Posts filed under “Migraine”

Burdens/profit

Disabled people, sick people are often treated as and described as burdens. We’re so much work to take care of, our drugs are so expensive! Stefan Strecko has cystic fibrosis and can’t get his insurance company to pay for the drug he needs. A Halifax man who has battled lung infections, digestive issues and had […]

Acceptance

Instead of hoping that I get well enough that I don’t have to sleep with this tacky plastic basin next to my bed, I’m just going to find a vomit receptacle that blends in with my room’s decor. I could puke in a nice vase.

Hot glass looks like cold glass

Some lessons are hard for me to learn. In my first chemistry class we watched a safety video that repeatedly proclaimed “hot glass looks like cold glass.” 20 years and 8 chemistry classes later and I’m still regularly burning my fingers on pyrex in the kitchen. Yesterday, I worked several hours while the intensity of […]

Legitimate illness

What makes something a disease? And why would some people with migraine fight to have migraine recognized as a disease? Locating migraine in the brain is believed to alleviate personal responsibility, a dynamic that advocates think is important after decades of medical practitioners telling patients that their personalities caused their pain. Identifying migraine as genetic […]

It’s all in my head

People with migraine have a degraded “objective self” – that is, their “taken-for-granted notions, theories and tendencies regarding [their] human bodies, brains, and kinds” have been damaged. Sometimes people with migraine don’t even believe their own pain. – Joanna Kempner in Not Tonight. I remember crawling across a bathroom floor, vomiting, wondering what was wrong […]

Migraine: a journal sample

May 19, 2018 I want to get up every day and feel okay or even well. To have energy and some expectation of getting things done. I don’t want to be disabled. I feel like life is passing me by, like I don’t do anything, like my life doesn’t matter. I say that I know […]

Motivation comes after action

“Thoughts influence behavior, which influences outcome, which in turn feeds back into your thoughts.” via Guest Post: Breaking The Low Mood Cycle | Captain Awkward One day when I was feeling particularly terrible about migraine and all the things I want to do and can’t, I made a big list called “There’s always something I […]