Any small business owners out there? How do you manage when you're the boss?
Wondering if any fellow migraineurs out there are also small business owners and how you deal with migraine as such? Especially curious if you happen to be a key employee whose presence is crucial to your business's overall productivity.
Hi
! I was really hoping some of our community members would see your post here and share any ways that they deal with migraine as a small business owner. I certainly can't imagine that we don't have any other small business owners in our community here. I'm not sure whether or not this article will be helpful or applicable to you, but one of our members did write about navigating a migraine attack at work, https://migraine.com/living-migraine/managing-attack-at-work. I realize it's a little different for you as a small business owner and a key employee for productivity, but hopefully something in the article with be helpful! Sending you gentle hugs. -- Warmly, Christine (Team Member) I have owned a company under three names. I was the director; I had between three and 25 employees. I delt with Episodic Migraines and the neck pain that came along with it. I chewed OTC's 'analgesics' started out with Aspirin, then along came prescription analgesics'. I worked as a consultant out in the field and in the office, as the company manager, I naturally hired and fired personnel and many other things pertaining to owning and managing a company. The books, or the accounting...I finally gave that over to my wife.
Migraines could not slow me down, they just couldn't...and then they became Chronic Migraines, CMG. I admit it slowed me down, my thinking was confused, my vision/balance/eating and body rebelled at the increase in pain and the increase in opioid's I was taking. My sleep took a nosedive (not great sleep-not great awake). I just retired and said enough is enough.
I stopped the majority of opioids though I will take them if the CMG is bad enough. Taking opioids is down too once every 1 to1.5 weeks. I take sleeping pills now because I don't have to get up in the morning although it's not every night. I do have daily migraine just the intensity varies. I have thought of saying goodbye to life but really, I have too much going on, a wife, sons and daughters, grandchildren that need me and frankly, I need them as well. Even with the CMGs, life is way too precious to leave until the Lord decides that's when to go.
So yes, I ran an international consulting company with people relying on me with unmitigated pain, but I did manage for a very long time 1972 to 2022 until other health issues made me stop.
Life goes on even with Chronic Migraines.congratulations on running your company for so long! That is a major accomplishment. I can only imagine the difficult decision you made to retire, but hopefully it has allowed you to enjoy the time with the people who love you and need you. Those thoughts of saying goodbye to life are ones that a lot of community members here know all too well, so you aren't alone, though I'm glad to hear that you have so much going on and so many people in your life to act on any of those thoughts. We appreciate your openness to sharing your experience and your thoughts.
Since retiring, have you been able to find some hobbies that you enjoy?
-- Warmly, Christine (Team Member)
It is important for leaders in teams to be as human as employees or teammates and then practice that work-life balance that we all talk about. That means being able to sleep it off and not try to work through it. If you are more of a freelancer or heavily involved with clients it also means setting the expectation with your clients that you do suffer from migraines and that you may on occassion need to reschedule meetings. No question migraine reduce my productivity but usually when I bounce back I get a lot done. Good luck!
thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience! It's always good to hear from others who are going through it and get it. -- Warmly, Christine (Team Member)
