131. How Monica Went From 18 Years Of Constant Pain To Real Relief

this episode, I sit down with Monica to talk about what life was like when she was living with chronic migraines for 18 years.

She shares what it was like to wake up in pain, push through work as a pastry chef, deal with severe vomiting, and miss family moments because of migraines, even after trying medications, neurologists, and countless ways to manage the symptoms.

We talk about what changed, what healing looked like for her in real life, and how she got to a place where she feels like she has her life back.

If you need hope that real change is possible, I think Monica’s story will really speak to you.

If you’re ready to address the root drivers of your migraines, you can book a free consultation at the link below:

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

In health,
Dr. Leslie Cisar

Episode Transcript

alright
welcome to the Healing Migraines Naturally podcast
I'm your host Doctor Leslie Caesar
and I'm a licensed naturopathic doctor
former chronic migraine sufferer
and I've dedicated my life to helping
other women with chronic migraines
rediscover a migraine free life
and I wanna welcome Monica to the podcast today
welcome Monica how are you
good how are you
good good
thanks so much for joining us today
you're gonna talk about your
healing story from your chronic migraines
I'm so happy that
you're gonna share your story with us today
yeah I
I mean I'm very happy to be here
I'm happy to share uh
my my journey to feeling better
tell us where tell us how the migraine started for you
so I think like I did have few migraines
like here and there when I was younger
like my teenage uh
years I would say
but like I noticed them like a lot
like I felt them a lot after I had my daughter
I was like four months
about four months after I had her when I had like
really really
like first migraine that I still remember to this day
like my husband came home from work and like he
like I was in bed
and that day I remember she was actually very good baby
like she was not crying she slept with me all day
like it really started then
and back then I didn't know
there were migraines
like I just felt sick and I was throwing up and
you know very often like she was little
so like I still had to take care of her and like
I remember like
literally crawling like to change her and just to
you know take care of her
I think that's how it started
and I remember going to my regular doctor
mostly for vomiting really
because like yeah
headache but like I was just sick
and it took few months and like
few visits that she finally like
kind of
she asked me if I'm having migraines and I was
like I don't know and then she actually
gave me some in um
contact information for neurologist that I work with
and like I really work with multiple neurologist
and part of it was the insurance
because our insurance changed
so obviously like I had to change the doctors
and like the doctor I started with was really good
the key was actually making me journal
he um
focused on diet and and
and so on not as much like
as like with you but like it was like
I think he was the best neurologist I ever worked with
and unfortunately
our insurance changed and he was long ago taken it
and after that
like it was like really hit or miss with the doctors
multiple medications different medications and
you know it worked for some time and then it
it wasn't so
and and uh you struggle with this for a long time
yes she's 18
she is 18 she will be turning 18 in two
in one month so yeah
it's been don't remember at least 8
18 years no
shh yeah
uh huh
and you know your
the the migraine symptoms that you're prone to
really fit what you know
in the old medical literature
they would call migraine sick headaches
that's what they were called
because people would be so sick
they'd be vomiting
and they'd have all of the additional symptoms
that you get with the classic migraine
you know you kind of feel like you have the flu
you're knocked out you're you're nauseous
you're vomiting you're groggy
you know in addition to all of
that head pain
so your migraine symptoms had so much vomiting
yeah I think this was the worst for me because
you know I can go through pain like I I
you know I'm a
I'm a pastry chef now but I always been working in um
hot um
restaurant environment so I had to be at work
and every call out was putting our team on
it wasn't it wasn't easy for everybody
like I I felt bad calling out knowing we're busy
at work and whatever
but like I could work through the head pain
but when I like you know
I I had episodes often
very often that there would be two days in a row
just awful awful headache and
and vomiting and that was like
I felt so weak and sick and I just couldn't move
and it was just like I was really from pain
like I remember my husband would be like
just checking on me if I'm still OK
like or what he can do
he would just replace ice bags and just making sure
