Living With My Chronic Migraine
Waking up in the morning is supposed to be a refreshing start to a new day. But with chronic migraines, it can be like playing Russian roulette. I truly never know what the day will hold for me. This makes it so hard to make plans for a future date.
Sometimes
I wake up in the mornings to a lot of sometimes. Sometimes my head feels fine. Sometimes as soon as I open my eyes, the pain is already overbearing. Sometimes I can get a few stretches in before my head starts pounding. Unfortunately for me, most of my days are filled with migraine pain to some extent.
To nap or not to nap?
While the idea of a nap almost always sounds appealing when the migraine pain is severe, it is not always refreshing for me. There are times when I take a nap and wake to a worse migraine than I had before napping.
On the other hand, I know people who can take their abortive and sleep away their migraine rather quickly. Sometimes this happens for me, but there are other times when my migraine is much worse after trying to nap. It can be somewhat of a double edge sword.
The power to push through
Over the years that I have been living with chronic migraines, I have been put in the position to have no choice but to push through my migraine. I had to work despite having migraines because I could not call in every time I had a migraine. This put me in a position where I started taking my abortive medication, knowing I could not rest afterward or not taking them at all.
Sometimes I take an abortive and keep moving through my day. Other times I push through as far as I can before stopping and taking a migraine pill. The insurance companies do not allow me to have a migraine abortive for every day of the month due to the possibility of medication overuse headaches or rebound headaches.
Pushing through a migraine is not something I suggest anybody do. The longer one pushes through a migraine and puts off taking an abortive, the more difficult treating that migraine will likely be. Additionally, the longer said migraine might stick around.
Canceling my life
As many other people have experienced, migraines have caused me to cancel so many plans. These days, I do not commit to solid plans most days. I tell people that I will try to come. This makes it a little better when I cannot attend. I do normally try to push through when the plans involve my nieces.
Disability
I am on disability now, but not just because of my chronic migraines. I have a variety of health issues. Being on disability does help me not to have to get up and work every day. Unfortunately, it does not take away the pain of living with chronic migraines. As of now, medication has not been able to take away or decrease that pain either. I would prefer to work every day than to have this almost daily pain.
Migraine won't take my life away
Living with my chronic migraine is not an easy life. There is no way to coat it in a pretty way. Despite this, I still live my life to the fullest I am able. I want to be an aunt that my nieces remember. I want to be an advocate that helps at least one person on their migraine journey and so much more. Chronic migraine will not take my entire life away.
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