Migraine Heroes
Dulcie standing in a light blue blouse against a soft green background beside the episode title.
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Dulcie

39 years old, Canada

38 min

Self-reported migraine

At start:

28 days/month

After 1 month:

2 days/month

What changed

Dulcie went from daily pain to many pain-free days, needed less medication, and could spend more time working and reading.

From childhood, Dulcie battled with migraines, masking her pain with a facade of 'okayness.' But beneath the surface, the struggle was real. In her courageous story, she shares invaluable insights on navigating trauma and migraines, offering hope and guidance to those with similar struggles.

Highlights: 🔗 Calming the Storm: Dulcie discusses the challenge of calming migraine headaches and the relief of experiencing fewer attacks. 🔗 Importance of Slowing Down: Learning to slow down and give oneself rest becomes crucial in the journey towards healing. 🔗 Coping Mechanisms: Hobbies like reading became difficult, yet finding new ways to cope with pain was essential. 🔗 Finding Safety in Fear: Dulcie emphasizes the importance of feeling safe, especially when fear is overwhelming. 🔗 Understanding Trauma: Exploring the connection between trauma and the vagus nerve sheds light on the complexities of healing. 🔗 Resilience and Healing: Despite setbacks and frustrations, Dulcie found the courage to leave the darkness behind and embrace healing. Dulcie's journey is a testament to resilience, courage, and the power of perseverance in the face of adversity.

00:00
-38:00
Transcript

[00:00]

Hello, this is the Migraine Heroes podcast, a podcast where we share real stories from

[00:06]

real people suffering and battling with migraine disease.

[00:12]

In this podcast, we seek to provide support, hope, holistic health, advocacy, and inspiration

[00:19]

for those who suffer from migraine disease.

[00:24]

Welcome Dulce.

[00:25]

Thank you.

[00:26]

Very nice to have you with me today.

[00:29]

Thank you for accepting to share your story.

[00:33]

I want to start in your life.

[00:35]

Where do headaches and migraines start for you?

[00:39]

Yes, headaches and migraines seem to be the main event of my life, and I've generally

[00:49]

tried to make that not the main event and figure out how to solve it or just push it

[00:55]

to the side.

[00:59]

I had headaches as a kid fairly frequently, not every day, but definitely more often than

[01:06]

other kids.

[01:09]

And I remember I used to play soccer and I would refuse to hit the ball with my head

[01:15]

because the first time I did that, I got an instant headache and learned my lesson

[01:20]

from that.

[01:21]

As a child, so how often can you describe this a week?

[01:24]

So Monday to Friday, you're supposed to go to school, do you always go to school when

[01:28]

you have a headache?

[01:29]

Who do you tell it to and what do you do at school?

[01:32]

I actually have no idea what the frequency was.

[01:35]

I just know that I had headaches and other people didn't.

[01:39]

So I would take Advil and usually the headache would go away.

[01:45]

So I could function just fine and I just needed to take some meds.

[01:50]

And then would you take them with you in your school bag or was it more of a morning thing

[01:55]

or would you go to the nursery room?

[01:57]

I would take them with me.

[02:00]

That came later when I was older.

[02:04]

So yeah, I don't remember what I did at school.

[02:08]

I think I just lived through it and just waited until I got home and my mom would have some

[02:16]

medication for me.

[02:18]

But it definitely got worse once I became a teen.

[02:23]

And so what happened then?

[02:26]

So I started getting actual migraines.

[02:30]

They would just seem to come out of nowhere and they were way more intense than any headaches

[02:38]

I had experienced before.

[02:40]

It was just so extreme, like my head was like it was on fire or something like that.

[02:46]

I had the urge to just cry and to go to bed and just exist in my pain in bed.

[02:56]

And did that scare your mom who was taking care of you at that time or did she know what

[03:03]

migraines were?

[03:05]

She also has her own migraines.

[03:08]

So she knew all about it and I think that's what made it fairly normal for her.

[03:14]

And when they became migraines, I was able to have access to migraine medication specifically

[03:22]

because of my mom.

[03:24]

She knew what was going on.

[03:25]

Did you ever feel that she had a sense of, I mean, how was she feeling towards your migraines?

[03:31]

I really don't know.

[03:33]

The only thing I can remember her saying was to try not to cry because that makes it worse.

[03:39]

From her perspective, it was kind of amping up the emotions and the pain.

[03:45]

For me, it was, you know, I have to let this emotion out.

[03:50]

And did you have siblings or other parents on the same roof?

[03:54]

I did not, no.

