Oy, My Aching Head

March 27, 2011

There are people who will tell you that they’ve never had a headache, don’t know what it feels like.  I envy those people.

 I was always a headachy person, even as a child.  About ten years ago, though, things started to get much worse for no apparent reason.  I began to have very frequent, sometimes daily, severe, debilitating, prolonged pain in the head, always in the same regions.  The pain would get so unbearable that I would periodically have to flee to the emergency room for intravenous drugs.   So I embarked on the odyssey that most headache sufferers make-doctors, tests, preventive and abortive medicines, dietary changes, acupuncture, trigger point therapy, meditation, chiropractic, invoking the gods-most of us will try anything.  Unfortunately, nothing really worked for me. Just as The Situation defines himself by his abs, I became The Headache, defining myself by my pain rather than any other aspect of my being.  Headaches ruled and of course, cast their evil spell on everything–my work, my relationships, and my mood.

 Then I was blessed to be referred to Phil by my internist.  Phil carefully analyzed my symptoms, taking into consideration the lay of my tight and somewhat twisted musculoskeletal landscape as no other health professional had.  We began a course of myofascial therapy and home care, and the results were profound.  Over time, the frequency and severity of my headaches lessened by some 80 percent by my reckoning.  I was able to stop the mostly useless medication.  Everything changed for the better.

 Though I still have occasional flare-ups, which is the norm for chronic headache sufferers, I know that I can turn to Phil and his healing hands and that with time and intense work, I will get better and regain the capacity to enjoy the blessing of a life not dominated by headache pain.  There is no more precious feeling.  Thank you, Phil.