like I'm drinking
but I couldn't drink anything because
you know I would be vomiting so
I think this was the worst for me
like not the head pain yeah
head pain yes
but like the other symptoms
that was like I could not
I could not move you know
and it's funny I'm sorry
like my kids
like they grew up really with me and my migraines
and from very little like they would be like quiet
they would make sure everybody's quiet in the house
they would check on me like if I need anything
yeah I hear this a lot
you know by the time the child's 5
they know okay
go to the you know
yeah
yeah I mean yeah
and you know
very often
like how many like things that we planned for
we didn't do
or like they did it without me because I felt bad
like I think that one really
really bad episode we had
like it was around Christmas and it was like migraine
and I had also like
exhausted from like being very busy at work
and I couldn't come down for opening
Christmas presents in the morning
and they waited for me until I think
2 o'clock in the afternoon
and I told my husband just to go ahead
open the door wait for me because
you know sorry
yeah
yeah so it
it was difficult like
not just for me but for them too
yeah yeah
and that's um
that that's the untold story of migraine
you know we're alone in the dark room
we can't function but our family is suffering too
yeah
and um
what I think is also very notable
for you is your profession
you know I used to work in a corporate office
and if I had a migraine
yeah you know
maybe I would kind of hang out my cubicle or
you know
I could kind of slip into a conference room and maybe
you know kind of escape
no I mean
you know and work in the kitchen
you work in a hot kitchen
that's not helping
and with bright lights and I had few um
you know I remember one wedding I was um
it was really something that
I had to be there to finish
just because of um
my skills
not everybody on my team had those skills at that time
so I
suffered through a few hours
to complete that wedding cake
and then as soon I was done
I just like I'm going home and like
I was pushing through
but by the time I was finished with everything
like all the like
I guess the stress fell down
like everything was like coming down
and my husband
actually had to come and pick me up from work
because I wasn't able to drive
but yeah I had to push through
yeah yeah
you have a profession there's
there's no hiding out
and you know
I think you're you're being very modest
from what you've told me about your skill level
I mean you're a very
very skilled uh
pastry chef and so
people are counting on you
for some of the most important days of their life
to have that that special
special touch on whether it's their wedding cake or
or whatever other
you know pastries and so on that they have
they're counting on you and
you know the wedding is not gonna be rescheduled
exactly I mean
and it's
for the most part
is the most important day in many people's lives
you know yeah
so um
so yeah I mean
clearly you were really suffering when we
you know when we met
you were because the nausea was so significant
such a significant part of your symptoms
you were taking anti nausea medication
you know you were
you had to take uh
so much medication that you know
how did you feel with all of that medication on board
awful like I hated it
like I felt like I'm not necessarily addicted
because it was an addiction
but I could not
I could not not have that medication
it caused me so much anxiety if I was running out and
you know there was some
some um
time sometimes I would actually run out
because my refill wasn't
I wasn't eligible for refill yet because
you know they give you the window
so yeah I had sometimes like I just couldn't
and I was like
getting in contact with neurologist to get like
maybe like fill in prescription
it was also like you know
give them 48 hours like
oh my god like I
I can't give you 48 hours
so
it was causing a lot of stress
like just to making sure like I have my medication
I always had my medication with me
I had medication at work I had medication at home
I had medication um
with me like in my bag just so um just in case
mm hmm
you know God forbid I went somewhere like um
like home like my
my family lives in Europe
so like going there
like without make education wasn't an option at all
and like I also I went there and
you know it's a long flight it's nine hour flight
plus travelling to the airport from the airport and
and you know
connecting flights so it's a
it's a long day
and usually it would cause migraine on the airplane
or like as I got off the airplane
so
and I also missed a lot of things like even going there
we had some plans made
hmm which I missed because I was in bed with migraine
yeah
and then with that you're sort of in a double bind too
you wanna go home you wanna visit your family back home
but then you're gonna go through the agony to get there
it's a big expense to travel then if you can't