[03:56]

My mom was 17 when I was born and my parents split up quite early and they both went on

[04:04]

to remarry and have more kids after I was a teen.

[04:09]

So I was an only child for quite a while.

[04:11]

Okay.

[04:12]

So it was just the two of you, you in pain in your bed with the instruction, one instruction

[04:17]

not to cry, the other instruction take the medications and it shall pass.

[04:23]

Did she define it as normal or like, don't worry?

[04:28]

It seemed very normal, yeah.

[04:31]

I don't think I knew that she had migraines at that time.

[04:34]

It just seemed normal, but I knew that other people weren't experiencing the same thing

[04:40]

as me.

[04:41]

So when you were at school, there were no, you didn't have friends who were experiencing

[04:45]

the same?

[04:46]

No, no, I didn't know anybody.

[04:48]

I was the only one that I knew of.

[04:50]

And so did you have any coping mechanisms to, I don't know, like, did you write in a journal

[04:56]

that you were having pain and you felt a little bit different or did you not obsess over that?

[05:01]

I was afraid of the pain.

[05:05]

So I definitely didn't ever want to get a headache, but I never did anything about it.

[05:13]

It seemed like this is just how I am and I'd have to take medication when the pain comes.

[05:20]

And that was how I functioned for most of my life.

[05:23]

Okay.

[05:24]

So now then we're a teen and we grew up as a young adult, then you continue to be in

[05:28]

pain.

[05:30]

With what frequency at that time?

[05:31]

Yeah.

[05:32]

I went to university and I remember them becoming much more frequent then.

[05:39]

I was taking a lot of migraine meds mixed with over-the-counter pain meds.

[05:45]

And then it was at least two to three times a week.

[05:49]

And it was after I graduated, I started working and it just became every day.

[05:55]

Okay.

[05:56]

And you mentioned when you were at university, you had some over-the-counter medication and

[06:00]

sort of prescribed the medication, who was prescribing those and how was your relationship

[06:06]

to that practitioner?

[06:07]

At that point I was away from home.

[06:09]

I was in Montreal.

[06:11]

So I was going to walk-in clinics for any issues.

[06:18]

And so it was really just whatever doctor I had at the time.

[06:21]

Okay.

[06:22]

Okay.

[06:23]

Got it.

[06:24]

And then you would just go back when you need a refill.

[06:27]

And they also found it normal, like they would just see you and then let you go.

[06:31]

Sort of.

[06:32]

Yeah.

[06:33]

The normal drill.

[06:34]

I mean, there was minimal, you know, questions or testing or anything like that.

[06:42]

I mean, I'm trying to put you, I mean, I'm trying to put me in your shoes, right?

[06:47]

Where you grew up, you have that pain that kind of no one has, and at that time you don't

[06:51]

know your mom has it.

[06:53]

And then you grew up as a teen, you're bedridden quite a lot and you have more medication,

[06:57]

kind of still no one has it.

[06:58]

Then you discover over time that your mom actually suffers the same, and then you go

[07:02]

to the doctor and they keep on popping you pills that they refill, they refill the prescription

[07:06]

and you keep on taking them.

[07:07]

But still, like, you know, is there a moment at which you're like, oh my God, what's that?

[07:13]

Enough is enough?

[07:14]

Or, you know, why?

[07:15]

Or why me?

[07:17]

Definitely.

[07:18]

I mean, constant frustration with the pain, lots of anger about it.

[07:23]

I don't know if I had the question of why me, but it was definitely, you know, I can't,

[07:29]

this is impacting my life.

[07:31]

I have to kind of plow through the pain, otherwise I won't accomplish any goals.

[07:36]

It really was just, this is normal for you, you're a headachy person, it might get better

[07:42]

in menopause.

[07:44]

You should also probably try and stop taking medication because that's also causing more

[07:48]

headaches.

[07:49]

And I just, you know, I don't, I don't know what to do with that.

[07:52]

I'm in pain.

[07:53]

I have to relieve this pain, otherwise I don't function.

[07:57]

So yeah.

[07:58]

Yeah.

[07:59]

And so what sort of, do you remember some of the compromises you had to make or some

[08:03]

of the things you had to miss?

[08:04]

I tended to, I know that so many people miss a lot of things because of their migraines.

[08:12]

I have heard that I, it wasn't an option for me.

[08:15]

I was in pain every single day and if I missed things, I would not do anything.

[08:22]

I wouldn't be able to work.

[08:23]

I wouldn't be able to get an education.

[08:27]

So it really was just finding enough medication to get me through the day once the pain came

[08:33]

back.

[08:34]

Yeah.

