I Share Your Pain!

I have had migraines since the age of 23. I am now 48 and I still have the debilitating headaches. I have lost jobs over this disease and friends as well. It is very hard to find employers who understand and sympathize with the pain, suffering, and the missed days from work. I work closely with a Neurologist at a local VA facility to help me deal with the pain.

I am a Navy Veteran and still experience the headaches even more because of the barometric pressure of being out to sea all the time. The ships' Chorman literally had to knock me out for 24 hours and confine me to my sickbed until it went away. Needless to say, this was not good for a line of defense in the military.

Mostly my pain starts at the back of the head and works it way up to the temples and eventually it consumes my whole head within in seconds. I become disoriented, confused, dizzy, nauseated, with dry heaves. I have tried so many different medicines over time and no real solution, just enough to dull the pain. I still have to be bedridden for 3 days.

I was told that allergies and migraines are linked. Over the years I have created a food/drink trigger sheet which helps. In the year of 2009 in July I had a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA)  and was out of commission for 7 months. Research states that migraines and strokes are somehow linked. All I know is they have ruined a big chunk of my life and it really has been difficult to even plan events. You can imagine what this does for my livelihood. I keep hoping and praying that they will have a solution, not treatment for these headaches. I don't even know what a normal headache feels like anymore.