Brain Wave – an app that actually works!

I have had migraine since I was a kid and it got worse during puberty. During my whole adult life I have had chronic, daily migraine. More or less migraine every day – except for during my pregnancy.

I have tried so many different medicines, natural remedies and treatments that I can’t count them all… I try anything no matter if it’s scientific or not – the only thing I care about is if it helps and there are very few things that I have tested that actually has worked.

For preventive purposes I have been helped from ear-acupuncture, a homeopathic remedy called ”Women special” (Kvindespecial) and capsules with extract from ginger. These have helped me to reduce the pain a little bit and the overall impact of my migraine and also they became less ”dramatic”, meaning that I didn’t have to panic and get medicine immediately when I felt the first sign of migraine. But I still get migraine every single day except for when I was pregnant in 1989–90.

For acute treatment medicine is the only thing that has worked: asperin + caffein and triptans (eletriptan is the type I have used most). During an ordinary day I woke up between four and six o’clock with migraine. Then I had to get up and take medicine. An hour later I would feel good enough to have some breakfast, but often with more aspirin + caffein. On my good days this would work until lunch, but very often I have had to take another aspirin between nine and ten o’clock.

Then it wasn’t unusual that I had to take aspirin and eletriptan around lunch and if not, I would probably have to take it some time around three o’clock. When I got back home it would be necessary to take another aspirin and quite often I would start to feel migraine on it’s way before bedtime, so that I would take eletriptan to not be disturbed by migraine during the night. This is a lot of tablets to take on an average, ordinary day and then I haven’t mentioned the really tough days…

A while ago I bought the app Brain wave and I guess that I tested it, but probably while I had too much migraine to make it work. In the end of May I saw the app on my iPod and thought that I should test it better. It has 30 different programs for relaxation, energy, concentration and much more and one of them is Headache Relief.

If I would get the smallest indication of headache during the day I listen to Headache Relief at once and it’s so EASY to do that, since I can do that and continue to work – it’s even possible to talk to others while I do this, because the brain waves keep working in my ear, maybe I turn down the volume, but the sounds bumps around inside my head and do their job anyway.

Yesterday was a real test. I took a walk that happened to get too long, I was exposed to bright light and I didn’t eat properly in the middle of the day – any of it would normally trigger my migraine. Then I had to take a nap in the middle of the day and I didn’t wake up with headache like I’m used to. After that we went shopping to IKEA and I was exhausted when we got back, including initial migraine. At that point I didn’t have the time to listen to Headache Relief because we were going out for dinner, so I took an aspirin with caffein and eletriptan, but I think that if I had more time to recover I might have been able to fix it with Headache Relief. Anyway, when the day ended I had only taken medicine once in the morning and once in the evening, which is like a record for me.

This gives me high hopes and I almost believe that the brain gets better and better to learn how to adapt to the brain waves, which makes me feel that it might be possible to get a day with no medicine at all. Even the fact that I allow myself to think like that is a big step.

I will of course continue to test the app Brain Wave. Check this blog and you will probably find a report about how it goes. I’m happy if you keep your fingers crossed for me, because this is probably the biggest progress I have experienced during my whole adult life! Imagine what it will be like if I don’t have to take any medicine or at least if I don’t have to take as much medicine as I’m used to.