[08:35]

Can also be like, and I'll advocate for, you know, other women who have never been able

[08:40]

to finish university, have never been able to work and those also exist.

[08:43]

And so it has a ton of different levels of pain and pain locations and ability to stay

[08:49]

focused or unfocused.

[08:50]

And then, and then of course, like the level of, I mean, pain resilience, women and, and

[08:57]

people who suffer from migraines exhibit is just huge because you, you, the load of constant

[09:04]

pain and to have to function or not function in spite of that is massive.

[09:07]

Yeah.

[09:08]

So if the medication wasn't working, then yeah, I had no option.

[09:12]

I, I, my body would shut down.

[09:14]

I'd have to leave work or I'd have to not go to work because once the pain gets to a

[09:19]

certain point that there's no doing anything really.

[09:22]

Okay.

[09:23]

And so you're, you're trying to power through.

[09:24]

And so you, you tried to learn how to fake that you have no pain essentially?

[09:29]

Yeah.

[09:30]

Um, I remember saying as a kid, you know, my dad would, would be like, you're, you're

[09:36]

such a trooper, like you have a headache right now, but you're, you're happy.

[09:41]

And, and for me, it was just, I have to be, this is normal.

[09:45]

I, I have to continue just being myself.

[09:49]

So I think I learned how to, how to function as long as the pain was under a certain level,

[09:54]

I could behave in ways that looked like I wasn't in pain.

[09:59]

And would among your friends and your colleagues, would, would you sometimes share that or find

[10:05]

it was a bit of, um, sort of like, uh, I don't know how to put it, like a deaf dialogue.

[10:10]

Yeah.

[10:11]

I, um, any, any bosses that I had of course knew, um, because it would, it would impact

[10:19]

my ability to work sometimes.

[10:21]

And friends knew as well, there wasn't much discussion about it.

[10:25]

I never knew what to say to them, but you know, I, I, my head hurts all the time.

[10:31]

What else is there to say about it?

[10:33]

Yeah.

[10:35]

And, and no one ever said, me too.

[10:38]

Um, I have no friends.

[10:41]

I do have one friend, yeah.

[10:44]

I do have one friend who also does.

[10:46]

For the listeners, never forget to say me too.

[10:49]

That's true.

[10:50]

I mean, I think, I think, I'm not sure though.

[10:54]

Yeah.

[10:55]

It's definitely when I go to work, like nobody knows that I'm, I'm still coming into work,

[11:01]

even though I feel like there's a knife in my head and I feel like I've been hit by a

[11:05]

bus, but I'm still here.

[11:07]

Yeah.

[11:08]

That's a big thing.

[11:09]

Yeah.

[11:10]

It's a big deal.

[11:11]

It's a big deal.

[11:12]

You've been talking about, you know, a knife in the head and hit by the bus.

[11:14]

Can you describe some of your pain?

[11:16]

Like, are there different types or, um, always the same?

[11:20]

Yeah.

[11:21]

It's always the same for me.

[11:23]

Sometimes there's some additional sort of physical symptoms, but generally it's, yeah,

[11:29]

my left eye, all along the left part of my scalp and down into the back of my neck on

[11:36]

the left side.

[11:37]

Yeah.

[11:38]

Yes.

[11:39]

So my left ear is sensitive.

[11:41]

I have to cover it if there's ever, you know, emergency vehicles coming by, only that ear.

[11:46]

And for the sound you mean?

[11:48]

Yeah.

[11:49]

Even if there's no headache or anything, it's just a sensitive.

[11:53]

Yeah.

[11:54]

It's just sensitive.

[11:55]

Okay.

[11:57]

Yeah.

[11:58]

Usually it's the pain, but sometimes it really does feel like I've been hit by a bus.

[12:02]

The fatigue comes, the nausea comes, you know, my body feels heavy.

[12:07]

Um, but that's not every time.

[12:09]

Usually it's the sharp, sharp pain.

[12:12]

Okay.

[12:13]

Okay.

[12:14]

And then, uh, vision fine?

[12:16]

Yeah.

[12:17]

Um, I had one aura experience once and confusion.

[12:21]

Um, I went to work and I was like, I can't work today.

[12:25]

And they're like, you're not working today.

[12:27]

You're not on the schedule.

[12:29]

Okay.

[12:30]

I think something's not right.

[12:32]

Um, okay.

[12:33]

But that was one time.

[12:35]

So they took with a bit of, uh, humor at work.

[12:40]

Yeah.

[12:41]

On drugs.

[12:42]

Oh yeah.

[12:43]

Something's not right.

[12:44]

Yeah.

[12:45]

I wasn't in university at the time.

