STRENGTH IN EVERY STORY™
Generational Pain and Missing Conversations
Jyn’s Story, March 2025
As told by: Fabiola Palomo
Diagnosis received: Migraine
Symptoms: Light sensitivity, Sound sensitivity, Vomiting, Head pain
Jyn, a U.S. Navy veteran, was nearly 21 years old when she experienced her first migraine attack while serving aboard an aircraft carrier. She was met with ceaseless vomiting, debilitating head pain, and sensitivity to light and sound. Given no prior history of migraine or other headache disorders, Jyn had assumed she had come down with the stomach flu. After visiting the ship’s medical department, that assumption was ruled out, and she was told that what she was experiencing pointed to migraine. For Jyn, her attacks would only worsen and become consistent shortly after.
Still on active duty then, she hardly got any rest and suffered through her attacks. “…the migraine medicine made them bearable…to reduce it enough that I guess you could call [it] functioning,” shared Jyn. Despite the treatment, no matter the time of day, Jyn would wake up and go to sleep with what she described as feeling a “splitting pain” in her head that lasted for a week or more.
Now, years later, Jyn continues to manage her migraine while also navigating the challenges of raising a child who lives with the condition as well. Her journey not only demonstrates how she copes but demonstrates how she advocates for herself and for her daughter.
Becoming Desensitized to Pain
As an athlete earlier in life, Jyn was surrounded by physically demanding activities, putting her at risk of injuries and being susceptible to pain. “I do have a significantly higher pain tolerance than most. [I was an] athlete in school and [have] been [put] through the wringer, [with] broken bones and dislocated body parts. I just figured that it was my norm, and I just started having to tough through that,” admits Jyn.
So much of that became normalized, “I’ve dislocated knees and popped them back in… put a knee brace on it. We just go about our business,” Jyn recalls, almost casually. However, when experiencing a migraine attack, such pain differentiates from other injuries she’s sustained. “If I’m rolled up in a ball, fighting back tears and throwing up, the pain is bad.”
From One Generation to Another
Although it’s unclear whether Jyn inherited migraine disease from her mother, it became apparent in Jyn’s 9-year-old daughter who has been living with migraine since she was 5. Helping her daughter understand her symptoms at such an early age was challenging for Jyn and laments how her daughter’s childhood has been interrupted because of it.
“Watching my little one crawl up into a ball and scream in pain with no way to fix it [has been difficult]. She’s on a triptan, a nasal spray, but it messes with her receptors. She gets into a depressive state, and she cries herself to sleep. It’s just awful to not be able to help her… and hope that when she does fall asleep, she wakes up and she’s not hurting.”
To this day, Jyn has courageously taken the approach of having open and candid conversations with her daughter about how migraine affects them both. Jyn aims to be a model for her, offering a different perspective on the condition and the toll it can take on a person’s quality of life. “She’s also seen me suffer from it as well… I’ve had conversations with her, I’ve allowed her to give me my [CGRP] injection from that perspective and talking through that with her, so she understands it’s something really crappy that I inherited from my mom…” Jyn explains.
Still, managing her daughter’s symptoms can be incredibly difficult. “She has a sudden onset where one minute she’ll be talking to us and she’ll be fine, then 5-10 minutes later, she’s screaming [and] crying. Her head hurts. You can’t even catch it to try to give her medication ahead of time.”
Confronting the Stigma with Migraine in Women
In efforts to understand her symptoms, Jyn was met with the stigma commonly found in migraine, especially for women. “It’s always assumed as a primary thing that has to do with hormonal imbalance and that it’s all related to ‘You get headaches because you’ve got these hormone rushes that fluctuate,’” she said.
She’s also faced the stereotype that women have a lower pain threshold. “It’s assumed that we have lower pain tolerances and that they [the attacks] are not as bad or significant as we make them seem. There’s a stigma that women are more emotionally driven.”
The persistent lack of understanding extended even in medical settings, as she had her symptoms questioned or minimized by healthcare providers. “I don’t know how many times I was asked, ‘Are they worse when you’re about to start your cycle?’ No, they’re worse all the time! [It has] nothing to do with that. That’s a really big frustration for me…,” shared Jyn. Feeling dismissed and desperate for relief, Jyn considered alternative remedies. “I’ve even gone to lengths of getting my daiths pierced because somebody said there’s a pressure point that’ll make your migraine stop.”
While on her healing journey, Melissa was able to understand her symptoms further through resources provided by migraine and headache disorders advocacy groups, like the National Headache Foundation, “I feel good about the National Headache Foundation, [due to] the information and education that they can provide [for] people who are having headaches but not knowing what to do about it… [The resources] can help you educate yourself and take care of yourself, so you don’t have to go through it alone like I did with the self-medication,” shared Melissa.
Limited Treatment Options and a Push for Better Conversations
Finding treatment was challenging enough already for Jyn as she underwent a cardiac ablation* that prevented her from going on certain migraine treatments like sumatriptans, and instead, she was started on a triptan which didn’t work. Much of this led her to believe nothing could be done.
“It was very frustrating, very early on to have this very minimal selection of medications to treat my migraines…set[ting] me back and unfortunately gave me the whole outlook of ‘This is my life and I’m just going to have to suffer through it and figure it out.’ With the help of a colleague, Jyn visited a headache specialist whose attentiveness and focus on patient-centered care made all the difference.
Since then, she’s treating with a CGRP injection and rimegepant, experiencing no severe migraine attacks in the last 3 years. “Those two things have been a godsend for me,” she shared. While her own symptoms are now more manageable, finding the appropriate care for her daughter has been difficult.
“I don’t want to give my 9-year-old an injection. I don’t want to have to put her through that this early in life. So, I wish there was more focus on development around [treatment options],” said Jyn. Even having access to a neurologist who specializes in migraine in children is challenging due to limited availability and the long distance to reach one.
Jyn also emphasizes the importance of having open discussions about headache disorders, “I wish there were more people from a [healthcare] provider perspective… [to be] more versed in the conversation and paid closer attention to it [migraine and headache disorders]. Other conversations worth noting are those with the initial steps people can take, like identifying triggers for effective migraine management.
“[There has to be] more conversation… Better treatment options for folks that have other underlying conditions, but then also [educating people about] ‘How do you track triggers?’ Nobody’s having those conversations… When you start paying attention to it and tracking [your triggers] … you start seeing that there’s this pattern to it…” Thankfully, Jyn eventually found a headache specialist, who asked the right questions instead of repeating the ones Jyn’s heard countless times before.
“I’ll be 40 this year. That’s the first time anyone had a conversation with me about migraine triggers and tracking what does and doesn’t impact my onset of migraine. I was diagnosed at 20, almost 21. So [there’s a] significant difference in years [until someone finally brought this up].”
While it took years for Jyn to receive the appropriate care, making progress was possible, nonetheless. Through open conversations, better resources, and a greater focus on individualized care, managing the condition can be attainable by taking the necessary steps to find greater understanding, hope, and relief.
* Cardiac ablation is a treatment for irregular heartbeats, called arrhythmias. The goal is to restore a typical heartbeat.