My chronic story

When I was a child, I was horrible to ride in the car with. My 2 siblings and I would cram in the backseat of our parents' Grand Am and I would inevitably vomit every 2 miles or so. Even as young as 6, I remember the auras...but I never knew that these were signs of migraine until the last few years.

I had the typical menstrual migraine as a teenager... but then I began getting debilitating migraines at least 2 or 3 times a month. As they became more frequent, my mom took me to see my first neurologist at 16. He literally told me that my headaches were caused by boys. Needless to say, we found a new one. This doc put me on meds and thus began my lifetime of taking daily consistent medications.

From then until roughly 22, I had regular migraines and many less severe headaches throughout the month. At 22, I began my first "adult job." Within the first year, I was in very severe pain from daily headaches. My muscles were so tense in my neck and shoulders that people could pick me up - feet off the ground - from those muscles. It's been a long 6 years. Since that tension started, I've had probably 10 sets of nerve blocks, countless new medications and side effects, many many scans, 2 hospital stays, some procedures I regret and some that I think may have helped. They're still not better - I'm still trying to dodge the migraines that come nearly every day, but I've learned to be a stronger person, to keep my own records and not rely on the doctor's advice strictly because they're a doctor. I've found one I trust for now, but there's 10 or 15 I've stopped seeing. The best thing a chronic migraineur can do for themselves is to control their own medical decisions.

And in the midst of all of this, I developed horrible acid reflux, anxiety, depression, 4 blood clots in my lungs and hemorrhoids. Quite a medical history for 28 years old...and it's all related to the medications and pain.

All I can do is control my days now and look towards the future and pray to God that he has a plan for me and would like to fill me in on whatever that is as soon as possible! :)