Physiotherapy and migraines

I now knew that I had migraines, which was a big plus, as I could now find some real help.  This lead me to discover the world of triptans which meant that most headaches lasted only an hour or so rather than up to 3 days.  But that wasn't enough for me.  I wanted more!  I was on a quest to discover a cure for my migraines.  There had got to be someone, somewhere, with a cure for migraines.  Feverish searching on-line and would you believe it? A new migraine research programme was being carried out just down the road from where I worked.

The research was based on physiotherapy to the upper neck.  The top of the neck is where your spine starts.  The disks in your spine, from the top down are called C1, C2, C3 etcetera.  This research was based on applying specific pressure to one of the discs.  This pressure would induce the migraine and then remove it.  The idea was that it would reprogramme your body into not having migraines anymore.

I was in for quite a ride as I walked up the stairs to my first appointment, with five more stretching into the distance.  A nice lady introduced me to the concepts and took down all of the details of my migraines.  Then we got down to business.  I lay face down on the bed looking at the floor through the hole wondering why they couldn't put a picture on the floor for me to look at.  The physio started to size up my neck with her thumb and forefinger.  She then pushed down with her thumb on my C1 and asked whether that hurt.  Nope, nothing.  A slight change in the direction of her thumb prompted the same lack of response. 

She then moved down to my C2 and as the pressure was applied, I felt a similar pressure spread across my head.  "Is that your migraine" she asked eagerly.  It wasn't.  The pain was too dull and at the back of my head not the front right where I normally get them.  Her thumb moved slightly and the pain moved with it.  It was as if she was controlling the pain with a game controller (I was going to say joystick, but does that age me at all?).  A different strange feeling, but not my migraine.  She took her thumb off to consider my neck in all of it's complexities and decided to change her angle of attack to the other side.  YOW, that's the one!!!  That's my migraine.  "Good" she said and continued to apply the pressure.  "Tell me when the pain stops".  The pain didn't stop, but time did.  Not only had I a really bad migraine, but I had someone pushing with all of their might on my neck.  The pain surged up from my neck, through my head, bounced around my eye socket, down my cheek and back down to my neck.  I got the pain induced giggles.  I couldn't help it.  The pain started to lesson after about 3 minutes and then a minute later it stopped. 

As I lay there, face down and exhausted, I realised that I had another five weeks of this.  "That was just a preliminary check", the physio said.  "The pain might get worse next week, but it should then get harder and harder for me to find your migraine as the weeks progress until I can't find it anymore.  That means that the treatment has been a success and you shouldn't get migraines anymore."

I will tell you how it went and whether I coped in my next post.  Let me know if you have had a similar treatment, how it worked for you and whether you coped with it!