a candid look at managing and living with headaches & migraines

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Archive for March, 2007

Cognitive Impairment & Other Strange Migraine Symptoms

Pain is an obvious symptom of migraine, but there’s so much more to migraine than the headache. Even the well-known symptoms like nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light and sound, and sometimes aura barely scratch the surface.
Right now I’m in the early stages of a migraine. Although I can feel the pain coming on, more frustrating [...]

Chiropractors & Headaches: My Deep, Dark Secret

See end of post for supporting links. Including them in the text makes a mess of the first paragraph.
I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for a few weeks. A gazillion people have recommended it over the years — everyone knows someone whose headaches have gone away after chiropractic. But I never intended to go to one. [...]

Why I Don’t Keep a Headache Diary

Compared to the ratings in a person’s headache or pain diary — if it’s kept faithfully — most people who rate their pain retroactively recall it as worse than it actually was. I too have a recall bias, but it’s the opposite effect. I think of the pain and other symptoms of my chronic daily [...]

Grand Rounds at Medviews

This week’s Grand Rounds is up at Medviews.
Not familiar with this blog carnival? It’s a weekly glimpse into the medical blogosphere. You can find the Grand Rounds archives on Blogborygmi.

This Time Last Year, March 25-31

Glued to the couch because the wires (aka leads) of my occipital nerve stimulator had moved is how I spent this week last year. I had to face answers to big questions I hated to ask.
Lead Migration 2006
The continuing movement of my leads and the associated pain became too much to ignore. This began my [...]

Pain of Chronic Illness Extends Beyond the Body

As out-of-pocket expenses add up, insurance woes build, and job security wavers, chronic illness can have devastating financial consequences. Northwestern’s Medill school considers the financial impact of chronic illness and describes a patient’s insurance policy rights.
Jenni Prokopy of ChronicBabe and Jennifer Jaff of Advocacy for Patients with Chronic Illness, two women dedicated to improving the [...]

What Questions Do You Have?

What do you want to know about headaches and migraines, biology and physiology, or anything else health-related? The Daily Headache is a resource for you as much as it is a catharsis for me. So, what’s on your mind?
At the risk of sounding like every teacher you’ve ever had, there are no stupid questions. And [...]

Death By Migraine

I know a migraine can’t actually kill me, but there are days I’m sure I’m dying. I woke up in pain, but thought I’d aborted the migraine until I took a short walk. The cold air on my forehead caused searing pain. Rubbing the bridge of my nose, the classic headache pose, only intensified the [...]

“Insurmountable Inability to Understand” Migraine

Fallon explains one of the biggest relationship stressors headache sufferers endure: Someone who has never had a severe headache or migraine simply cannot understand your suffering, no matter how clear your description and apparent your agony is.
“As I said ages ago, those who’ve never experienced a migraine, just don’t get it. Never have. Never will. [...]

Building Your Migraine Treatment Plan — A HealthTalk Webcast Tomorrow

A drawback of all the available treatments is that patients can be overwhelmed. Designing a personal headache treatment plan will help keep you and your doctor on the best path for you. It will help you choose the medicines that are most likely to reduce your most troublesome symptoms, can integrate alternative or complementary treatments [...]