Why Am I Writing?

I'm 32 and suffer from migraines, specifically vestibular migraines-ones that manifest with horrible, terrible, no-good, very bad vertigo. Basically, not only do I suffer from the delight of a mind-numbingly painfully headache and nausea, but the room spins. Similarly to having the spins when you drink too much, or, for those that don't drink, here's a better example: ever ride the Gravitron? You know, that ride where you're spun around so fast that you stick to the sides? Well, ride it about 5 or so times in a row. When you finally decamp, you can hardly walk, and you'll promptly have to stumble over to a trashcan to hurl (trust me, I've done this, hahaha.)

Anyhow, I've been dealing with this, and a host of other health issues for a number of years, including endometriosis, ovarian cysts and IBS. Seriously. In an attempt to deal with the endometriosis, I cut wheat out of my diet about a year ago and discovered that I had far fewer headaches. This made me think about a true restriction diet, but as they're a major pain in the ass, I put it off, for months and months.

Finally, after being on Topamax for two years, I hit rock bottom in December of 2009. I wasn't sleeping, my weight was very low, my emotions were all over the board, I was suffering from terrible depression. As I started weaning myself off of the medication to treat the migraines, the vertigo returned full force. I quickly realized that I had to take action, fast, unless I wanted to become a chemical weapon all over again.

To that end, I researched elimination diets, and figured I had nothing to lose (aside from a few pounds), and decided to put myself on one. Here's the one I'm following, to a point:

elimination diet

What I didn't do was cut coffee out entirely (I tried, and plowed my car into a snowbank), and realized I was better going from my 6-10 cups daily to 1-2, which I've managed sucessfully. I didn't quit my allergy med, zyrtec-D, as that wasn't working well, either, and I'm still weaning off the Topamax, I'm down to 25 mg in the AM and PM, so a minimal dose. Otherwise I've been following the diet closely.

The next post will detail the detox week, and then I will be posting daily, possibly more, about the effects of various foods I'm adding back into my diet and what they do to my brain (and the rest of my body.)