[12:47]

Like they probably would have suspected that.

[12:49]

Yeah.

[12:50]

And so you go, you go, uh, life, life goes on.

[12:53]

So you work, you tell your boss, you don't really tell your colleagues, you take the

[12:58]

hits and you, you, you become that trooper, right?

[13:01]

You just take on that role.

[13:03]

Um, and then, and, and what happens?

[13:06]

Like, how do you, did you wake up one day and decide, okay, now enough is enough?

[13:10]

Or how did you come across my work?

[13:14]

Yeah.

[13:15]

Uh, it was a long journey to get to you.

[13:19]

Um, I had definitely tried all kinds of different things beforehand.

[13:26]

Can you describe that?

[13:28]

Yeah.

[13:29]

Um, for a long time, I just thought it was normal.

[13:32]

That was me.

[13:33]

And then eventually I was thinking, no, there, there has to be something going on.

[13:38]

This, this pain is there for a reason.

[13:43]

Um, and it can't just be cause I'm a headachy person.

[13:47]

It, it doesn't make sense to me.

[13:49]

So I, um, I did see a few different neurologists.

[13:54]

Um, all of them put me on different kind of preventative medications, which generally

[14:01]

didn't work for me.

[14:02]

Some of them calmed down the pain a little bit, but, um, no, the pain was still there

[14:09]

every day.

[14:10]

Um, went to see a chiropractor.

[14:13]

I tried the keto diet, um, avoiding triggers, completely going off of all medication, you

[14:21]

know, to stop the rebound headaches.

[14:23]

Um, and.

[14:24]

That's a brave move.

[14:25]

That was very hard.

[14:27]

I've done it a few times.

[14:29]

Um, yeah.

[14:31]

And it, for me, it always like led, led back to, okay, I need the medication to function.

[14:39]

Otherwise I can't go to work.

[14:42]

And I have a, a TENS machine for my forehead so that when the medication's not working,

[14:48]

it at least stops the pain for a while and I can have some relief.

[14:53]

Um, I did see, um, a naturopath and a Chinese doctor.

[14:58]

They were in the same clinic.

[15:00]

I was seeing them for over a year and that was really helping.

[15:05]

Um, I still had some headaches throughout the week, but it wasn't every day.

[15:10]

Um, but I couldn't keep that up financially.

[15:14]

And, um, I then moved to working part-time and, you know, just couldn't continue that.

[15:21]

And I went to, uh, do a past life regression to see if there was any kind of like head

[15:26]

karma.

[15:27]

That's bold.

[15:28]

Yeah.

[15:29]

I mean, what a quest, right?

[15:32]

I think what a quest, what a number, a number of hours and time just to research, research

[15:37]

and money.

[15:39]

Yeah.

[15:40]

Yeah.

[15:41]

And I think we're called migrant heroes because a hero has a problem and he's going to try

[15:46]

to fix it or he comes across it and it's not going to work the first time around.

[15:51]

Right.

[15:52]

But he's going to keep, he or she's going to keep, you know, trying and trying and trying.

[15:57]

You really have to, because all of those things were not fixing the problem.

[16:03]

It was a lot of energy, a lot of money, and then for it to not work and then to take a

[16:08]

break because, you know, I'm tired of working on this and then, okay, I'm frustrated with

[16:13]

the pain again.

[16:14]

So let's try something new.

[16:27]

I listened to Nicole Jardim on her podcast, The Period Party, and you were on there and

[16:36]

you just seemed to make sense talking about different organs and the nutrients that we

[16:43]

need for these organs.

[16:45]

And you seemed to really understand what the issue was and how it's different for different

[16:51]

people.

[16:53]

And something in me was just like, nope, I have to, I have to, I'm definitely reaching

[16:58]

out.

[16:59]

I have to try this.

[17:00]

And again, part of me was thinking, okay, like it sounds logical.

[17:03]

It sounds like it's helpful.

[17:05]

It's going to be helpful.

[17:06]

But at the same time, I've tried things, they help for a little while and then they don't

[17:11]

help.

[17:12]

They don't help anymore.

[17:13]

And when I was in your program, it was working quite quickly and I was excited about that

[17:20]

and a bit worried that that wouldn't last.

[17:23]

But then it kept lasting and lasting and lasting.

[17:26]

And yeah, just, I don't even have words for that.

[17:34]

Yeah.

[17:35]

Yeah.

[17:36]

Yeah.

[17:37]

I usually call it gratitude and a really, was that, you know, all the words are that

[17:45]

simple.

[17:46]

I want to bounce back on what you said about Nicole Jardim.

