Ozone Injections

Went for my follow-up with the handsome D.O. yesterday.  Had a serious headache when I went in to his office so I asked for manipulation.  (Knowledge of and ability to do manipulation is the biggest reason I wanted to go to a D.O.)  Didn't get manipulated.  But I did get another form of treatment that was unexpected.

I could happily report to the doctor that most everything else was much better.  But the headaches - no go - maybe worse.  I mean, July was worse than June.  If this is a trend, I dread August and don't know how I'll live through September.  He said that headaches are the last symptom to go away.  And he wanted to give me a bit of a kickstart or something to try and break the headache cycle.  He wanted to try ozone shots into specific trigger points in the muscles of my neck and shoulders. 
(Now, for those of you completely opposed to me injecting toxins or poisons into my body, go ahead and freak out and get on your high horse or your soapbox or whatever and rant - because ozone is considered toxic or poisonous.)  My post right before this one is a copy & paste of an ozone therapy case study (or rather many) so feel free to puruse it if you want to know more.  It isn't specifically about migraines or headaches, just pain in general.  There's a lot of useful information. 

Let me say that I knew, before ever going to him, that he performed ozone treatments.  And I had done my research about ozone treatment.  While I couldn't find much information on how exactly it is used to treat headaches, I was able to find enough information to learn that it is not widely used in the United States, but is hugely popular in Europe and many other parts of the world.  I spoke with Dr. Porter a little about it's rarity here and he said that there are only 400 doctors in all of the U.S.A. that do ozone treatments.  (As I understand, Dr. Porter is the only doctor in Utah who performs this treatment.)  But in Germany alone there are over 4000 doctors.  He said that it will never be mainstream in the U.S.A. because it is not profitable.  A big pharma company cannot patent ozone and charge exorbitant amounts of money to the sick and suffering for this sometimes miraculous treatment.  (Ok, I'll get off my soapbox now.)

As he was giving me the shots he would tell me what I could expect to experience with each shot.  Then he said, "I know this, because I've had ozone shots, too.  I used to have horrible headaches."
"Used to?"  I asked
"Used to." he confirmed
"That's comforting to me," I told him
He told me he was on topomax for years. 

I've had a good feeling about him all along, but to think I just found a doctor who has experienced what I am experiencing and who has cured himself - well, like I told him, that's very comforting to me.

So about the ozone shots.  He finds trigger points within the muscles to do the injection.  In my case it was my occipital, levator, and trapezius muslces.  First he injected a solution full of all kinds of nutrients and vitamins and medicine, the few I remember him telling me are folic acid, vitamin B, lidocaine and another 'caine.  Then he injected the ozone gas.  The needle seemed huge.  I remember thinking when I saw it that it appeared to be the same size as a needle used to take blood.  As he pushed on my muscles he said he could feel where the botox had been injected and was working, but obviously there were many places where I did not get a botox injection and those points were painful when touched.  That's where the ozone was injected, deep into those muscles.  The sensation was strange.  Mildly painful, but mostly strange.  When he got to the occipital muscle – wow!  Weird!  First of all, the needle goes so far in that it hits my skull.  It’s not painful, but I can feel the needle scratching against that thin flat bone and I can hear it inside my head.  And when the gas goes in, I can hear the gas dissipating through my head.  I guess I’m a bit of an airhead now as a result of this procedure.  When he had finished he asked how I felt.  I said, “Everything feels tight”.  He said, “It should, we just inflated your muscles.” 
He had me move my head around and stretch my neck a little.  As I moved I could feel and hear the gas moving around.  It is truly wild.

The injection sites are very tender and the muscles that were injected are very sore and stiff.  In many places when I push on the muscles they feel almost spongy.  And I can feel the gas bubbles moving.  I had Justin push on one spot – it sort of grossed him out to feel it.  I think it’s all fascinating. 

The doc said that I can have more injections in as little as a week.  He said that sometimes we hit the big ones and then notice there are a bunch of others that weren’t as evident due to the bigger sites.  I’ll keep you all posted.


Side note:  The diet is going ok.  It's very difficult to stick to, but I definitely notice when I eat things I shouldn't - corn, wheat, & sugar primarily (I guess because those are the three I cheat with the most.)