Migraines Wont Beat Me

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Photo Credit: migrainetrust.org
I was granted a new start today.

I have been experiencing migraines since I was an over-achieving 15-year old of the early 2000s complete with roll-on glitter and Anxiety about terrorists. I was sitting in my math class when suddenly I could not see the second half of the alphabet chart that was tacked accross the markerboard and brightly lit with fluorescent light.

The next 20 years were a mixed bag of excruciating migraines, persistent headaches, vision loss, depression, anxiety, and everything in between. No cocktail of drugs from the east or west solved the problem. No lifestyle change relieved the pain. So I learned to live with it, until this year when it got so bad that I was no longer living. Regardless of a cutback in gluten and increase of meditation...I. was. miserable.

Today I saw a Duke neurologist who told me that CGRPs are constantly being produced in my brain causing migraines multiple times a week, headaches in between, and constant sensitivities to light, sound, and smell. And luckily, there is a medicine for that. All I have to do is jam myself in the thigh with a shot once a month.

So today I start living again. I will try these shots that control CGRP. I will keep reducing gluten intake. I will keep doing yoga and meditating to keep my mind and body calm. I invite you along this journey with me. Because, migraines wont beat me.


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