78. After 35 Years of Migraines, Here's What Finally Worked For Mary Jo

Mary Jo had migraines for 35 years.

She tried everything: tricyclics, beta blockers, anti-seizure meds, steroids, antidepressants, birth control pills, Botox, acupuncture, massage, chiropractic, physical therapy.

Nothing worked.

Over the past year and a half, her migraines got so bad that she was waking up in the middle of the night, unable to function. She went back to the first medication she tried 20 years ago, Imitrex injections, because it was the only thing that would take the edge off.

She was getting Toradol injections at her doctor's office. Missing work. Canceling on friends. She could only plan one social activity per week, and even then, she often couldn't go.

She was 47 years old and felt like she'd missed out on 30 years of life.

In this episode, Mary Jo shares what happened when she joined my 12-week Healing Migraines Naturally program.

Within 11 weeks:

She went from 3-5 migraines per week to a mild headache every 4-5 days
She stopped using her Cefaly device entirely
She hasn't touched Tums in 11 weeks (she used to eat them like candy)
Her fatigue lifted, her family noticed the difference
Her triggers (smoke, perfume, barometric pressure, wind, bright light) stopped causing migraines
She lost weight consistently every week
She drove 9 hours through a snowstorm without anxiety or a migraine

She said it felt like she took 10 years off her migraine symptoms.

This is what happens when you stop treating symptoms and start addressing root causes.

If you're ready to stop suffering and start healing, let's talk.

Book your free consultation: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/apply

Free Training: 5 Proven Steps to Being Migraine Free (Even if you think you've already tried everything.)

https://www.drlesliecisar.com/5SHMN

Connect with us:

Website: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/

Free Facebook Group: Healing Migraines Naturally, with Leslie Cisar, ND

Ready to try something radically different that actually works? Read more about my approach here: https://www.drlesliecisar.com/map