if you can't even participate with your family
once you're there it's a real dilemma
yeah
yeah yeah
I mean you know my
my parents they
they know too
so they were always prepared for this stuff too
like my mom had ice bags she made sure she has ice
she made sure she has some
my mom is more and like
when I was growing up my family
like we didn't really go for medications
we did
but the first approach was natural medicine at home
like I was sick
my mom would make me a milk with honey and garlic
that was my so my mom was always trying to do some um
you know natural remedies
and I remember at some point
like she actually scheduled an appointment with
oh my gosh I don't even remember what
I don't know what you would call that person now I
I don't remember
but like she was like healing with her energy and like
mm hmm
I don't know
sounds like a Reiki
yeah
so what was the turning point for you
you know you have been managing this for so long
I think the fact that like my neurologist
like I would go every six months and it was always
you know 10 minute visit
and it was just like what kind of medications I need
I could tell her like I need this
this
this and this and I would get prescription without even
getting deeper
and why whatever I'm taking is not working
or like I was offered
last few times I was offered Botox
and I knew I don't wanna do it just because
I heard like I remember once
like one of the neurologist I was seeing
like
he was always like very behind with patients and like
it was a lot of people in the uh
waiting room and I overheard um
one girl that was suffering from migraines
and she was talking about Botox and her experience
and I was like I don't want that like
you know she was saying like first it was helping her
but then like if you hit that
if you closer to the time
when it's time for new injection
like she would suffer so badly when it like
and I was like I don't think I want to do that
like I don't wanna like
I've taken enough medication as it is
I mean I lost and I didn't wanna add anything else
and it felt like
like I was on medication I was on Nortech
I still take it occasionally
I didn't see my neurologist in a year really
because I missed one appointment
and they couldn't reschedule anything until September
but I'm
not stressing about it like before
I would just look for another neurologist
just to see almost immediately
at this point like I just I'm fine
I'm going to see them
just because I've been seeing them
and but yeah
I think it was just I felt like nothing was working
and even me taking like
I would take Nortec for my migraine and
Zofran and also furious
because the other ones didn't really help
but I couldn't take nothing else
but not because I had nausea and you know
these are dissolving pills
which still sometimes would make me vomit
but yeah I just
I just couldn't
and I don't remember really how I came across
you I think I was like getting into like
listening to podcasts at work
and I was looking for some fun subjects
I always listen to crime stuff and things like that
but I was like
let me see if there's something about migraines
and I came across your podcast
and I listened to all of the first episodes that were
like available
I think I don't know how many it was
but I listened to all of them and I finally
reached out for that um consultation
yeah
so it sounds like you just reached the tipping point of
you know I
I don't wanna take
I know they're gonna recommend Botox next
I know I don't wanna do that
and no one's digging into anything
it's a 10 minute minute appointment
where I'm telling the doctor what I want
so sort of like
you realize you had sort of reached the end of the road
with that approach
so you reached out and what was
what was it uh
what was it like reaching out
yeah I really don't know what I was expecting
I guess at this point I was like
what it's gonna cost me
like what's what's the harm in this
like just to see you know
as I mentioned like growing up with like my mom
really
looking more into natural things of getting better
I was like I was like
how long I can take those pills
like how long I can be on medication
like I didn't want to be on the medication
for the rest of my life and it doesn't
it wasn't the cost
because my insurance covers all of the cost
but sorry but
oh my gosh I'm sorry haha
um but it's just being
like I don't know
just just having to
have to take it all the time
I
it wasn't for me really
and yeah you were the
the frequency of your migraines
I mean you were having multiple days a week
yes so I had headaches almost every day
like I was ready to wake up with migraine every
every single morning and
you know
very often I would be late to work because like
when I wake up with migraine
I need to take my medication
I need to let it
at least kick in a little bit so I can start moving um
so I always had like my headache hat
like I have an actual hat that has some compression
and I I would sleep in it
