This Week

My husband is away for work again which means I will be here less.
Not much news on the migraine front other than eating hummus (tahini trigger) and american cheese even though it was from the deli had natural flavors aka msg and gave me a headache. I was able to kill it before it morphed into a really bad headache. booooo
The good news is fresh cream and white cooking wine in food has not bothered me at all!

I also made no- peanut butter cookies- recipe coming soon! I made it with brown peabutter and extra sugar and salt as the peabutter is not sweet or salty. They were good!

Finn liked them too!

How are your food experiments going?

Was it the goat cheese?

Sorry I have been away for a few days:(

I have had a bad headache for the past couple days. I had some goat cheese on mother's day figured I would take the risk and have some because I really did not want to cook! That could have been the trigger- hard to say as I did not get a headache until the next afternoon. I had to resort to my old friends Zomig and Cambia.  Today I went to the chiropractor and she said my cranials were off as well as a bunch of other things so hopefully things will get better. Although after major adjustments I often get a headache but then after that its way better.

Fingers crossed!

Wishing you a headache free week!

Deli Meat

Yesterday after shopping for a few things I realized it was lunch time. Usually I eat at home so I can avoid all sorts of migraine triggers on the Migraine Elimination Diet. But what can I say but I was hungry and I knew my husband would be too! I could not for the life of me imagine going home and then making lunch (no leftovers and I was shopping at the nearest target and goodwill 50 minutes away)

So I went through the drive through of this cute little sandwich/bakery/coffee place.

I got a turkey wrap. It had feta but I scraped it off(my husband gladly ate it on his salad).
nothing else seemed offensive other than the DELI meat. I knew it was a risk but decided this could be counted as trying to add something back to see if it is a trigger.

It is a trigger for me...

About 2 hours after I was reaching for some mega pain relievers and tea....

booooooooooo

At least I tried right- however it does not make me want to add things back in!

Decisions- Medication update

So, after much thought I canceled my Botox injections. As soon as I scheduled it I had second thoughts. In the past I have tried 3 rounds of Botox and did not see any difference. I was originally thinking that maybe this time would be different. The more I thought about it though, the less I wanted to do it. I don't like how stiff your head looks, its almost expressionless! Also last time my eye lids drooped ever so slightly (a common side effect) and I don't want it to get worse. To top it all off we are thinking sometime in the near future of having a second child and I just didn't want that in my system at the same time (especially after looking up the animal studies). It also had a $200 copay!

The good news is that I am completely off Zonagram now as well as Nortriptaline. I also stopped the pill. Funny as I always thought the pill did not bother my headaches and perhaps made them better( I used the Nuva Ring and kept it in the full 4 weeks then switched it out keeping hormone leaves pretty constant). Its been a month off it now though and my migraines are not worse, and I am off 2 huge preventatives to boot! So it makes me wonder and hesitant to go back on it! I also have PCOS though and used the pill to manage that so we will have to see what happens in the future I guess. I plan to add some hormone balancing herbs like dong qui to my regimen.

Honey Cake

This was a delicious cake. So simple and completely migraine friendly. It would make a good birthday cake too!  It is a typical Eastern European cake and in Yiddish its is called lekach.

Honey Cake- taken from the Joy of Cooking
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Cook over low heat until blended
1.5 cups honey
3/4 cup vegetable oil - I used olive
1 cup coffee- i used about a fourth of a cup and the rest water, enough to give some flavor but not a lot of caffeine, use your own judgement you could easily use all water
2 ts vanilla

Remove from heat and cool

Using a mixer beat together for 4-5 minutes
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
then add the cooled honey mixture and mix

then add the dry ingredients and mix till well blended with a mixer
3.75 cups of flour
1.5 ts baking soda
1 ts baking powder (aluminum free is best)
2 ts Cinnamon
1/2 ts ground ginger

Scrape the batter into a greased and floured 13 by 9 cake pan (glass is best)

Bake until center poked with toothpick comes out clean.

As soon as the cake is removed from the oven prick the surface with fork creating lots of little holes. Then spoon on and spread evenly across the top
3/4 cup honey
let cake cool and serve. (we liked it with a extra dollop of honey on top!)

Enjoy!
Wishing you a migraine free day!

Right Now

Right Now I Am...

Enjoying the double batch of Rhubarb Crumble based on family recipe just like this

Loving that the "preseason" of my CSA share started this week! So much better than the grocery store, I had forgotten how good fresh, crisp greens can be!

Watched my 2 year old actually eat those greens! With poppy seed dressing but still!

Planted the first row in my garden (basil! cilantro!) before the sun got to me! A little at a time, a little at a time.

Listened to quite a thunderstorm last night!

Got Approved for Botox injections- I have done them before but giving it another shot as it was years ago and my headaches were different.

Disappointed this article didn't have more breakthrough news for chronic migraine http://migraine.com/blog/news/new-migraine-prevention-recommendations-from-the-american-academy-of-neurology/

Bird Watching and the Sun

We went out to the local Audubon center near us and had a picnic while watching all the great wildlife. It was wonderful and relaxing. We saw ospreys, herons, muskrats, a crane, swans, snakes and so many turtles! It is so fun to take my little one out into nature and teach him about the world. We had a impromptu packed lunch of sun butter and honey sandwiches (for me, peanut butter for them), Newman's Own organic pretzels and apples. It was delicious and migraine friendly of course!

Although by the end of the walk the sun was really starting to bother me. Its a big trigger for me. I was wearing a big wide brimmed hat and big sunglasses but alas it was not enough and I spent some time resting afterward with my heating pad, TENS unit, headache tea etc.
It was worth it though it was a wonderful time spent with my family. Its hard though when headaches seem to interfere even with the most simple outings.