Episode Transcript

hi everyone this is Doctor Leslie Caesar
uh thanks for joining me today
I have on the line Mary Joe who is in your
Mary Joe you're in your 11th week of the 12 week
Healing Migraines Naturally program
so we're just at the tail end
and um
I invited Mary Joe to jump on a call tonight and just
um
uh have asked her to share her experience
um where she was at before we started working together
and her experience going through the program and
and where she's at now
so Mary Joe thanks so much for joining me today
no
thank you for all you've done for me this past 11 weeks
I have had migraines for 35 years and really have
I was at a point of no return
I didn't know what else to do
I had been on multiple medications
I've taken my tricyclics beta blockers
Calcium channel blockers anti seizures
steroids antidepressants
normal pain relievers
I was even put on birth control pills
just to try to control the hormones
um I have a sciatica
so I've been tried I tried that for probably 6 months
I went to see an acupuncturist
an energy medicine guy physical therapist
chiropractor massage
basically I tried everything um
that I was willing to try
and when I first um
listened to the webinar
it definitely cured my curiosity to
what could I do differently
so I've been really happy with the results in 11 weeks
and I feel like I am finally treating
the cause of my migraines
instead of just treating the symptoms
yeah yeah absolutely
I mean Mary Joe
you're one of those people you
you had really tried it all over the years
um I mean
just the list that you gave um
you know how many doctors you had gone to
other practitioners
specialists different medications that you've taken
and you know
when we started working together
you were really kind of
you were kind of in a situation where again
the medication you were taking
was really not working too well
no I had actually um
I've suffered from migraines for 35 years
and over the past year year and a half
they've really gotten to the point where
no medication was working
I actually went back to um
the first medication I was placed on by a neurologist
20 some years ago which was an imitrex injectable
and I found that that was
the only thing
that would take the edge off of my migraines
um most recently
found myself at at my doctor's office getting um
Toradol injections and you know
just having days where I I couldn't go to work
yeah yeah
absolutely absolutely
and the other thing I remember too
when we first started working together is
you know previously
to them getting really bad over the past year
year and a half
you would get them towards the end of the day mostly
but as they started to get worse
you were waking up with them
yes I would wake up in the middle of the night
and be just so sick that I couldn't even function
get in the shower wouldn't even help it
yeah yeah
um and that's when you really had
you were kind of at your wit's end with the injectable
something that you had done 20 years prior
correct yes
and you know
every time I go to the doctor
we try something else and it was all medication
and nothing seemed to
nothing helped the migraine
if anything else
it just caused other reactions I ended up getting
whether it was dry mouth
whether it was plantar fasciitis
seemed like it affected another part of my body
mm hmm mm hmm
yeah the side effects
yes
yeah yeah
and um you
you had you had pretty debilitating migraines also
you know waking up
you know you'd wake up in the middle of the night
um and
you know you
you really you weren't missing too much work
as I recall when we first started working together
but it was it was getting difficult for you
am I remembering that correctly
yes um
I would
normally
I would go to work unless it was beyond control
I'm one of those people that work comes first
um but I really felt it was affecting my work too
I couldn't be at the top of my game while I was at work
yeah yeah
and um you
you just you were experiencing something that
a lot of women talk about
where you you were able to get yourself into work
but you weren't able to do much more outside of that
correct
I remember you saying
you didn't like to schedule more than one thing a week
because it would be too you know
just draining for you and then also
of course not knowing how you would feel day to day
you know just kind of that unknown was affecting you
too
and it was really inhibiting you from social activities
if I remember correctly yes
I would only plan one social activity a week
and I felt that even then
it was everything I could to go
I felt like I was always canceling on my friends
canceling on going to a
whether it was continuing education course
or a social event I just
by the end of the day could not
I didn't have the energy either
yeah yeah
you were very fatigued when we started
yes extremely
yeah and
of course with most migraine people
if you sleep too much you get a migraine
if you sleep too less you get a migraine
yeah yeah exactly exactly
talk about some of your triggers
cause you had you
you had some um
common triggers also that a lot of other women have
I had some of the normals
I definitely had the food triggers
but it was the other triggers
it was the smells whether it was smoke perfume
I also had the barometric pressure
with a storm coming through um
wind being out in the wind or bright light
I actually bought some special anti migraine sunglasses
which I tried um
stress of course did you did me in
but you know alcohol
you know H cheese
all the same that everybody
you know usually speaks of yeah
yeah so just tons of triggers
many of which were completely outside of your control
you know
yes all were outside of my control
yeah yeah
um so how is this affecting you
you know your family life
your personal life um
your self image
well missing many things
I mean or going to things and just not being 100% um
there'd be many times that we'd be traveling
with my daughter for softball
and instead of socializing with the team
I'd be upstairs getting sick
because I had a terrible migraine
cause we were out in the sun or the wind
or the cold for the entire day
so I I missed a lot um
and unfortunately I didn't find you
until after my daughter went to college
yeah yeah
and um
you know you're
you're relatively young
I don't know if you want to state
your age on the call or not
but you're just a little bit older than I am
I'm 47 yeah
so you know you're
you're way too young to not be able to enjoy things
you know
correct but
but I've missed out for the past 30 years probably
yeah yeah
so um
you uh
you found the group on Facebook
and you watched the webinar
was it the um
the 5 steps to healing migraines naturally
yes it was
it was um
I was actually in Michigan at my daughter's
it was in October
my best friend and I listened to it together
cause she also suffers from migraines
and it just really spoke to me um
I was interested
because I knew I didn't have many other options
the other thing that really interested me
was the fact that all of this could be done
via the phone um
as a busy professional
I didn't have the time to be able to say OK
I'm gonna go once a week to the doctor