or I would have it next to me so I can put it on
I always had
diffuser next to my bed with some essential oils
always had Tiger Balm next to my bed
always had the medication as I described earlier
the the nausea medication
the migraine medication always next to my bed
and yeah like I would wake up my husband
like in the middle of the night
like when I woke up with like
I can feel migraine
coming in or like I would wake up with migraine like
you know
3 4 o'clock in the morning and like
I knew already I cannot move
and he would go and get me medication
get me ice and everything and you know
sometimes it works sometimes it didn't
but I did have headaches almost every day
and then like those like bad
bad migraines with nausea and vomiting
I don't know sometimes they were every week
sometimes every other week
but they were lasting for few days
so and very often they happened after like really
um a stressful time at work or like after travel
you know any stressful time really
like there's something different going on
like I would push push push
push and then when the deadline was over
my body was just crash
yeah yeah
I don't have those anymore
I got I would have headaches here and there
and very often
I would just take Advil and I would be fine yeah
I will take from time to time I would take Nortec
which I still have and
but the pain goes away within an hour or two so
so yeah
so from daily head pain
waking up with some level of head pain
kind of expecting it every day
migraines flaring on top of that
multiple medications multiple days
running out of your medication
before you could refill it
what's your life like now
well I think my last like really bad migraine
and that was the worst from
I think when we start working together
maybe like from like me
I don't know when did we start working together
I think it was December so I would say
like starting maybe January when we
when we went back home
I don't think I had any migraine
that I would vomit at all
I had nausea here and there
but it wasn't like I could feel that it's
I'll be fine if I take something
or it might go away on its own
um but like my last migraine
I think it was like a month or two ago
maybe a month and a half and again
it was just it was only half a day
um and it was like I was kind of under the weather
like I was getting I was also congested and everything
so it was combination of both
I guess but
yeah I still could like get things done in a day
I didn't have to but like I could
you know
and I wasn't in bed for a whole day
but
at work too
yeah I mean
we have deadlines we do a lot
we do have a lot of deadlines
you know making sure uh
people's events turn out right and
and everything is good
yeah
no not really
like I already but also like
I'm like when we start working together
we like I knew how important sleep is
how important diet is growing up in Europe
I just knew that like I things change when you get busy
you just don't care about
much about sleep and what you eat
as long as you eat something
and I kind of started to focus on it again
and really like my whole family is eating pretty good
like we're not getting sick at all anymore
like really
like I was just talking to my husband this morning
and it was like we're not getting really sick
like when was the last time like I was sick
when was the last time kids were sick
like I don't know
I don't remember which is great you know
but uh
you know we try to eat healthy
as healthy as possible
we make sure like we eat balanced meal meals
and we did like even before I start working with you
we tried but um
there were just a few things that didn't
they weren't in place
no no
but I was skipping a lot of meals
I was skipping meals
like especially working and being busy at work
I really don't remember and even now like
oh my god I didn't eat okay
it's 11:00 but I will eat
and now I will not wait a whole day to have a meal
so very so I mean um
like I say from going from daily head pain
migraines flaring on top of that
now you're having some occasional head pain
occasional migraine
flaring last one was about a month and a half ago
uh huh
you know how you're feeling overall
maybe things that I have to think
because these are the things that I really don't think
until I actually start
like I don't notice until I start thinking about it
but like
I don't know like
we started this year
our beautiful garden with my husband
and like we are you know
putting hands in the ground and it's great
like even after like whole day of work
I would come home and then check on my cucumbers
and my tomatoes and like
I don't know it's just like
it's different like
we can actually do things like without scheduling it
we can be more spontaneous
like before it was just like
we couldn't plan anything until the last
the day off really because we'll see
we'll see if I'm gonna have migraine or not
you know we can plan like
I have so much PTO left
because I really don't call out of work
