A long journey that continues to this day

My story started early one morning in 2008 while sitting at work in a typical office environment. I started seeing "transparent fireworks". I mentioned it to a co-worker and said; "If you find me on the floor later, tell someone about that, it may be important." That little joke was the first step into a journey that continues today.

Later that day, I found myself at the ER with a headache like nothing I'd never felt before. "It feels like a rusty ice pick was plunged through my eye" I told the doctor.

Over the next two years, these headaches persisted several times a week lasting up to 72 hours at a time. I hate to say it, but I now understand suicide. I certainly do not condone it, but I understand the want to escape something at any cost.

It took two years of trial and error before my neurologist suggested trying injections into the supra-orbital nerves. It was as though someone turned off the light switch. I felt a difference within a few minutes. The headache went away....and I didn't get another one the next day. I went back for treatments and we eventually found how long we could go between treatments.

Unfortunately, during this time I lost my job. Medical bills and normal living expenses ate through our savings and retirement funds quickly. Finding a job with unemployment so extremely high was challenging.

Eventually, without my income and all of our financial sources gone, my husband and I lost our modest home.

We decided to attempt "starting over" on our small property 4 hours north. This isn't the iconic log cabin overlooking a lake. Rather, it is a small piece of land with an camper trailer on it, and thanks to the economy, we still owe more than it was worth. We decided that if we were going to start over, we would do it where we really want to be.

Eventually, we both found jobs. Mine was an entry level position in an office 40 miles from our wilderness campsite. We were starting to save up in hopes of building a small home, when the migraines came back in another form. They were aura with no pain. The triggers of fluorescent lighting and computer screens had struck again. The auras were frequent and occurred several times a day lasting from a few seconds to several hours. The migraines had once again eliminated my ability to drive or work.

Today as I type my story, I am a patient at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. I am hopeful and confident that the staff at Mayo will find a way to manage, perhaps even eliminate,the symptoms.

Oh, and yes, my husband and I still live in our camper. (which is really chilly in the Northern Winters) I have the house plans pinned on the wall for "some day".