find the time that works for the doctor's schedule
and my schedule this was ideal
even though you're in Chicago
and I'm in Western New York
we are able to talk for an hour every week at a time
convenient especially in my lifetime or my lifestyle
at 7:00 at night how many doctors do that yeah
and so
one of the other things that really
once I met you
and we did the intake through all the physicians
all the specialists that I've had
really no one has ever dug as deep as you did
into my history
to find things that you could help me with
yeah yeah
that's that's
that's how I get to the root cause
you know um
digging deeper
and then kind of putting that picture together
that's what I'm always striving to do
is just to identify why does this person
why does this woman have migraine headaches
and what's preventing her body from healing from them
so yeah that's why we do that initial intake
which is quite detailed
yes it was very helpful
I think in
in treating me
excellent excellent
um so we started we
we talked on the phone for the first time
you booked a free um
consultation call in October
and it was mid October if I remember correctly
um yes
and uh
you were you know
I think you came on the call
I think you were ready to do this
um were
were you nervous when you were
when we talked for the first time about doing this
or what kind of what were your feelings at the time
at that point I trusted you
um I felt a connection
I trusted
that you would bring me in the right direction
and I really had nothing to lose
so I could only get better and
you know it definitely has helped
yeah yeah
and um
we actually did your initial intake
and then you went on a nice trip to Disney World
for about a week
yeah um
and then while you were gone
I put together your plan hahaha
I studied your case
and your symptoms and put together your plan
and then we started on November 1st
I remember correctly yep
that's it November 1st yeah
yeah it's mid January now
so um
so and you started feeling better really quickly
you even kind of surprised me
how quickly you started feeling better
it was like
you almost took 10 years off of my migraine symptoms
so it was
back to some of the lesser degrees of the migraine
I had the energy I used to have
um I just felt better very quickly
it's amazing what your body is able to recover um
when you get rid of the toxins
when you get rid of the things that
you know are in our daily life
and it was really amazing to me
how quickly the migraines decreased
how quickly I lost weight
which was another thing that I had been struggling with
there was nothing
that they could do to help me lose weight
yeah you've
you've been uh
very successful losing weight on this program
um every week consistently
you've been losing losing weight
yeah
yeah I'm very pleased
that's a nice side effect exact
yeah right
exactly that's a side effect
I mean I
I this is not a weight loss program
but it's a nice side effect right
yeah um
yes and you had some other symptoms too and um
everything started turning around
I had terrible GI symptoms
um you know
I had never had I was eating Tums like it was candy
and I have not touched a Tums in the entire 11 weeks
and I haven't had any GI symptoms
yeah yeah
and your fatigue has improved quite a bit
yeah I mean
even my family has noticed it's quite a difference
yeah yeah
and that's
one of the ways that I know that I'm not just treating
your migraine symptoms
is because other things are getting better too
so that's that's another kind of um
uh you know
clue or sign that I have on this journey working with
with you that we're not just palliating your symptoms
like you would with medication or
or some of these um
you know the approaches that you read online
where people are taking you know
high dose magnesium or they're taking high dose
you know of certain herbs
um you know what I do when
when we get down to the root cause
um everything starts feeling better
and then that's a signal
that we're actually restoring your total health
and not just kind of masking everything with
you know high dose type stuff
so yeah I'm
you know you
you definitely experienced that and how and
and uh
pretty quickly
we noticed that you weren't getting triggered
with the migraines
do you wanna speak to that a little bit
um I remember yeah
uh
yeah go ahead
yeah certain triggers were terrible
I was in the car with someone that had been smoking
I would get a headache um
just simple things like going to church
um the
the fragrances at church would give me a migraine
and I wasn't getting those anymore
so those were all you know
pretty big milestones for me
for things that I've been suffering with for 20+ years
yeah yeah
and you were using your suffle device fairly regularly
when we started and
I I
I don't know I
I remember you used it once
maybe week 1 I don't know if I haven't used it
I know it's in the drawer
I have not used it I haven't charged it nothing
yeah yeah
and your um
I mean talk about your
your uh migraines
I mean though
you know what's your experience now with
my migraines are just
well I was getting probably 3 to 5 migraines a week
um I'm lucky if I get a small headache
I would say every 4 to 5 days now
I wouldn't call it a migraine it
it has the remnants of a migraine
but it's just that like a little annoying
head pain in the back um
there it's nothing compared to my migraines
yeah yeah
um so yeah
one of my mentors talks about how healing takes place
in the 4th dimension it takes place in
over time and um
your uh
experience with your healing has really been kind of
rolling back time um
it I feel like you're exactly
I used to get them in the morning
and now if I get this little headache
I call it it's in the late afternoon
so it's definitely not affecting my day to day
it's amazing being able to wake up and feel normal
yeah yeah
and one thing that I like to focus on too
is the mind body aspect um
so we've done some some mind body work as well um
and you know
do you do you feel like you uh
you know a lot of times when
when you're actively experiencing migraines
there's a lot of anxiety you know well
can I take this car trip
I don't know if I'm gonna get sick
what happens if I get sick
you know uh
am I
am I gonna get too sick in the car
you know etcetera
I mean are you
are you starting to feel that anxiety lift
yeah the anxiety has went away um
a good example was
I had to drive home from Michigan in a snowstorm
over 9 hours and oh yeah
I I was good
um normally that I would not have been able to do that
um I wasn't anxious about it
woke up I was fine
and I'm able to plan things
without thinking about my headaches anymore
yeah yeah
that's awesome that's awesome
well we have a couple more weeks left and
but it's not the end for us
we're going to continue to work together
because you'd like to continue to
continue to experience the weight loss
you've experienced
with this program and
and so on
so I'm thrilled to continue to work with you on that um
is there any
do you have any advice for anyone listening
I have a couple things
one is don't be afraid to ask your family about this
a lot of people I think
might be hesitant that their family won't understand um