[17:49]

I'm deeply, deeply, deeply grateful.

[17:52]

She's an incredible interviewer.

[17:55]

So it's the podcast party.

[17:57]

It was one on the gut brain axis or intuition in gut brain axis, I think.

[18:01]

It was the first one that you were on for her.

[18:04]

Yeah.

[18:05]

Yeah.

[18:06]

And so I really want to extend a word of gratitude because these women like her and Lisa Hendrickson

[18:10]

from Fertility Friday, this woman, they are beating in the trenches, doing a really hard

[18:16]

job to reeducate all of us on what should be most natural and should be done by society.

[18:21]

And they're really relaying the role of our mothers and our grandmothers and our ancestors

[18:25]

on knowing our bodies.

[18:26]

And I think, you know, kudos to them because it's a really big job that they're doing,

[18:31]

like lifting population forward.

[18:33]

And so a huge word of thank you.

[18:36]

Agreed.

[18:37]

Yeah.

[18:38]

And so, yeah.

[18:39]

And so we meet, we met the first time.

[18:42]

Do you remember how you felt when we met on Zoom to discuss all of your imbalances?

[18:47]

I remember you saying in the podcast that you listen first.

[18:51]

And that was a huge, huge thing for me.

[18:54]

I'm tearing up.

[18:56]

It's just going to all of these different places and not really feeling heard, not feeling

[19:03]

understood how much pain I was in and how much it was really affecting me.

[19:08]

But yeah, you listen to the entire history and where it was and all the other symptoms

[19:13]

that were connected that I knew was connected, but nobody else believed that they were connected.

[19:19]

Yeah, I just remember feeling heard and you were saying lots of things that sounded like

[19:25]

they made sense and I could understand them at the time.

[19:29]

But it was just like, I knew that you understood what was happening in my body.

[19:35]

And that was the most important thing for me, that I believed that you knew what was

[19:39]

going on and that there was a path forward.

[19:42]

Yeah.

[19:43]

And I vividly remember, and then I put your app together and I usually always observe

[19:50]

just three days for the ones who don't know me.

[19:53]

I always observe for three days, okay, where are your migraines right now?

[19:57]

And I vividly remember starting you in a way I had never started anyone because I thought,

[20:02]

you know what?

[20:03]

There's something really acute.

[20:04]

Usually we take care of that later, but it's so acute in Dulce's body.

[20:09]

Let's do that.

[20:10]

That's what her body wants.

[20:12]

And so the listening goes to you massively.

[20:15]

Do you relay the information in your body?

[20:18]

And then the listening comes in your body, just from the tracker, from the daily tracker

[20:23]

in the app to see, okay, where is her body right now complaining the most?

[20:27]

So if I unpeel you like an onion, what is layer one, layer two?

[20:30]

There's a lot of layers.

[20:31]

We're going to have to go through all of them, but what's layer one, layer two?

[20:34]

Where is your body?

[20:35]

Just really, really grumpy right now.

[20:36]

And I remember when I started you on that, I thought, hmm, very unusual, but that's what

[20:40]

the body says.

[20:41]

So we're just going to listen.

[20:43]

And indeed, your body latched on it quite fast.

[20:46]

And the other thing that happens is that when you say things tend to come back or when you

[20:51]

had that experience with those two practitioners that did make your life better, I don't know

[20:56]

how you felt, but because it's food and it's in your kitchen.

[21:00]

And you understand which food does what.

[21:03]

It's something that you regain control of, understanding your body and understanding

[21:09]

how these foods actually serve you, which is really, really, really epic.

[21:14]

And so we hang up and then you start.

[21:17]

How did you find the starting in the app and how is the experience from your point of view?

[21:22]

Yeah, quite simple.

[21:25]

It was helpful to have the notification on my phone that reminds me to add in my information

[21:32]

for that day.

[21:34]

But it has pictures of all the foods and everything kind of listed in an organized way that's

[21:41]

easy to just click on.

[21:43]

Yeah, for me, things that are tedious are hard to keep up, but it wasn't like that.

[21:47]

It was very easy to kind of go through.

[21:49]

And with all the images, it's an easy, quick process at the end of the day.

[21:54]

And it was interesting just to, I can see if I scroll down, I can see sort of what my

[22:01]

time has been like, what the pain patterns have been like.

[22:04]

And yeah, just kind of scrolling down to the beginning where it was every day, extremely

[22:09]

painful, extremely painful.

[22:10]

And then going up, oh no, here's lots of days with no pain.

[22:15]

Yeah.

[22:16]

It's very nice to visually see my progress in the app.

