the fetus. Therefore, blood can travel from the veins to the right side of the baby's heart and cross to the left side of the heart through the foramen ovale and skip the trip to the baby's lungs.

Normally the foramen ovale closes at birth when increased blood pressure on the left side of the heart forces the opening to close. If the atrial septum does not close properly, it is called a patent foramen ovale. This type of defect generally works like a flap valve, only opening during certain conditions when there is more pressure inside the chest. This increased pressure occurs when people strain while having a bowel movement, cough, or sneeze.

If the pressure is great enough, blood may travel from the right atrium to the left atrium. If there is a clot or particles in the blood traveling in the right side of the heart, it can cross the PFO, enter the left atrium, and travel out of the heart and to the brain (causing a stroke) or into
a coronary artery causing a heart attack.

Migraine headache and PFO: Migraine headaches are more common in patients with PFO. While it seems as though closure of PFO results in improvement of migraine symptoms, larger studies are needed to confirm this finding. "
(my.Clevelandclinic.org/heart/disorders/congenital/pfo.aspx)

The next time I went to Dr. T., very coincidentally, she brought up this very same subject to me. Wow, I thought. This is wierd. Having my wife and Dr. T. bring up this same thing within a couple of days. This has got to be the problem.

One other thing Dr. T. suggested to me at the beginning of our sessions was that I have my eyes checked. I told her that I had already done so twice and that I was given three different pairs of eyeglasses, none of which helped. She insisted that I have my eyes checked though. She told me about a relatively new procedure that some eye doctors did not use called "Opti-mop". It sounded kind of fishy to me so I just sat on that recommendation for several weeks.

It was shortly after this session with Dr. T. that I made an appointment with a cardiologist to have an echocardiogram and a stress test done. I told the cardiologist the reason that I wanted to be checked for a patent foramen ovale. She looked me over, checked me out and said my heart seemed fine, there was no reason for it. I told her about what I had read on the internet and that I was willing to pay the money for it, and to please do it. She did not want to. After a lenghty discussion she admitted to me that cardiologists had suspected that the patent foramen ovale led to migraine headaches but they did not have the proof. She finally relented and agreed to do the test.

I spent the next two weeks waiting for my appointment with a constant headache, but beaming, sure that I had found the answer. The day came, I took the stress test and made it on their 'Wall of Fame' as the person who lasted the longest on their treadmill. I took the echocardiogram with a smile on my face. That smile didn't last as a week later when the results came in and I found out my heart was in fine shape. The patent foramen ovale was not the issue. So now I was back to square one. It was Dec 25, 2007. A very sad Christmas.

But, the winds of change were in motion. I wasn't through visiting Dr. T. Some amazing things happened in the next month. We will continue this story tomorrow. Have a blessed day Thursday. Hope for the best, keep your spirits high and have fun.





My grand-son L.J. is not discouraged! He is reaching for something bigger and better!

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