Giving Migraine Advice in the Real World

Being a migraine advocate has completely changed the way I look at migraine. I started my journey all those years ago, stumbling across triggers and fighting through the pain as they came. There was no planning, no lessons learned. Just graveling with the fact that I had issues that other kids didn't have. All without any real answers in sight.

My first aura attack

My youthful bliss and ignorance through my head and stomach pain ended when I had my first aura. I was able to shrug off head pain and call them headaches. As a way to ignore and leave unaddressed what I was suffering through. My first aura, however, couldn't be ignored.  It was literally there, right in front of my face.

Helping people online

A confrontation about my lifestyle that later became the first step, of many, towards my place with Migraine.com. I've been so fortunate to be able to both read people's testimonies and see where I fit in a community, as well as a way for me to give back and help those who may not know that they're living with migraine. Sure, I comment here or there and write down my thoughts here for you to read, but I've never really helped someone in the real world. The flesh world.

My girlfriend’s mom was in pain

If my diagnosis has taught me anything, it's how to have an acute ear for other people in pain. Like a migraine radar, I can scan my environment, looking for people also in undiagnosed distress. I was visiting my girlfriends' house, drinking some chamomile tea with her and her mom, when she started complaining about a 'headache.' I asked her what kind of pain was she in and if it was pulsating or surging right behind her eyes. She told me, yes, and immediately I was on it. I made SURE to say,

"That may be a migraine headache for sure. I, personally, have found that taking both Advil and Aleve can break my migraines since you can take ibuprofen/naproxen sodium and acetaminophen at the same time."

My real-life migraine advice

Then I sent my girlfriend a link to my bio and Migraine.com website to forward to her mom. Just like that, like I was some sort of migraine guru. I had never given real-life advice before! Here I am, just a guy living life, recommending a website where I contribute to an actual person! A real-life human being. I was elated to be able to do that for her. Have I checked in with her to see if she's followed up with the website or if her head-pain broke? No. But see, she isn't dead, so I didn't f*** up that badly (a flawed metric for sure).

Helping someone in person

It was such a cool thing to be able to recommend Migraine.com to somebody. Sure, her mom pointed out that my bio says I'm still in school and three years younger, but so what if I don't update it?! I was able to help somebody the way that our community has helped me.  That was pretty stinking special.