[22:20]

Yeah.

[22:21]

Yeah.

[22:22]

It's really nice.

[22:23]

I have to say all of these things that you feel, I feel them too.

[22:28]

We feel them as a team.

[22:30]

So when you told me your story, I was moved 10 days of every single day pain.

[22:36]

It's massive, right?

[22:38]

It's almost like 4,000 days of pain continuously.

[22:41]

It's huge.

[22:44]

And we try to make it really simple because our job, I find my job is to make a few changes

[22:51]

and I have to make it as simple as possible in the explanations and your day-to-day.

[22:55]

And indeed, when we look at your data, we get super excited, super excited.

[23:00]

We share the highs, we share the lows, but we get super excited.

[23:03]

And then whenever we have, so there's a chat inside the app.

[23:06]

So whenever there's one of you sending a message like, oh my God, I just went through my menstruation,

[23:11]

like no pain, yay.

[23:13]

And we screenshot that.

[23:15]

And in our team chat, we have like a hashtag team victory.

[23:20]

And we're always excited to have all of this stream of really good news for people.

[23:26]

So we massively, massively care.

[23:29]

And I feel that on my end too, being in that chat and sort of seeing everybody's input

[23:36]

and cheering me on and noticing certain things.

[23:39]

And I appreciate that you guys are paying attention to these small things

[23:44]

and getting excited about it.

[23:46]

Because one of the things in our work is that we have to see, okay, how is Dulce's body reacting?

[23:51]

What's the speed?

[23:52]

What's the magnitude of the onion peel we're dealing with?

[23:57]

What's the magnitude of the imbalance?

[23:59]

Is it really sticky or is it going away fast?

[24:02]

And when it goes away fast, we have to stop because once it's corrected, it's corrected.

[24:08]

It doesn't come back unless there's like sort of daily medication in the process.

[24:12]

And so we find that we listen really at the beginning, but we also listen throughout to see,

[24:18]

okay, there's been like years and years of medication.

[24:21]

Okay, where do we need to remove the medication?

[24:23]

Where is it in the biome?

[24:25]

Okay, if we remove the first layer, is it gone now?

[24:27]

Yes, it is gone.

[24:28]

Great. It's not gone?

[24:29]

A bit more, a bit more.

[24:30]

Okay, now it's gone.

[24:31]

We can stop.

[24:32]

And so that's a huge active role that we play.

[24:37]

And it's funny because even the tech team, I find they love their work.

[24:42]

Like they say, my God, the level of engagement is massive.

[24:45]

Like women will spend so much time and just looking at these foods and interacting so much with the app.

[24:52]

But then they also see how much sort of sharp and free these people get over time.

[25:00]

It gives them meaning too, which then encourages to make improvements.

[25:05]

I don't know, like throughout the time you were in the app, I think you've seen quite a few changes.

[25:09]

Yeah, it's been evolving over time.

[25:12]

And yeah, it's really exciting to see.

[25:14]

And so now let's go back to your life.

[25:17]

So like you are in your home, in your kitchen, between your app and your kitchen, like you manage things.

[25:25]

How are your days now or months?

[25:27]

And how do you feel the new time?

[25:29]

Like how things are going?

[25:30]

Well, one thing I noticed is that I don't always know where my pain meds are,

[25:35]

which meaning before I would know exactly where they are, how many I have left of each kind.

[25:41]

And they're located in different places, so I have easy access to them.

[25:46]

And sometimes I'll leave the house and I don't even think about packing them.

[25:51]

It's not something that's top of my mind.

[25:54]

Do you sometimes pack tea?

[25:57]

Yeah, I have like functional teas and stuff in little Ziplocs.

[26:04]

And I'll sometimes do the overnight shift at one of my works and bring little packs of functional foods.

[26:13]

You do overnight shifts now?

[26:16]

Yes, yes.

[26:17]

I work in a care home also part time and it's a sleep shift, so I'm not awake the whole night, thankfully.

[26:24]

Yeah, but still, you're on duty basically and you're not taking your bed.

[26:29]

It's very demanding.

[26:31]

It's rare, it's rare, but yeah, that's true.

[26:35]

In general, my life has been busy, go, go, go.

[26:40]

And it's really only now that I'm learning the importance of slowing down

[26:44]

and kind of checking in and giving my body that rest.

[26:49]

So, yeah, that's a little bit kind of a bit of that past kind of life of mine.

[26:57]

Yeah.

[26:58]

But yeah, in the past, cooking was never an interest of mine.

[27:02]

Just in the past few years, I've learned that it's important to take care of myself and I enjoy cooking a lot more.

