I have had a neurological disease called migraines for over 30 years, but was not diagnosed and treated until about 12 years ago. I never understood why certain sensations would bother me. For example, sunlight, loud noises, smells, weather changes. Food would also trigger and amplify the symptoms of my migraines. Migraines have changed my life. I have experienced the debilitating pain, disabling me to carry out daily activities. In the past 12 years, the occurrences of the disease of neurological migraines has escalated to every other day. I have altered my lifestyle in hopes to decrease symptoms and frequency of migraines. These lifestyle changes include changing my diet, exercise routine, topical creams to possibly slow down a migraine, etc. I’ve explored many migraine medications, therapy and treatment options including chiropractor, acupuncture, massage therapy, Botox, nerve block, trigger points, and SPG procedure. However, none have worked or helped. The triggers that cause migraines for me are weather, msg, strong smells, cooker smoked meat, camp fires, clicking sounds, as well as barometric pressure changes.
Migraines are a debilitating neurological disease and for those of us who suffer, it not only affects our health but every facet of our lives. We strive to not let migraines take our lives away, and often times that means suffering silently, and living in a world where everyday existence means “just pushing through.” There is considerable pain and discomfort associated with not only the migraine but the pre-migraine and hangover, causing one migraine to have an impact that lasts days at a time. Due to the duration of a migraine and the frequency to which many people have them, experiences that others can enjoy, like a warm summer day, or my child’s birthday is often riddled with pain. So I say without hesitation, that migraines affect all aspects of our lives, our ability to work, to take care of our family, and just enjoy life.
Having migraines is the most debilitating disease of day to day life. Until some one has had them they will never understand. It is not just painful, but you can still have migraines with no pain, nausea, fatigue, tiredness, fogginess, can’t think right, can’t talk straight, trying to power through the day is a struggle.
The most important thing is getting relief and my quality of life back. These painful migraines , pre migraines, and migraine hangover has taken my life away.
We migraine patients need to keep fighting with this invisible,debilitating disease called migraines.We can’t give up.
Thank you
Sharon Rhoades
