Katie has turned living with chronic migraine into a chance to help others and raise awareness about the disease. In addition to starting a support group for people with migraine called Migraine IDAHO, she is hosting the second annual Haturday for Heads fundraiser. Haturday for Heads has already raised $740 for the Migraine Research Foundation through online hat sales (sorry, they’re sold out!) and will be hosting an in-person event in Boise this Saturday, April 23. The Boise event will be from 2 to 4 p.m. at BBQ4Life, which will donate a portion of food sales to migraine research. You can also enter to win some great raffle prizes at the event. If you can’t attend in person, Katie encourages you to share your story on social media (tagged #haturdayforheads2016) or donate to Haturday for Heads on CrowdRise.
Get to know Katie and learn more about Migraine IDAHO and Haturday for Heads in this interview she kindly did with me:
Katie’s migraine story
I remember my head hurting as a young kid, especially in the summer time and having to lay on the couch. But I don’t think I had true migraines until my teen years. Around 15 then got to a point that I decided I need to see someone. We (my parents and I) started with the eye doctor to rule out any vision issues, when my vision ended up at 20/20 we moved on to a neurologist. When I had my fist visit he asked me a question I will never forget, “When was the last time I did not have a headache?” I could not answer, I thought about it and could not remember the last day that I did not have some form of head pain.
He strapped the diagnosis of chronic daily headache with migraines on me and decided that we were going to shock the daily headaches into stopping. I spent a day at a outpatient facility having some drugs pumped into me with an IV. I do not remember what it was all I know is it made me nauseous and I vomited multiple times. It was such a terrible experience that when he asked me if it worked and my headache had stopped, I lied and said yes so that I would not have to do it again. From there over the years I tried different things, other neurologist with preventives, chiropractors, digestive health. Nothing has yet to work well.
I have had a few years here and there where my migraines and daily headache have been better and I managed without any medication. Now I have my baseline headache everyday, around a 2-4, with migraines anywhere from 3-7 days a week. I don’t get an aura, I do have sensitivity to light and noise. Most of the time my migraine is on both sides, but can be more intense on the right. I rarely get nausea, which is good because the few times I have, I ended up in the ER because the nausea was uncontrollable. Fatigue is also a big symptom for me.
What Katie wishes people understood about migraine
I wish that people understood that I did not choose this. That I am not lazy, that my house is messy sometimes because I am exhausted and it hurts to bad to move. I want people to realize that this is a disease and there is not a cure, I may find something that provides relief but I still have this disease/illness, it will not magically go away.
The motto that helps Katie cope with chronic migraine
One day at a time.
About Migraine IDAHO
Migraine IDAHO is a community, a group for sufferers to have support. A group to help raise awareness and provide education and resources on migraines. Right now there is a closed support group on Facebook. It started after I had found some national migraine support groups on Facebook. I always had felt like I was alone with migraine growing up. I felt like I was the only person who was experiencing this kind of pain. Once I got on Facebook and found others like me, it really helped learn more about my disease and accept it. So I wanted to create in Idaho a group that I never had, a place where that young girl, and all sufferers, were not alone. Eventually I hope the Migraine IDAHO can hold in-person support groups, do educational talks at school and businesses about migraine, and continue to raise funds for research.
About Haturday for Heads
Haturday for Heads is a migraine awareness and fundraising event. All the proceeds go to the Migraine Research Foundation. This year there was an online design contest for the hat design, hats that could be purchased on worn on April 23, and then an in person event at BBQ4Life. [Hat sales are over for this year, but follow Migraine IDAHO on Facebook so you can be sure to get one next year.]
For the last 4 or 5 years I have wanted to do some sort of event for that would help raise awareness and educate about migraines, raise funds for research, and strength the migraine community. I had communicated a few times with some of the folks at Miles for Migraine about getting a race here in Boise. The manpower needed and the logistics have not lined up yet, and I say yet because having a Miles for Migraine race here in Boise is still a goal for Migraine IDAHO. Anyways, I had the desire and want to do a event, I just needed a catalyst to make it happen.
I was back in school at Boise State University to finish up my bachelor’s degree and one of the last classes I took was Communication in a Small Group. We were put into small groups and our semester project was to do something that make a change in the community. When I heard what our assignment was, I instantly knew that this would be my opportunity to do an migraine event. It took some persuasion on my part, but I was able to get my group on board with the idea.
We only had two months to organize and our event in class so we keep it pretty simple. We had it at BBQ4Life and had a few silent auction items and a few of us made silly hats to wear. We raised around $200, which was great. After the event last year I had someone tell me that they were asked, “When are we going to have a Haturday for Heads in our city?” That got me thinking that I needed to make this a national if not worldwide event, and why not, migraines are all around the world. So I thought a good way to be able to include people everywhere would be to have a hat designed just for Haturday for Heads and people could wear it the day of the event and post pictures online. This way anyone anywhere, even the ones of us in bed with a migraine could participate.
I have already surpassed a lot of my goals for this year. We had some great designs submitted that were voted on. And then when the hat was available to purchase, we ended up selling 42 and raised $720. We still have the in person event at BBQ4Life, if would be great if we raised some more money, but for me the big goal there is to have awareness in the local community increased.
I have big dreams and goals for future years. This year we had people across the nation purchase a hat, next year I would love to see people internationally involved. In following years I would like to see some in person events happen in other cities. Also, if the Haturday hashtag became one of the top used tags, that would be awesome!
How you can participate even if you don’t live in Boise
Anyone who purchased a hat can post pics the day of the event with #haturdayforheads2016 to all social media sites. If you didn’t get a hat purchased in time, you can donate to the Haturday for Heads CrowdRise page. Also, if people comment, share, and post about Haturday for Heads they can be a part of it and help spread awareness. It would be great to see the internet explode with #haturdayforheads2016. Be it post in their hats, or just post about themselves and how migraine has affected them.
I am hoping I can do a live video post on Facebook at BBQ4Life, if so it will be on the event page.