[27:13]

And now that I have in the app, it also explains how to prepare the food as well, which is very helpful.

[27:22]

And knowing that it's actually helping me, it's actually reducing my pain, makes that process so much more enjoyable.

[27:31]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Completely, completely.

[27:35]

And did you have any hobbies before and do you do them more now?

[27:43]

Yes, a lot of my hobbies involve reading and things like that.

[27:56]

If I'm having a migraine, I can't be using my eyes too much.

[28:01]

So that's definitely, I'm on my computer for work as well as a counsellor.

[28:07]

So I'm typing up notes or meeting with clients over Zoom.

[28:11]

And, you know, if I'm having a migraine, that is quite painful as well.

[28:16]

So it's definitely opened that up a lot more.

[28:20]

I'm able to spend much more time working on the notes after seeing a client afterward or doing my reading.

[28:30]

I like to learn about ancient astrology and things like that.

[28:36]

So, yeah, I don't need to put things away because I'm in pain or I don't need to minimize the amount of time that I'm doing something.

[28:47]

Because it's so much effort to do it if I'm in pain.

[28:51]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[28:53]

And look, I was just also like scrolling through your data.

[28:57]

It's incredible how at the beginning, like you mentioned, every single day was a pain day.

[29:02]

Yeah, now how pain is really there.

[29:04]

And, you know, you and I discussed how we're both super motivated to try to get to zero, basically.

[29:11]

You know, this is something I love to do because I know it's possible.

[29:15]

It just requires like, you know, the last carats sometimes can be a bit longer to achieve.

[29:21]

But, you know, I'm quite keen to bring you to zero because I think you deserve it and you can just completely, you know, completely get to it easy.

[29:29]

Because also the brain has a lot more time to rest and regenerate.

[29:32]

There's less toxins added with the medication.

[29:35]

And so, therefore, that process is quite smooth and reinforcing, which is really, really nice.

[29:40]

And so, do you want to share?

[29:42]

I found out as we were doing a bit of an exit conversation when Dulce was done, we thought, I don't know, we exchanged and I discovered what you do for work.

[29:55]

And I'd love you to share this with everyone.

[29:58]

Yes. So I am a counsellor and I live here in Victoria, in Canada, and I'm working right now with immigrants and refugees.

[30:10]

But I'm also starting my own private practice, working with clients and slowly building that.

[30:20]

So I focus on the nervous system and sort of bringing in that element of safety into our experiences.

[30:30]

We often, you know, we react to situations by our nervous system changing into sort of a mobilization state and the fight or flight state.

[30:44]

And I noticed that I was in that state fairly frequently.

[30:48]

And it's hard to think clearly when you're feeling that way.

[30:54]

You have intense emotions and it's also hard to heal physically when you're in that state.

[31:01]

But finding ways of bringing in safety, which is the polyvagal theory, essentially, bringing in safety through connection with safe others is a big one, as well as other sort of self-care activities allows you to experience that state and feel it while also being safe at the same time.

[31:27]

Rather than being afraid of that feeling and trying to shove it away or push it to the side and sort of staying in that state or distracting yourself without really processing the emotions from that experience.

[31:46]

Yeah, so I love that expertise that you have really on essentially linking, for me, trauma to the vagus nerve.

[31:55]

Like if I take a big shortcut, especially with these refugees, right, and re-putting the vagus nerve in balance after initial traumatic experience that leads to sort of chronic stress.

[32:10]

And it relates so much to the topic of migraines that I have the joy to say that we're going to have Dulce back to talk specifically about her expertise in this field, because I think it's extremely relevant.

[32:23]

I have learned over the years, very relevant in the case of people growing up with trauma and the implications of their vagus nerve on their migraines.

[32:32]

And so I'm always keen to bring you to the next frontier.

[32:37]

And so Dulce is going to do that with us in an upcoming podcast.

[32:41]

Yeah, I'm so excited.

[32:42]

Stay tuned for that.

[32:44]

Yes, yes.

[32:46]

Look, I just want to extend a huge thank you from the community, Dulce, for your testimonial today and for sharing your story.

[32:55]

I mean, the pleasure is all mine.

[32:58]

Just the fact that I can spend so many days without pain is at a point where I believed I could reach but never really thought I would reach at the same time.

[33:11]

You know, it seemed like I shouldn't be in pain, but I had no idea how I would ever get to that point.

[33:19]

And this was a time that I have looked forward to my entire life when I can just function normally.

[33:26]

And yeah, when you're in pain, it's really hard to be happy and enjoy life.

[33:33]

And when you're not in pain, there's regular stressors, of course, but without that intense pain in your body, you can manage things in a normal way.

