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My wife is just about as TBM as you can get. She doesn’t drink caffeine. Her mom wouldn’t let her pierce her ears until she was a teen, and by then she didn’t care any more. When she does were regular earrings, it hurts her ears. (I’ve seen her ears turn bright red with regular earrings, and I’m sure ear piercing would be much less painful–except for the initial poke. I once wore a magnetic earing that looked like an ear piercing, just for a gag. I worked at a hospital at the time, and I heard all sorts of ear piercing stories from the nurses, since my ear turned red too. It was a mild pain, but not too bad.) Anyway, she has been afflicted with migraines for the past 5 years (following car wreck.) I feel terrible for her. She has tried all kinds of different remedies. Nothing has cured her. MRI and CT scans don’t show anything. She’s had steroid shots in her neck, physical therapy, acupuncture, foot, back, neck massages, etc. Currently the best remedy is some expensive prescription drugs, but she said it makes her feel loopy and she doesn’t like it. She has found that drinking Coke does help, but not enough. She will take a cold one if that’s the only thing she can do.
I saw a news report on KSL-TV about a procedure to pierce your ear, not in the lobe, but in the cartilage above the ear canal. The reporter went to a tattoo parlor where the owner said it doesn’t work for everyone, but it does help a lot of people. The interviewed someone from one of the local hospitals (Intermountain Health Care) who said the piercing does work for some people. I recommended it to her, but she refuses to go to a tattoo parlor for he peircing. It would be a one-time thing, and pretty inexpensive I believe.
Instead, she had a co-worker tell her that he experienced migraines after a car accident, went to a special chiropractor who does something called AIRROSTI. It promises to cure the pain in 3-4 visits, but is located mostly in Texas and Washington. (My wife has flight benefits and can fly free, so that’s not an issue.) I did some research and it sounds as unproven as the ear piercing.
Which would you do?
To me the ear piercing would be a no-brainer. If it didn’t work, then try the AIRROSTI. It seems like she doesn’t like the idea of the piercing. I don’t know if it is a church issue thing or not, but I’m sure it plays a role. Being in an unusual place, I’m sure Pres Hinckley’s one piercing rule plays a role in her decision. (Incidentally, she wanted our daughter to wait until age 12 to pierce, and my daughter has not asked us about it again. She’s 13.)
I know the feeling of getting desperate, when no conventional medical treatment works for a very severe problem. If there was enough science to back it up, I’d go for the piercing. It sounds very fishy to me though. As for your wife’s reservations, there’s also her psychological health to consider. What matters is not whether it’s a commandment… it’s whether she believes it and how strongly. This might be a severe example, but it’s like with Euthenasia (also something discussed by modern religious authorities, but not found in scripture). People are willing to torture themselves for years, out of fear of being sent to hell for ending things early. Point is, religion’s got a strong hold on most people’s mind. If the Church is true, that means less than 99.8%+ of the world believes in false doctrine; but that doesn’t make it any less real to the individual.
I honestly let your wife go for the AIRROSTI.
Wait, your wife doesn’t have her ears pierced? GBH said only two extra holes per lady head so she’d still only be halfway there. 😆 I’ve thought about this piercing for my daughter, who does already have her ears pierced. I don’t think that an uncanonized one-off statement by a prophet who is no longer alive is a good reason to suffer needlessly.
FWIW, I’ve heard from some friends who’ve done it and they say it helped. Yes, it’s unproven. But unlike most unscientific remedies, it costs very little and has no harmful side effects (unless the piercing gets infected, I guess.)
I think health reasons are perfectly acceptable reasons to vary from traditional teachings. I’ve been sleeping naked for the last month, and I have seen plenty of (albeit small) health benefits, not the least of which is better quality sleep and my there are no garments to cut off the circulation to my arms in the middle of the night. There are some confounding variables involved, but I have noticed my depression has been a lot better lately. The fact that she won’t even drink caffeine for her migraines is what really makes me scratch my head.
I take GBH’s advice as what it is: advice. It’s good IMO to not go overboard with piercings, plus guages and tatoos are nearly irreversible body modifications that are likely to be regretted later in life. The piercing issue is not a TR question, nor should it be treated like one.
Beefster, she will drink Coke for migraines. She just feels mildly guilty for it. I wanted to post a pic of the piercing to make sure you understand what it is. When I did a google search, Snopes came up and said it was “unproven.” See
http://www.snopes.com/daith-piercing-migraines/ 
[img]http://static.snopes.com/app/uploads/2015/11/daith-piercing-migraines.jpg [/img] Yes my wife still has never had her ears pierced. I told her this is medical, and if it were me I wouldn’t hesitate.
