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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A Good Start

Yesterday afternoon was my first session of biofeedback. We worked on doing thermal control in an effort to help me increase my blood flow at the onset of a migraine. I love the idea of biofeedback as it is the practice of the the mind/body connection. I believe our minds are extremely powerful and, as a control freak, the idea of being able to control my body in a positive fashion with my mind is very appealing.

That being said, as I sat in this office and learned that I was about to be taught how to increase my surface temperature, my first thought was - this is going to take a while. She took a baseline temperature and then walked me through a short relaxation exercise. Then she took me through three different "warming" mind exercises. After all this she hooked me back up and she had me use one of the warming methods to warm my hands.

This is when the fun began. I watched as my temperature went up and up and up and up. I reached about 91 degrees and it was still rising when our time ran out. Watching this progress take hold so quickly was such a thrill. I'm still not great at the relaxation stuff and can only focus my attention for short periods of time so there is still so much work to be done. I've only just begun.

The thing is, now I not only believe that it can be done, I believe I can do it. The only question is can I reduce my migraines with these techniques.

Have you ever tried biofeedback? Does it help you with your migraines, Fibromyalgia or other chronic pains?

4 comments:

  1. I LOVED biofeedback back when my insurance covered it. Do you remember what your temperature was when you started? Getting into the 90s on your first try is AMAZING! It took me a while before I was able to get it that high, but then again I was planning my wedding at the time so I was under even more stress than usual.
    For me biofeedback doesn't reduce the amount of migraines I have but it makes my quality of life so much better! Being able to sit in a space and relax my muscles and warm my hands is soothing and helps me focus on things other than the pain and other symptoms.

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    1. Theresadz, so glad that biofeedback increased your quality of life. That makes it worth it even if it doesn't help with the migraines. Stupid insurance...

      My temp started at 85.

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  2. I tried it a while ago. I was able to do it the first time, without any guided relaxation exercises. I had this "Relax" CD that has a rainstorm, so the lady hooked me up and left me for a few minutes. She said I did great, and that it was amazing that I was able to do it on my own starting the first time. I haven't found it to really help me... but, I don't do it very much. Maybe I'll try to use it more, even if it's just to reduce some of the most stressful times in my life. I really hope it helps bring you some relief.

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  3. Biofeedback and I have never been able to find common ground. I love that others get some relief out of it; I haven't given up completely so we'll see.

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