this process that they're gonna be going through
my family my husband in particular was 100% on board
he actually even adjusted
his day to day living in order to support me um
your family's they don't wanna see you suffer and
and this is something that actually does work
the other thing is
I think for anybody to make changes in their life
they need accountability
and Doctor Leslie has given me that accountability um
week to week I know I'm a rule follower
so I know
I have to do what I need to do for my body to heal
and to get better and it it works
awesome awesome yeah
you know your husband uh
um would you say
he's even benefited from some of the changes
haha oh
he definitely has he definitely has um
he's definitely looking closely
closer at what he puts in his own body and
and what the effects can be
so I think it's a good thing for our entire family
that's awesome that's awesome
well I'm
I'm so happy for you and I just
I just love hearing when
people's families notice the change
when they see the change in their loved one
I love hearing that um
because I I know how much everybody's family wants
you know their loved one to feel better
and I just love it when it's so noticeable that the
the family can tell too
yeah and I think
you know that's the big thing
your family will know the difference
you'll be able to do the things that you haven't done
you'll be able to be a part of your family again
and you know
I just wish I had done these changes years ago
and I could have
enjoyed the past 19 years of my daughter's life
um but it's not too late
you can still make those changes
absolutely absolutely
and we did this over the holiday season
you had a nice holiday season
even though you were transforming your health
so it's would you say that it's something that's doable
no matter what time of year
ha ha
ha ha
it really is it's totally doable
I mean I made it through Thanksgiving and Christmas
and you have double double whammy there
yeah yeah
and New Year's um
but I really yeah
didn't didn't feel like I missed anything
awesome awesome
well um
Mary Joe I mean you
I mean just from the
the first call that we had
you were just you know what
you were just totally committed to turning this around
it was like um
something just kind of grabbed you and said
you know what you're
you're gonna move forward
and you're gonna get this done
and you've had an amazing result
I'm I'm so happy for you
you know I couldn't I could not thank you enough
you've been there every step of the way
if I had a question any concerns
you were there for me and I couldn't you know
ask that of anybody else
awesome well
I love providing that level of support to people
um that's one of the most rewarding things about um
about this this work
um you know
I used to be like a um
you know corporate America professional type person
and I left all that to become a naturopathic uh
physician so um
this is just something that's so rewarding for me
is to be able to work so closely with people like you
and I did um
like you mentioned before
we had a weekly standing appointment
you could you know
reach out to me at any time if you need anything
and I
I just love providing that level of support because um
it really shows in the results
it does and medicine doesn't do that right now
medicine is somewhat broken
because of the way healthcare is
and it's so nice to be able to be treated one on one
yeah yeah absolutely
absolutely and it takes that level of intention to
to turn turn the ship around
you know
particularly migraine headaches
such a debilitating condition um
and if if you don't experience them
you it's hard to even imagine um
the pain and disability that they cause um
you know there it's
it's it's no light health concern
you know um
and so it it really does take this
this level of intention and um
one on one customized
root cause analysis and work to get it turned around so
again I'm just so happy for you
it's it's just so rewarding to me
it's just so fun
I've been doing this for seven years and
like I say
certainly I I expect people to get better
when they follow recommendations and they put the
the level of intention
and commitment that you put behind this
I expect people to get better but it's still
it's every time when people get better
it's such a such an amazing testimony to
the amazing ability
that our bodies have to heal and recover
it just it's so exciting every time to witness it
and be part of it and
and to walk with people on this journey so
so very rewarding for me as well
so at this point I
I just wanna ask a question for everybody
who's listening and that question is
how are you going to feel 12 weeks from now
um are you gonna feel hopeful
are you gonna feel renewed and revitalized
or are you still gonna be suffering from migraine
headaches because my mission is to help
every woman listening to this
to feel like they can turn back a clock
like Mary Joe has months
years even decades over the next 12 weeks
because it's totally possible
so if you want that then here's what I have for you
I've set aside some time in the next 48 hours
so that I can speak with you personally
about how you can apply these principles
to your health today
and whatever your biggest challenges are
no matter how long you've been suffering
I've seen it and I know how to overcome it
so we'll get on the phone for about 45 minutes
and on this session
I'll work with you to create a step by step
game plan to restore your health
and recover from migraine headaches
and this is absolutely free
so when we get on the call
we'll get you clear on three things
your current state of health
what's preventing you from achieving health
and what you need to do to restore your health
but this call is not for everybody
you must be ready willing
and excited
to restore your health and transform your life
you must be ready to stop just treating the symptoms
and ready to treat the root cause of your migraine
headaches
and you must be determined to make your health
and well being a top priority in your life
so if that's you book a session now
to book a call go to my website
WWW dot Dr Leslie Caesar dot com slash apply
um and when you go to my website you'll see my calendar
you can book a time
and then you'll be taken to a quick form
where I ask you a few questions
about your current state of health
this is gonna be an absolutely amazing 45 minute call
I look forward to talking with
look forward to talking with you
and I can't wait to work with you
to craft a game plan
to get you feeling like yourself again
um again
my mission is to help every woman listening to this
experience the type of health
restoration
and transformation that Mary Joe has experienced
so Mary Joe thank you again for sharing your story
um any last words you want to share
I can't thank you enough
so it for anybody that's questioning it
by all means I'd even be you know a
I'm willing to answer any questions that you had
but don't wait get your life back
thank you thank you so much awesome
well um
thank you
thank you everybody for listening and have a great day
and I'm looking forward to talking with you
take care everybody