A Glimpse of a Brighter Future

I've been on a diet for the past three weeks. Not to lose weight, which is a happy added value. Not to look fabulous, because looks have always been a distant blip on my radar. This diet has been an attempt to unearth potential culprits that may worsen my migraines. Three weeks into it, and by Jove, I think we have something.

Migraines and I have been unhappy partners along life's road for far, far too long. When my biggest trigger is a sudden change in the barometric pressure, and my second worst trigger bimonthly hormonal changes, that leaves me with few options. Or so I thought. I've been a patient at the environmental clinic here for the past several months, and one area we're looking into is diet control for migraine triggers. I didn't have much hope for it, as I have had food allergy problems which show up without any question, and I couldn't see any relation to things I'd eaten and my migraines arriving.

But I'm always happy to be proven wrong! The first two weeks of the diet, I had a 10-day migraine. Not a surprise, as my two big perfect-storm conditions were present. But in week three, I've been delirious with joy at having up to six painkiller-free hours per day. That could be seen as horrifying to some, but to me it's sweet news indeed.

How easy has it been to stay on this diet? Shockingly easy. I was not looking forward to having to cook a lot, as I like cooking as much as some people like digging a hole/filling it in/digging it up again as in "Coolhand Luke". But it's been shockingly easy to nuke things in the micro, yummy things like squash, turnip, eggplant, broccoli - I could go on but I won't. Luckily rice is one of the safe foods, because I've always said I could eat rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner - and I am! Mmm!

There seems to be a surging of energy around me lately, not least of which is the lifting of the veil of pain I've been living under for over a decade now. I feel like a captive being led from a deeply buried dungeon. The weight of my years in the damp, musty cell is easing away with every step forward into the sun.