[33:48]

Yeah, yeah.

[33:49]

And it's quite interesting because it's an organic evolution.

[33:53]

It doesn't happen from one day to the next, but little by little, you can see the intensity and frequency decrease until it disappears.

[34:02]

And it's a process that we're not used to as human beings.

[34:07]

We're used to usually a worsening of situations, but like a soft decline of problems.

[34:13]

It's a soft organic transition that you're like, oh, is this for real?

[34:18]

That feels incredibly normal or incredibly natural, yet it hasn't been my day-to-day.

[34:25]

Am I in the real world a little bit?

[34:28]

Yeah, right.

[34:29]

I get that quite a bit.

[34:30]

I also don't know if you've experienced this thing a lot of people refer to where they start to have a migraine and then it stops in flight and comes back down.

[34:39]

Did you ever experience that or like a half?

[34:41]

Oh, yeah.

[34:42]

Like it starts and then it doesn't actually turn into a migraine.

[34:45]

Yeah.

[34:46]

It goes back down.

[34:47]

Definitely.

[34:48]

Yeah, for sure.

[34:49]

For sure.

[34:50]

Yeah.

[34:51]

Which makes it hard to know whether, you know, should I take medication or should I not?

[34:54]

Yeah.

[34:55]

Yeah.

[34:56]

Yeah.

[34:57]

That's also a feeling that people say, oh, that was weird.

[34:59]

Like I swear it was coming.

[35:00]

I was like shut down.

[35:01]

I canceled my meetings.

[35:02]

I go to my bed and oh, it's not there anymore.

[35:05]

I swear it was there.

[35:06]

I really thought it was.

[35:07]

You know, that's a weird sensation and people get used to it because they're like, oh, yeah, no, it's just, you know, we're getting there.

[35:13]

It's a work in progress.

[35:15]

Yeah.

[35:16]

Do you have any sort of final words, closing words that you wish, you know, to transmit to this audience who's listening and who's in pain maybe as we talk to them?

[35:28]

Yeah.

[35:29]

I mean, like, I get it.

[35:33]

It's really, really hard to just live and get through and people are counting on you and you need to take care of other people and you're in severe pain at the same time.

[35:45]

It's hard to, you know, you feel like you want to be part of the world and part of the community and be there for the people in your life.

[35:54]

You are suffering and it's very hard to do that.

[35:58]

So I definitely understand and don't give up.

[36:02]

Like, don't just accept that this is normal for you and you have to put up with it until menopause and then maybe your symptoms will get better at that point.

[36:14]

That just can't be right.

[36:16]

And clearly for me, it wasn't.

[36:19]

And it makes sense that for other people, it's not the case either.

[36:23]

There are, you know, things that your body is needing and it's telling you that.

[36:29]

And so, yeah, keep going.

[36:31]

Yeah.

[36:32]

And I want to echo what you said about, you know, menopause and maybe the pain goes in menopause.

[36:37]

I do welcome a lot of women who thought, you know, menopause would bring those beautiful days.

[36:43]

And when it doesn't, as you can imagine, the level of frustration really increases.

[36:48]

I've also had women who went, you know, to do a hysterectomy with the hope that the pain would go away, forcing a menopause on themselves and it didn't work.

[36:57]

And so, if that's you, more than happy to assess the situation and guide you as to what menopause will bring those days or not.

[37:06]

Because it's actually possible to see, depending on the root cause of the migraine, is that one of the root causes that gets worse or better with menopause?

[37:14]

Just as a side note.

[37:16]

Well, a huge thank you, Dulcie.

[37:18]

Thank you for your time.

[37:19]

Thank you for your care.

[37:20]

And I look forward to our second podcast.

[37:22]

Yes.

[37:23]

Well, thank you for specializing in what you do.

[37:25]

I am so appreciative.

[37:27]

With so much pleasure.

[37:28]

Thank you.

[37:29]

Yeah.

[37:30]

Okay.

[37:31]

Thanks.

[37:32]

The content in this podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for medical professional advice, diagnosis or treatment.

[37:42]

Always consult with your health care provider for any health related concerns.

[37:47]

And remember, everyone and every situation is unique.

[37:52]

Remember, sharing is caring.

[37:55]

Share your story with me.

[37:57]

Take my free test and let's connect to help you gain a deeper understanding of your migraine profile.

[38:04]

Learn about the underlying imbalances that could be contributing to your genetic predisposition for migraines.

[38:11]

Join our community of migraine heroes.

[38:14]

All the links in the description below.

Originally published May 2024

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