MHAM Day 7 - Pretty Woman

Today's prompt for the Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is about what I do to look good when I feel crap.

Well for me, it's mostly in one word, shoes.

For some people they might do their hair in an awesome way, others might glam up their look with make-up.  I'm useless at both those things but boy oh boy do I love shoes!

The shoe shown above is one from my collection which I particularly love.  I'm a particular fan of Irregular Choice brand shoes (like the one above) as anyone who has seen my shoes will know.
When I get ready for work in the morning, I choose the shoes first then pick the outfit that'll go with them.  If I'm wearing fabulous shoes, I might not feel fabulous because of the pain, but I feel like I look a lot more fabulous.

I do things to try to make myself feel better even if I feel bad because of pain, and Pinkie Pie is my shining star there.  I have a model of her on my monitor at work, a trading card of her stuck to my work monitor and a big poster of her on my kitchen door, all to make me smile when I'm feeling down because of the pain.

When I'm in full migraine I don't look good at all of course, then I'mm in my jammies with my matted hair feeling like crawling into a hole in the ground would be the ideal thing.  I never do anything to make myself look good at those times but since it's only my long-suffering husband who sees me then I don't mind ;)


June, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is issued by FightingHeadacheDisorders.com. 

MHAM Day 6 - Premonition

Today's prompt is about looking at the future of migraine treatment.
This is a little harder to talk about as I don't sadly have a crystal ball (or Trelawney to tutor me) or a handy time machine (though if The Doctor is reading, perhaps he could take me for a spin?)

Instead I can only look at what I have seen in the time I've been following migraine research (which to my failing hasn't been for long) and try to see where it's going.

Firstly though, let me preface by saying that migraine treatment is very under-funded compared to other chronic medical conditions.  It is more prevalent than diabetes, epilepsy and asthma combined affecting more then 8 million people in the UK alone and yet receives very little funding for the number of people affected.
Consequently, the medicinal treatments that we have available to us as migraine sufferers are almost entirely drugs which were created to treat other ailments which they found help migraineurs; triptans are the exception to this which are used to treat a migraine attack but it isn't fully understood still why they are so effective for an attack as what causes and happens during a migraine isn't fully understood yet.
I, for example, take on a daily basis propranalol (beta-blockers, which lower blood pressure, primarily for heart attack patients), amitriptyline (an anti-depressant) and the contraceptive pill (which I tricycle to level out my hormones to prevent migraines at menstruation & ovulation).  None of these were developed to prevent migraines.

The latest treatment which is now becoming available more widespread is botox.  I don't know if botox was originally developed for the cosmetic industry but that's what it's used for most.  Sadly this treatment doesn't last for all that long though and regular re-treatments are needed to maintain it's effect.

The fact that things like botox are being found to help migraines is good though, and the information that these things help prevent migraine all furthers the understanding of what migraine is.

I hope that within my lifetime, research has progressed to the point where migraine attacks can be completely or almost completely prevented.  In the more short-term future though, I think that more break-throughs are going to happen and in the next 10-15 years I expect that more things will have been found to help treat and prevent migraines and I'll be able to live more of my life.

Not much in the way of predictions I know, but since I don't work in migraine research and I know little about it other than what gets reported in the news and what I find through my daily migraine reading then I've little information to go on I'm afraid.

The biggest thing I have to keep me going through the bad days though, is hope, and I hope for a much brighter future when I and others won't have to suffer so much.


June, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is issued by FightingHeadacheDisorders.com. 

MHAM Day 5 - Carousel

Today's prompt is the most famous song from Carousel - You'll Never Walk Alone.  That's not to say this is a day to talk about Liverpool F.C. (perhaps to my Mum's disappointment), but rather I feel it is about those I have found who share my illness.

I didn't realise that I had a big hole in my support network for my migraines until it was filled.  I have an extremely supportive husband and very understanding and supportive friends.  I have a good GP since I moved to York two years ago and I've been seeing a migraine and headache specialist clinic at the hospital here for 18 months.

One day though, when I was on twitter, I stumbled across a lady called Victoria with the twitter name of @migrainemonolog.  From there I followed through to her blog, Migraine Monologues.
Wow, I was in tears almost immediately when I looked at her blog.  I had started with her still very new Migraineur of the Month section and so I was reading a few posts from a few different people talking about their migraine experiences.  It was so powerful, it was like someone just took the lid off the box I hadn't realised I was trapped inside.

