I red your story and was totally overwhelmed with joy and happiness for you!!
I can’t even imagine what you’ve been going thru over the years.

I have been thinking a little bit about my headache and the fact that doctor’s never found out what was the original reason for pain to begin but what I’m sure about is that the meds kept me sick!

As you write about your process of trying to teach your body beeing without meds, it was so used to having them all the time and needing the meds, causing pain if it didn’t get any…that’s medicisin headache.

I’m not saying this works for all, since our bodies and minds work very differently.
I’m just very happy for you an truly hope your headaches are gone for good!

Wishing you a joyful, painfree times for the rest of your life
Auli

i recently have started looking for treatment options and was hoping to be in touch. thanks, josh.

You may find my statement bold, but I attribute this miracle solely to God! I have been suffering with unexplained chronic daily headaches since the age of 17. During that time I went for about a year without relief. 5 years ago I had a similar episode which lasted for over 15 months. During that time I received numerous tests and tried multiple medications and combinations of medicines. Ultimately, a few months after a hospital stay and DHE treatment, they tried Topamax (again) and this time it worked. It has successfully controlled my headaches for the past five years. However I was ready to be medication-free! Over the past two months I have VERY gradually tapered off of my Topamax. I had some rough days mixed in there, but I tried to deal with the pain, rather than increase my medication. The last 25 mgs seemed to take the longest. But I am happy to say that God has answered my prayers and the prayers of all those who have been concerned about me, and I am more than excited to be HEADACHE FREE now!

I wish all of you a pain-free day! And I hope that one day very soon you will know the excitement I have today to enjoy days without pain!

May God bless you all!

Gratefully, Jenni

But I am writing because of something I saw mentioned in one of your posts–you said something about a surgery for NDPH. What kind of surgery is this? Thanks for any info you can offer. Not that I want surgery, but I feel like I will try anything.

PS–I’m a writer/journalist too. I wrote about my headache ordeal here:http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/living-with-chronic-headache-a-personal-migraine-story-201103051601

An ingredient in Sprite, Coke and A&W rootbeer (and possibly others) has been a trigger for me. Like many of you, I avoided caffeine, and even chocolate, because i believe that they caused rebound (or caffeine addiction) headaches – even in small amounts. I switched to Sprite, and still had headaches even though my daily maintenance medicine had been working. After much trial and error, I realized that eliminating the Sprite helped ENORMOUSLY. (I researched this and couldn’t find anyone with similar triggers.) A few months ago, I had a Coke for the first time in years and had a headache within half an hour. I intend to track the ingredients that are found in both and see what I come up with, but for now, I am happier to avoid Coke and Sprite.

By the way, Dr. Pepper and Pepsi has not caused the same headaches. They don’t seem to be caffeine related (in this case) but something else.

If you can’t figure out your triggers and you are a Sprite drinker, you may try eliminating it for a week or so and see if you notice a difference. (No offense to Sprite, by the way – I miss it!)

God bless you all!

Last night was my first night to try going to bed without taking ANY medication. I woke up with a horrible headache during the night, but I have been fighting a sinus infection and that could have been a trigger. I didn’t give in and take my medicine, and after I was able to fall asleep, I woke up feeling fine. I have a VERY dull headache this afternoon (which is totally manageble) and I will continue with my plan! I will consider 2 weeks headache free without meds to be a success! I can hardly wait!

Also… I wanted to mention this as well. I gave up caffeine years ago to help avoid triggers. Recently I began drinking Sprite, which is caffeine free. After several months of eliminating other possibilities and trial and error type testing, I believe that an ingredient in Sprite has been causing some of my more recent headaches. It has been a surprising discovery, but after eliminating the Sprite my medicines seemed to work more effectively. I have also found the same results with Coke and A&W rootbeer, but not Dr. Pepper and Pepsi. I have intended to track down the ingredient that could be the trigger, but I haven’t yet. I thought you might like to share this info with others. It seemed an unlikely trigger, but since many headache sufferers avoid caffeine, it may be more common among this group! Of course, I could be an oddball, but perhaps this tip will help someone else, too!