I am a chronic migraine sufferer and IV therapy changed my life.
Hello. I am pleased to have this opportunity to share my story with the hopes that it might help someone else who also suffers from migraines like I do. Thank you for listening. If you have any questions, please reach out using the contact information below.
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I first experienced migraine headaches twenty years ago.
For the past twelve years, the migraine has been chronic. By chronic, I mean, the migraine never goes away. It may flip sides or fluctuate in intensity, but it never goes away. It’s always present. Every day, for twelve years.
For those of you who also experience chronic migraine headaches, you’ll understand when I say that I would not wish this condition on anyone. Ever. The symptoms include mind-numbing pain on one side of my head or the other, full body aches, and sensitivity to light, sounds and smells. That’s just the beginning. When I’m unable to manage these symptoms, they become triggers that can escalate my pain and my body’s response to the pain, which can include nausea, GI issues, and, when it’s really bad, vomiting. As you might imagine, these episodes then lead to dehydration, fatigue, compromised immunity, and a host of other complications that disrupt everything for days or weeks at a time, from everyday activities like going for groceries to important events like holidays with my family.
My life has been turned upside down from this condition. Every choice I make, every minute of every day is dictated by and formatted around migraine headaches. What’s my personal life and professional life like? Well, let’s just say that the story of every personal milestone and significant event in my life includes a migraine element.
If you have never experienced migraines, you’re probably wondering why I haven’t “fixed” this in twenty years. I can assure you that there is nothing I haven’t tried or wouldn’t try to rid my body of this pain. I’ve been lucky to have the means to have seen numerous physicians, neurologists, and headache specialists. Headache centers? Been there. And not just in Chicago, but all over the country. I have pursued very intense doctoring through in-patient treatments, out-patient treatments, and multi-week clinics. I have tried medications, dozens of medications, both preventative and episodic. I have also tried acupuncture, chiropractic, diet testing, allergy testing, physical therapy, meditation training, biofeedback, and food sensitivity testing. Quite simply, if it’s out there, I’ve tried it.
In the early years I sought a cure. Now, I am no longer looking for a cure. Instead, my goal is to manage the pain as best I can so I can enjoy visits and holidays with my family, dinners with friends, walks with my dog, and travels to see loved ones. Unchecked, my daily pain hovers around an eight, nine or ten on the ten-point pain scale. With planned efforts I aim to keep my pain in the five to six range. Some of the above treatments have helped. For example, I use a monthly preventative medication, but it only helps a little. I also recently went back to using Botox, which has been helpful with the tension I experience in my face during high-pain episodes. I’ve made it a habit to return to treatments which I tried years before with the hope that it might work this time.
As you might have guessed from the title, IV therapy has been a breakthrough treatment for me. I have been using IV therapy since 2017.
Before I started IV therapy, I had experienced dozens of IVs in hospital emergency rooms. The ER IVs had been effective for getting medications into my body to reduce my migraine symptoms. These IVs were far more effective than dissolvable or oral meds, which rarely passed my digestive system before I started vomiting. Unfortunately there is one major problem with emergency room IVs: emergency rooms are the absolute opposite of a healthy environment for migraines. While I knew ER IVs could offer me some relief, they have always been a last resort for me, as in “two-weeks-into-a-bad-cycle-before-I-will-consider-going-to-the- ER” last resort. I would go to the ER for a migraine only out of desperation. You see, it was a calculated risk. As a chronic migraine sufferer, you fall to the bottom of an ER wait list in terms of urgency. This means long waits in a sometimes loud and very bright environment full of triggers that could spin my migraine out of control causing more pain and agony than I came in with.
It was a family member who lives in a high-altitude region of our country who introduced me to IV hydration centers.
When given the choice of treatment for my migraines, I will always choose IV therapy because it gives me everything I need in a quiet and soothing space: hydration, pain relief, nausea relief plus vitamins and minerals that help with inflammation, fatigue and immunity. It’s the same medicine I would get in the ER, but with the added benefit of all that vitamin and mineral goodness!
I go to IVme about once a week for the Migraine IV, plus I’ll get a combination of intramuscular shots including Super B, Glutathione, CoQ10 and Biotin. (The oxygen treatment is also beneficial and I highly recommend giving it a try for migraines). I increase my visits as needed. For example, when I have plans for dinner with my friends, I’ll get an IV the day of and an IV the day after. This combination has allowed me to enjoy events that otherwise would have triggered an escalation of symptoms and kept me down for days or weeks.
I couldn’t have designed a more perfect experience for migraine sufferers than IVme. It is the ideal situation. The team at IVme understands migraines and goes above and beyond to help make sure I’m comfortable. If you experience migraines, you know how some people might question the authenticity of migraine symptoms or dismiss the seriousness of it all? Not my friends at IVme. They are compassionate and caring. At each visit, the IVme team collaborates with me to make sure I get just the right IV cocktail of medicines, vitamins and minerals. And they listen to me! They welcome my input and questions, and I value their suggestions. IVme has proven to be a valuable partner in my health.
Thank you for spending a few minutes to learn about my story. I hope I shared something that you found helpful or, at the very least, remind you that you’re not alone. If you would like to learn more about my experience with migraines, you can send your questions via email to Robin at IVme (robin@ivmenow.com); she will then forward them to me and I will respond as soon as I can.
Wishing you strong health and pain-free days.