Victoria quickly introduced me to some other fellow sufferers on twitter, most of whom also have blogs although not exclusively about migraines.  It was incredible, I really can't explain how amazing it was then to talk to other people who suffer day in, day out, with the same ailment as I do.

I chat to this bunch of fabulous ladies on twitter every day; we talk about the meds we're trying, things which work for us, things which don't, how we're feeling today, what we're doing at the moment, etc etc.  Just talking to people who understand so completely about the things I go through every day and who can truly emphasise when the migraines hit is so much more powerful that I believed possible.

Victoria also started a Migraine Book Club, and we will be discussing the second book on Monday and I'm so excited to chat about a migraine book with fellow migraine sufferers.  It was fantastic when we talked about the last one and I just can't wait even to have a group of us in a chat room together again.
The hole I didn't realise was there has been filled well and truly as it was because of these ladies that I now have my own migraine blog; that's something that I never would have considered before I met them but so I'm happy that I now have it as it's such a good medium for me to help understanding by those around me and for other sufferers to know that they're not alone either.


June, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is issued by FightingHeadacheDisorders.com. 

MHAM Day 4 - Finding Nemo

Today's prompt for the Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge isn't about swimming oceans to find a small-finned fish but is about just keeping on swimming like Dory in Finding Nemo.

I've had quite a few people, when they've seen my migraine diary and what a constant battle  face with migraines and headaches, say that they don't know how I cope with it.
If someone had handed me my migraine diary as it is now a few years ago and told me this is how my life was going to be, I doubt I would have believed them but if I had then I think I'd have hidden away in a corner of a dark hole and begged for it not to happen.

As it is, my life has crept slowly towards where it is now, with some better periods and some worse ones.
I find it incredibly frustrating that any plans I make I have to disclaimer with "all plans subject to short-notice cancellation due to migraines" but I'm kind of used to it now.  In some cases it's annoying but not disastrous like not making it to the cinema and having to wait till a film is released on DVD instead but in others it's extremely irritating like when I'm on holiday or at a specific event and have to miss it completely.

I can't, and won't, just stop living life though.  I make my plans now with migraines in mind, booking days off work either side of big events, not making plans on consecutive weekends where possible or consecutive evenings and ensuring that plans can be easily cancelled if I'm not feeling up to them even if I'm not being hit by a migraine at the time.

How do I just keep swimming? By wanting to enjoy my life as much as I can.  My life isn't over with migraine, it's just not as good as it could be and I'll carry on living as much of life as I can and keeping on hoping that things will get better.


June, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is issued by FightingHeadacheDisorders.com. 

Photo from Finding Nemo, copyright Disney.

MHAM Day 3 - The Hunger Games

You'd be forgiven for thinking this post is going to be either about food or about putting 24 migraine sufferers in an arena and watching them try to kill each other when they're not hiding in dark caves screaming in pain.

It's actually to do with the classic phrase used by Effie Trinket in The Hunger Games of "May the odds be ever in your favour." In other words, how do I better my odds against the dreaded migraines.

I've actually already written about My Everyday Life with Migraines which talks about the things I do every day to try to keep my thresholds high and the migraines at bay.

Sometimes though, I have to do things which I know is almost guaranteed to trigger a migraine and there's little I can do about that but I do make sure I'm prepared for it and treat the migraine at the earliest possible point to try and abort it from the start and allow me to carry on.  That worked well recently at the UK Games Expo but not quite as well on my anniversary weekend where the migraine came on overnight so by the time the pain woke me it was a bit too far gone for my treatment to completely abort it.

I'm always willing to try new things that will help to ward off the migraines and I thankfully have understanding friends who don't take it personally when I can't come and see them, cancel at the last minute or have to leave early.  Often these acts are more about bettering my odds than because of an actual attack at the time - not doing the activity that I know will lead to a migraine.

Bettering my odds of not having migraines can have the opposite problem sometimes as well of course, when it's so stressful trying to do, or not do, all the things to prevent a migraine happening that the stress causes a migraine!

I doubt there's any chronic migraine sufferer who doesn't dedicate a lot of their time and energy to bettering their odds and I daresay the things that I do will change over the lifetime of my migraines, but for now the things I do to better my odds are already covered in this blog and I continue to do them, every single day.


June, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is issued by FightingHeadacheDisorders.com. 

MHAM Day 2 - X-Men: Migraine & Headache Disorders Super Heroes

Today's prompt for the Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is about the superheroes in our lives.

Well I'm sure I've mentioned more than a couple of times in this blog, just how incredible my husband is.

It's no easy thing to be the partner of someone with a chronic illness and I think even more so a chronic episodic illness.

When we first met, I didn't have migraines. When we fell in love, neither of us knew that the future was going to hold such a life-changing thing for us. I wouldn't have blamed him at all if he'd decided that the migraines were just more than he could deal with and he wanted to bail out now.

He hasn't done that though.  Instead he's supported me to the best of his ability, he's changed everything about our lives to best benefit me and my health and he's learnt everything he can about my condition to try to help in the best way he can.

Not only does he try to do everything he can for me when I have the migraines themselves, he fully understands migraine prevention measures and orders me to rest when I feel guilty I'm not helping with things.  He is often better at helping to prevent migraines than I am, not least by often recognising that I'm getting a migraine when I haven't realised it yet myself!  This means I take my medication in time on those occasions and manage to stop the migraine in its tracks, a huge difference!

I'd like him to write a post on this blog at some point himself to explain what it's like to be married to someone with a chronic episodic illness.  As frustrating as it is for me to have to cancel plans at the last minute, I can't help but think it must be even more frustrating for him as he doesn't get to do the fun things that are planned and instead has to look after me and watch me suffer in pain which I know breaks his heart and must make him feel helpless.

Today is our first wedding anniversary and this time last year I know we were both just so relieved that I didn't suffer a migraine on the day of the wedding which was both of our biggest fear for the day.  We were hoping to be trying for kids by this point but my health still being so bad has meant we've had to postpone those plans and I worry we'll never be able to have them and that will be something else I've taken from him.

He is my superhero who makes my life happy and worthwhile between the migraines and makes the migraines themselves more bearable and I thank the gods every day that I've been so lucky to have found him.

June, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is issued by FightingHeadacheDisorders.com. 

Photo is the cover of the new X-Men #1 comic which is out now, features all-female x-men and is great, go and buy it!

MHAM Day 1 - Phantom of the Opera

So it's Migraine and Headache Awareness Month (MHAW), or it is in the US at least, and I've decided to participate as much as I can in the MHAW Blog Challenge.

Each day I'll be given a prompt for a blog post and today's is about masks.

I've talked about this a bit before when I discussed The Brave Face in a previous post.  I do wear a mask a lot of the time.  I want to be treated normally when I'm not suffering from a migraine or a migraine hangover at the time. i.e. I want to be treated normally when I feel normal or mostly normal.

The problem is that when I don't feel normal so to speak, when I'm feeling delicate either because a migraine is coming, I've just recovered from one and am suffering the postdrome effect (migraine hangover) or I've managed to medicate one and I'm trying hard not to re-trigger it, at those times I instinctively put a mask on, I try to act as normally as possible.

This is usually to my detriment as being treated normally in these circumstances usually ends up punishing me with a lot more pain and possibly triggering or re-triggering a full blown migraine; heavy punishment indeed for just wanting to be treated like everyone else.

I know my long-suffering husband puts up with a lot from me as well, my illness effects him almost as much as it does me, so to save him heartache and strictly against his orders to me, I often find myself wearing a mask to him as well, just so I don't have to see his spirit crushed when I tell him I'm in pain yet again.

I've realised recently just how counter-productive these masks are and I'm really trying to make an effort to keep those around me informed as to my current state but it does just feel like I'm complaining all the time!  My will to wear a mask is strongest with my colleagues as I want to be able to put forward the professional me at work, but they've seen me starting with a migraine a number of times now and even saw one in full force to my dismay recently too so I'm trying to be open with them as we'll but it feels even more like I'm just complaining all the time with them than with my friends and family!

I think everyone with an invisible illness will probably wear a mask to some extent, sometimes I feel lucky that I'm able to do that but then when I end up getting punished for it then I end up wishing I didn't have that option after all.

Hopefully one day I won't feel the need for masks at all as my migraines will be so infrequent.  That's the hope that keeps me going on the bad days.

June, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is issued by FightingHeadacheDisorders.com. 

Photo by Stephantom53