which is good I've never liked to call out from work
uh huh
I feel like it because for other people
like it's so normal it's like
it's so like that's what it is like to us
it's like something a little new
sounds like you're
you're recovering from the post traumatic aspect
of chronic migraines where
you know you're constantly monitoring
should I go outside today or not
am I gonna get a migraine if I go out in the garden
yeah I mean
every like like today it's a little cloudy
but you know most days we have sunny days and like
I could not go out for too long
like going even to the beach
like we by the shore like I could not go too early
it had to be later in the day or like for too long
so it's not too much heat
you know things like that
that's wonderful have you been
you've been to the shore this summer
I I don't think so yeah
we went once we went once
but it's just because we enjoying our backyard really
like I like like we're just hanging out here
um and my daughter started working so she
she has a first like first
summer like actually working
so our schedules kind of clash a little bit
like we were going to go away to see
visit my friends um
this summer I'm not sure if we're gonna be able to
just because of our work schedule
well
that's great that's great
and being able to just be outside I
it's uh
that could be very difficult for migraine suffers
I definitely experience that
uh huh
it's wonderful
so what would you you know
what would you say to other women out there
that are listening to this
that have been you know
their children have grown up giving them ice packs and
women that have missed things with their kids
what what would you tell them
well to definitely at least get the phone call with you
I really think or if even
even if it's not with you
it's somebody that kind of looked towards like
more natural way of healing
because it's not really just a migraine
it's it's
it's it's overall like
you know when we start working
like we took care of the gut health
we took care of the sleeping patterns and eating habits
and all of this really contributes to
your overall health
migraine is just the side of like
it's just your body telling you something is wrong
yeah
well great
what are you looking forward to
for the rest of this year
well I don't know
I don't know we are
like I said
like we are really baby in our garden with my husband
so we gonna do some
pickling
okay yeah
college this year so we were going to visit my family
but decided on probably staying home
my daughter's starting college
my son is starting um
high school so there will be a lot going on
so hopefully it's gonna go smooth
not big plans really
but just the regular things
I would say regular family things
yeah
yeah
now it
it sounds like even right
even taking your daughter to college
boy that could be fraught
if you don't know how you're gonna feel day to day
I mean it's stressful
it's very stressful for me because like
I went to college but I went to college in Poland
not like I
I don't know like I it's
it's all new for me
you know high school
for my son it's not so bad because it's the second he
he's he's younger
so we already went through this with Hannah
but with the college like it was like
it was a lot to trying to figure things out
especially with the financial aids and stuff like this
yeah mm hmm mm hmm
well good
I'm so happy for you Monica
I'm so happy for you you worked hard and you
you've reaped the rewards of that work
yeah I mean I
I I can't
I don't think I can be
grateful enough like
I don't know like I
like I really feel like I have my life back
I
there's no words I no
there's no words I don't even know what to say
like I'm very
very happy that I came across your podcast really
I'm I'm very happy for you
thank you
well thanks so much for joining me today
and sharing your story I really appreciate it
I love hearing about your garden
ha ha
yeah
you're actually collecting the produce
mm hmm
yeah
guys this summer
yeah
well very good
thanks again Monica
for sharing your story and um I will talk to you soon
hi thank you for having me
alright great
thanks so much thanks so much for sharing your story
gosh every time I do this
I forget how how bad it was
yeah I mean
I spoke with my husband this morning
I was like please remind me
please remind me like how how
how like
how does like
how was I like
like it it's hard to really remember
like when I was looking through the um
questions you send me
and I was like I don't remember like
how many migraines did I have
and then I was like it was every day
it was almost every day
um so yeah
just terrible terrible suffering
well good good
good good
well I will let you go get your
get your lunch and uh
sounds like your daughter's there
she's uh
she she left like we just got a puppy a few months ago
and she was with her cause she's watching
she's still training her so
aha
good good good good
well thanks again
I really appreciate it
bye bye thanks so much