SAUK CITY, Wis. -- After a four-year-long fight to manage her debilitating migraines, a Sauk City woman said she finally found relief.

A migraine is a headache so severe that it can take injectable medication to control -- and sometimes even that isn't enough. It wasn't enough for Stephanie Breunig, but she said she has finally found a way to deal with her migraines.

"I just kind of decided this is not how I wanted my life to be, and I was going to do anything I could to change the pattern we were experiencing," Breunig said.

The pattern for the mother of three included what doctors call daily chronic migraines.

"I get really nauseated and I vomit, and I can't stand light, and I can't stand noise. I just need to shut myself in a black room and wait until it hopefully subsides," she said.

The migraines started with her second pregnancy -- and for nearly two years they left her on disability, unable to work, or care for her kids.

"I was like a zombie. And I didn't want to live my life if that's the way it was going to be," Breunig said.

"Even if you manage your lifestyle very well, and you avoid all the trigger factors, most patients will still get these headaches because it's a genetic predisposition to get these headaches," said Dr. Roland Brilla, of UW Health.

Breunig tried literally dozens of medications such as pills, nasal sprays and injections, but she said nothing could get a handle on her headaches -- leaving the hospital as her only recourse.

She said she even traveled out of state to a headache hospital -- and still didn't find an answer.

Although Breunig knew medication would always be part of her life with migraines, she said she also knew it wasn't the answer to completely controlling them.

"You know, I just saw something different in my future for my kids that didn't include taking eight medications a day," she said.

She started a hormone therapy, and she described the rest as mind over matter.

"I ate better, I started exercising, and those are the things that turned it around for me," she said. "How my doctor explained it, was my pain receptors just cooled down, and I was able to respond to some migraine medications that weren't working in the past."

Breunig said she has to stay on schedule and make time for herself.

"I have three young children and I work full-time, and I needed to get back to my life," Breunig said.

Breunig said part of the zombie feeling she felt was from all the narcotics she was on for pain, which do nothing to actually control the migraine.

Her doctor's at UW Health took all those drugs off the table, and she said she feels that's another reason she was able to turn the corner.

Doctors said migraines occurred when blood vessels in the brain expand and can leak fluid, which triggers an inflammatory response. Doctors said that because migraines can be triggered by different things for different people, they're very tricky to treat.