Dallas update

Last Sunday afternoon my mom and I caught a 4 p.m. flight from Kansas City to Dallas for my three-day visit to Dr. Krusz's Anodyne Headache & PainCare. Door to door, our trip down there was uneventful and very easy. More importantly, it was an awesome experience.

Day 1: Oddly enough I didn't have a migraine, so instead of starting off with IV therapy we consulted with Dr. Krusz and his nurse Jane for about an hour and half about the details of my migraines and pain and the options he thought seemed most promising for me given everything I've tried. My mom and I left the clinic to grab some lunch and went to get my blood taken for labs. Then we returned to the clinic later that afternoon so I could receive an IV of magnesium and dexamethasone, a steroid.

Day 2: They started me right away on another IV of magnesium and dexamethasone again, but also pushed tramadol to treat the migraine I woke up with that morning. It was only about a 5 on a scale of 1-10, but after about 600 mg of tramadol, my migraine was gone.

My mom and I had most of the afternoon to ourselves, so we had a nice long lunch and spent some time at a mall.

My migraine started coming back that evening, so after a nice dinner out with my friend Lyndsey and her family, I went back to the hotel, took all my medication and hopped into bed.

Day 3: I woke up with another migraine, which I estimated to be at a 3. It built up to a 5 by the time they were ready to treat me at the clinic, so Dr. Krusz decided to give me an IV of ketamine that day to see how I tolerated it. It was a bit intense at first, but after they slowed it down some it worked really well for me. My mom and I went out to lunch, then came back to the clinic where I received another IV of ketamine. It was even easier to tolerate the second time. I felt really, really good when we left that afternoon.

Moving forward, we'll be addressing the issues and conditions uncovered through the testing, such as my thyroid levels and diabetes, and getting me adjusted to my medication changes. They think I would be a good candidate for Botox, so that is something to consider again. I am also planning to start a preventative medication called Namenda in the next couple of weeks. With Dr. Krusz's help I'm also going to be making arrangements to get magnesium IVs from a doctor in my area.

Not only are Dr. Krusz and his staff impressively knowledgeable about headaches, migraines and related disorders, they are also some of the kindest, most compassionate medical professionals I have ever encountered. By noon on that first day I felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I knew I'd finally come to the right place. None of us expected this to be a quick fix trip, but it has answered a lot of questions for me and put a spotlight on specific areas of my health that have thus far not been addressed.