Hope: A Lesson From 25 Years of Plague

Today and for the past two years, I did my Aimovig injection. It doesn’t hurt me, it doesn't give me scarring side effects. However, my migraine went from 17-19 per month to 1-3 within the first month of treatment. I have a generalized calcitonin problem. Before Aimovig, well... I started having migraine around 4, as well as breaking my bones (a lot).

Going to school with migraine

My parents took me to the best hospital in Europe, but there were no treatments. I couldn't go to school like a normal student. Until I turned 16, my abstention was over 40%. every year. But my school supported me. And it was at this age that my neurologist allowed me to have sumatriptan injection (crisis) in addition to the rest (preventive). It allowed me to get back to school. Despite the side effect, I managed to get good grades, good enough to go study Law and Business at a famous British University. There I discovered how much I needed to fight, and the frustration to watch students beat you in your favorite subject because of this invisible disability (and all the preventive drugs, + 17 crisis a month).

Pushing through

I was spending the summer in hospital in order to take me off sumatriptan to avoid a rebound migraine. But I did have around 9-12 severe migraine per month anyway since I was a child. After getting my Bachelor, thanks to supporting doctors and friends, and good grades, I managed to get into Boston University. I did two LLM there, mostly in taxation. I mistreated myself, unfortunately, to get there, and my body started to crash, however, I got my diplomas. Three years later, a miracle came into my life.

Hope for a future

I was no longer hoping. However, after my first injection of Calcitonin Gene-Related monoclonal antibodies, my migraine dropped in 6 weeks from 15/month to 0-3. A miracle. My story is then about hope, it can reach you even when you no longer believe you can be cured. Since I was 10 I always believed (for a reason) that I would never live past 30. I was 29 (about to be 30) when I received my first shot. Today I'm 32, and I have a message.

Finding a balance with migraine

Even if you can make your life a living hell by sticking to your ambition, it beats the hell out of waiting 2 decades in hospital/ neurologist consult/ doing medical tests about Addyson disease and others... Migraine can get the best of your life, and if you fight it too hard, you mistreat yourself, however, a balance exists. Do what you wanted to do, it may be the hardest thing you'll ever do, but it can be worth it. Every day that I spend in a different country, even with a migraine, was a day I was feeling like I could and was beating the disease. When I went back home, I lost all hope. I surrounded myself with doctors and forgot why I was doing it in the first place.

Still learning and adapting

Today I learn to live without migraine, and I can tell you a secret... I thought it would be the easiest thing ever, but actually, it's challenging. I forgot what it was to do things when you are not sick, not at risk to be sick tomorrow. I often feel like I've lost the will to compete against... this plague. In fact, I completely lost the desire to compete and succeed despite the plague.

Now I need to heal other problems (severe osteoporosis and hormonal problem), but it's not the same. Life is challenging regardless of your disabilities. The healthiest person on Earth cannot know what it feels like to lose health as a young kid, and so he cannot know how to overcome days and days of sickness, cannot learn why we learn not to mistreat ourselves through trials and errors, and then can only make his life miserable by competing against everything he wants, slowly damaging himself in the process. Learning how to balance things is a lesson I learned from pain, and now that I'm free from the plague, I'm still a learner, making mistakes. I hope it's okay and that everything will turn out fine. For us all.

PS: In my title, I used plague instead of calcitonin-related problems causing migraine as a symptom.