Migraine is the
3rd most prevalent
and 7th most
disabling disease in the world.
As
I reported in my blog 12
Months and 14 Fibro Musings from The Pained Ink Slayer, the spring and fall
seasons are two difficult times of the year for me. I live with chronic
migraine all year long, but barometric pressure changes and tree and grass
allergens can lead to a status migrainus attack, a migraine lasting for more
than 72 hours straight. In May, a very busy month for fibromyalgia advocates, I
experienced an episode lasting 14 days that required a steroid blast to stop
it. And, I can't remember doing a fibromyalgia awareness interview without a migraine.
THE SHADOW OF MIGRAINE
”Hiding my migraines on the set may have been my toughest challenge as an actor. There were times when the pain from migraine headaches was so severe that I literally had to crawl across my dressing room floor. But I couldn't let anyone know. If they thought I might slow production, I figured that would end my career.”
~Morgan Fairchild
If
you live with migraine, you know exactly what this is like. As a high school
student, I spend many a day lying on a cot in the nursing office. As a young
adult, I remember retreating to the bathroom to vomit and escape the overhead
lights of the office where I was a switchboard operator, fearing every second
that I would lose my job over something I could not control. I remember the look my mother's face when she came to pick me up to take me to the emergency room, where my condition called for stat IV's and lab work to check my clotting factors. Unbeknownst to me all the tiny blood vessels in my face had ruptured (my head had been over the toilet for the better part of a day). I barely had a blood pressure.
Unless you have migraine
disease, you simply cannot understand what that means. It is so much more than
a bad headache. It will cause sane people to do crazy things. I can tear sheets
with my teeth, rock back and forth on my hands and knees, and cry out in pain
with the guttural sounds of an injured animal, sounds that even I do
not recognize. I have pressed so hard on my eye sockets that it leaves bruises.
I slur works like a drunk, speak in sentences that make no sense, and experience
complete personality breakdown.
THE
STIGMA
Despite
all the evidence that migraine is real, and that it is a neurobiological disease
of the brain, we still feel the stigma of
migraine. I wish I could say we didn’t need migraine awareness campaigns, but
we do. Few understand what we have learned in the last ten years and we need
to change that.
Read more about the research
and the common denominators of those of us who live with both migraine and
fibromyalgia in an article I wrote for ProHealth,
Fibro Playmate of the Month–The Migraine Connection.
Life
isn’t easy living with migraine, but when I share my story, I am able to
emerge from the shadow
of migraine. I hope you will too. #MHAM2018
Find
out how YOU can get involved. JOIN THECHALLENGE at MigraineDisease.com
where you will find all you need to raise awareness and stop the stigma of
migraine.
In healing,
Celeste Cooper, RN / Author, Freelancer, Advocate
Think adversity?-See opportunity!
~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~ • ~
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