She did got to an AIRROSTI doctor in Texas this week. She said she felt a migraine coming, but it hasn’t come on (so far.) It’s tentative good news. The Texas guy said he trained a Utah guy, but for trademark reasons, the Utah guy can’t call it AIRROSTI, but supposedly this Utah guy knows how to do it. She can’t get in until next Thursday.
In light of the recent GC council against medical quackery, I would be personally cautious about this sort of treatment… On the one hand, it’s a relatively inexpensive treatment and I could see how that sort of piercing might have an effect on migraines. On the other hand, it’s unproven and could very well be total crap. (On an unrelated note, I think that kind of piercing is kinda cute)
Obviously, it’s something she needs to reason with and pray about, but if I were in her shoes, I would do it, hands down, if my family doctor recommended or endorsed the treatment. Likewise, I would not do it if my doctor hesitated to recommend it or suggested not to. If he said, “you could
tryit. I have heard it works for some people” I would probably do it. She’s been to sooooo many doctors, neurologists, physical therapists, massage therapists, acupuncture and none have helped. You get desperate. But she’s not willing to try the piercing just yet. (She’s not that desperate.) However, she just told me that she felt a migraine coming on, but she did something the chiropractor told her, and it may have helped. If this works, I’m not only going to recommend it to anyone who has migraines, but I’m going to contact our lawyer and tell him this helped her. (Our lawyer had some specialists he recommended, but they didn’t help.) I got my diath’s pierced on both sides over a year ago for this reason. For the first few months I swore it worked like magic, but they started coming back and I don’t see any correlation anymore. However, I know people who have been able to maintain being pain free for the long-term, so either it can work for some, or they have a stronger placebo effect than I did. 😆 Here are my thoughts…
Many people have sensitivities to metals, but there are titanium and stainless steel options to help with the reactions. She could try that out prior to getting a new piercing to see if that solves the redness you spoke of first. If she can’t tolerate the metals then she probably shouldnt consider this piercing.
I worried that this piercing was a hoax, but most chronic pain sufferers would try almost anything to stop the pain, so I figured what the heck. Even though this piercing didn’t work for me, it was still worth the try. Your out $50-$100 (depending if you do one or both sides) and if it doesn’t work and/or you hate them you can always remove the earrings. Personally, I think they are cute, so I left mine in (I am a rebel).
My experience at church wasn’t as bad as I feared – I was expecting some judgment. I found that many had already heard about the piercing for migraines, and (at least to my face) all comments were positive when I first sported them at church.
Caffeine is my BEST FRIEND – tell your wife to embrace it as the medicine God intended it to be! I have struggled with migraines for about 12 years now, and about 5 years into it I tried Excederine and a whole new world opened up for me – plain ol’ Tylenol, Ibruprophin, etc do nothing by themself, but combined with a Coke it can take the edge off to make life more bearable. Ice and peppermint oil also are good friends of mine. They are not cures, but they do take the edge off while still cold/tingly.
Anyways, I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.
Count me in as a caffeine addict for migraines. I don’t like caffeine any other time. It isn’t a WoW thing, I don’t like the jitters. I don’t drink soda’s either. But a migraine gets the full treatment. I feel so sorry for her. I’ve had them since I was 17.
An update. My wife went to Dallas for her first treatment for AIRROSTI. She thought it helped. She is supposed to do 3-4 treatments. The Dallas chiropractor told her about a chiropractor in SLC that was trained in Dallas. She went to SLC guy, and she didn’t think he was as good as the Dallas guy, but she hasn’t had a migraine for 2 weeks, so that is promising. SLC guy went on vacation, so she hasn’t been able to complete the treatments yet. She said she kind of knows when a migraine is coming, so she puts pressure on her shoulder/neck like the Dallas guy did, and that has staved them off. I recommended to her that she go back to the Dallas guy is she likes him better. We would love to have this resolved. (It’s been going on 5-6 years.) I’m hoping this might be our solution finally!!! It’s a good sign so far.
:clap: I’ll keep you all posted, but I am encouraged. This seems like the best treatment so far.
Quote:She said she kind of knows when a migraine is coming
For me that is the worst part. Because I know what comes next is only going to get worse.
Three cheers that she has found some relief.
I hope it continues. Congrats.
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