Introduction - I was nagged ...

[Johnny-One]

Actually to be fair it was more of a prompt than a nag; thank you Simone.

I am a 25 year old, good looking male … OK I am a 52 year old male, but still good looking if you take your glasses off and squint a certain way. Honesty is the best policy.

When I was about 6 months to 18 months I suffered badly with bronchitis and pneumonia, on life-support, etc. Then I came back and annoyed the world until I hit 38 when bronchitis and pneumonia hit me again big time. It took seven years for me to go through the process of balancing my life, during which time I found out loads about myself. Not least of which I had suffered migraines all my life. The constant, severe headaches, which I thought were normal, apparently were not. A few brain scans (CT and MRI), a few trips to bronchial centres, a few trips to sleep specialists, numerous trips to specialist neurologists, and I am almost back to normal.

The drugs I am on daily for life are: Symbicort (steroid inhaler) to ensure my lungs continue to work; Topiramate 400mg to ensure my headaches are kept under control; and Gabapentin 400 mg each night to ensure I relax enough to get a decent night’s sleep, which helps control my narcolepsy a bit. See I am almost normal.

My headaches are now down from a 9 or 10 severity nearly every day to a maximum of a 6 severity every 21.77 days (approximately). Even then sometimes I do not reach a 6 in severity, which is the maximum. I tried recently to cut down on my Topiramate, but that was disastrous.

Apart from the pins and needles from the Topiramate I have no side affects from the drugs, and I am not allowed caffeine … no tea, coffee, or chocolate. I am allowed white chocolate though. The caffeine I gave up in 2014, and have not missed it.

Good luck each and every one of you.