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As Shannon Shelton Miller said
Although I was eight years old when I was officially diagnosed with migraines, I can’t remember a time when I had no severe headache.
My sensitivity to the lights and noises in primary school led to sudden severe headaches, nausea and vomiting. I would also play terrible headaches during the break or have physical exertion.
My mother had migraines as a child, so she brought me because of her story and because my parents were very proactive, she brought me to the pediatrician to evaluate. My father, who had worked in New York City in community health, also insisted that I was seen by a neurologist. Despite the efforts of my parents, there was not much in the 1980s to give a child safely for migraines, and the medication I took was not relieved at all.
Until I was 14, I took a blood pressure medication as a preventive and used over -the -counter medication for the treatment of actual migraines. I had the feeling that my voice was not heard when I complained about taking medication that did not work for me and learned to suffer my migraine attacks. I would lie in bed and keep my breath because breathing and tears roll down my face. I would wait for the moment I had handed over because I knew that the pain would let go.
I also dealt with Stigma of peers and adults who did not understand that my pain was legitimate and valid. I missed a lot of school or often went to the nurse’s office, and teachers, nurses, colleagues said: “Well, she does not want to take part in school. She doesn’t want to do her work. I have internalized a large part of the stigmas, which led to depression and feelings of fear. There was also pressure and stress to dismantle at a certain level, and when the next fear came.
In my teenage years I have completed prescription anti -inflammatory pain, but I still soaked the same routine to have daily and painkillers for migraines ineffective preventive medication. I finally stopped taking the blood pressure medication and only treated the migraine attacks when they appeared. I tried my best to still be myself, to live my life and do things I wanted to do. I took ballet courses almost every day – my mother taught ballet so that my sisters and I almost always were in the studio. I think that helped me to condition my body and feel better.
I also stated that I would grow out migraines after puberty, as my pediatrician proposed. My mother seemed to grow out of her migraine, so I had the feeling that if I could hold up for a few more years, it would be okay. Unfortunately, that would not be the case for me. I now also know how I was taught to treat migraines, the worst thing I could do. I did not know that the overuse of pain medication causes a deterioration in the disease and can lead to it becoming chronic, as I would experience later.
I finished the high school and went to College in Hawaii. There I met a man who served in the Marine Corps that became my husband. We immediately fell in love and were married at the age of 19 and he was 20 years old. At the age of 23 I was a woman and mother of two children, lived back on the mainland and pregnant with our third child.
At the beginning of my first trimester, I had a migraine attack worse than anything I had ever experienced. It took five days when I had never lasted one last than 24 hours. I feared that this was a little more, and my OB-Gynin referred me to neurology for an MRI. Ultimately, everything was fine – no aneurysm or another serious problem, but I had the feeling that my pain was reduced by called it “only migraines”.
Although it subsided in my second trimester, it was increasingly heavier and lasted at least two days. I dealt with terrible pain every day, and everything I could do was to take a pregnancy -proof preventive medication together with a strong cup of coffee or soda. After my pregnancy, I tried another round of prescription medication because now I had 15 or more chronic migraine attacks and new daily persistent headaches from the migraine every month. I had serious side effects of these medication and then continued through medication that did not work.
It was frustrating because I had the feeling of doing everything I could and I felt that something was wrong with me. I had severe depression and anxiety to the point where I experienced frequent suicide thoughts. Once I acted on it, but luckily survived the attempt to take my life.
In my 30s I knew that I had to do with the mental effects of my condition. I have been more holistic, and although I did not work as natural methods, I did not work more strongly in my decisions. Due to changes in insurance, I was able to see a headache specialist for the first time. I will never forget this first appointment – the specialist was with me for almost three hours and went through my entire story. I finally felt heard and seen and received options that I had never had before.
I started blogging in 2011 as a migraine diva to shed light on the reality of life with headache and migraine disease, and also my experience as a black woman who navigated and looked for this condition. This led to opportunities to share my story on a larger scale and to work with pharmaceutical companies that invited me to take part in Panels and to work with other support and medical organizations.
My pain is now in a manageable condition and I am excited – it is a strange place to be sometimes because I am so usual that the other shoe drops. I still have to jump through tires to get treatments, e.g. B. traveling to a headache center in Philadelphia several times a year to get inpatient infusions. My medical team here in Virginia takes care of in-office processes such as nerve blocks and medication management. My husband and my children take up a lot – she worried about me and you want me to get better. But I also notice that I am very happy because I have access to health care and be financially stable. I know that not everyone has this privileges or access, and it is a large part of my legal profession to help others manage their illness in a way that gives them a better quality of life.
I know I’m not my illness. It is easy to define us by the symptoms that we experience and statements such as “I am depressed” instead of “I have a depressive episode”. It’s the same with migraines. I say I have migraines, but migraines don’t have me, even though it sometimes tries the most difficult!
The difference is that I have so many tools in my pocket to help, and as long as I always use interests as an additional management tool, it helps my pain.
This educational resource was created with the support of Pfizer.
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Our real women, real stories are the authentic experiences of women in real life. The views, opinions and experiences that are shared in these stories are not supported by healthwomen and do not necessarily reflect the official politics or position of healthwomen.
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