Posts filed under “Migraine”

My greatest fear is a fantasy

I started doing really well earlier this summer and had several weeks where I was able to do at least some work every single day. Then an environmental trigger I have no control over happened and I got stuck in bed again for more than 2 weeks. I’m slowly, slowly coming out of this cycle […]

Migraine may affect my personality, but my personality didn’t give me migraine

Anna Eidt wrote recently about the “migraine personality,” an old and sexist idea that still influences how migraines are perceived and treated. It’s a succinct discussion and debunking of the idea. The “migraine personality” was coined in the early 20th century not long after Victorian doctors thought migraine to be a purely psychosomatic phenomenon. Headache researcher Harold […]

Erenumab in Phase III clinical trials for episodic migraine

Erenumab is a fully human monoclonal antibody specifically designed for the prevention of migraine. Erenumab targets and blocks the Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) receptor, thought to be pivotal in the genesis of migraine. Erenumab is currently being studied in several large global, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials to assess its safety and efficacy in migraine prevention. […]

This is the drug that works

I get the aura, I take the pill, I lie down. The pain starts, increases, becomes everything. Two hours later it has quieted to a throb that consumes most, but not all, of my attention. The ice pack doesn’t help, but it’s comforting. This is the drug that works. It feels like there’s a knife […]

Tension

It’s a challenge to mindfully walk that middle path between being proactive about your health – always trying to improve it – but at the same time, accepting the way you are so that you can make the best of each day. From Toni Bernhard’s How to Live Well with Chronic Pain and Illness

Is this how I learned stillness?

Illness is the space where I came to understand the limitations of my being. It’s a lesson we all learn but one I learned harshly and twice, first watching my mother and then enduring my own suffering. Now I know that I can lie down for hours without moving. I can meditate. I can stare […]