Migraine And The Abbreviated Life

There are so many people that have suffered from migraine, or other invisible illness, for much of their lives. I myself have dealt with Migraines for over 30 years. That is about 60% of the years of my life. That's means that for more than half of my life, I have been suffering, been forced to stay in bed, cancel plans, miss some of the milestones of my children's lives, and too many other activities to count in a single blog article. I don't want to obsess over them anyway. It's just too depressing. But, this is what I mean by an abbreviated life.

An abbreviated life is one that stops and starts, has gaps in time when we are just not able to contribute experiences in other's lives in general and the world as a whole.

It's not unusual for us to wake up and be unable to face the day. To bow out of the days events even though they may be part of our our own dreams and/or plans. We are there one minute and gone the next. The ones we love know not to plan anything that may require our presence. That we may have to exit what ever is happening and be gone for hours or days at a time.

Sometimes I feel like what some people like about me is that I'm a reliable disappointment. (just joking) It is easy for a severe pain sufferer to condemn themselves as a disappointment to others as they are looking at the world from the wrong end of the binoculars. The pain sufferer may feel worse than the people around even suspect. The pain being invisible to others. It should be known that an abbreviated life, is the existence that many other people with invisible and visible illnesses lead as well. How do we exist beyond an abbreviated life?

• Work hard to find a treatment plan that works for you and stick with it.

• Make plans that you are more likely to be able to finish. And work up in scale as much as possible. Try finding hobbies or other jobs that can be worked on in small segments and are easier to pick up and lay down.

• Take medicine and treatments that help you to live more thoroughly. Sometimes treatments may be set aside even though they work, simply due the cost or time it takes for these treatments.

• Teach your family and friends about your suffering and provide ways that they can help you.

• Let them know about food allergies or triggers.
• Teach them about other triggers that can cause you trouble.

• Act in accordance with given prescriptions, treatments and any triggers that affect you. If you do not take these seriously or act nonchalant about missing medicines or being around  these triggers, it makes it difficult for those around you to take these things seriously as well.

What other ways do you have to overcome the abbreviated life that claims migraine as well other invisible illness victims?  Feel free to leave your comments below or email me this information, or any other questions or examples of living beyond the abbreviated life.

 

25,000+ Migraine Views

Today, I have hit a milestone. I think 25000+ views of my blog is pretty special. When I started in November of 2008 I was very discouraged. I had the belief that "all you have to do is build it and they will come". Well, anyone writing a blog today, knows how funny that is. It takes a lot more than building it. It takes advertising through Twitter, Blog Surfer, and Facebook, just to name a few. This means that not only do you need to write (and write well?), but you need to do marketing as well.

Writing is a skill that is hard to master. I am not a natural writer. Before this blog the only things I wrote for myself and not a class, were poems. I started writing my blog, thinking that there weren't too many good resources of migraine information available. That I could provide information from my own experiences in a light or funny way and fill a niche. While I have written some posts that I feel met my personal expectations, I think that sometimes I write too deep. Well, at least it comes from the heart.

Accurate and reputable resources were very hard to find at first. There were a couple of good sites and blogs back then and now there are many more valuable sites for finding good straight information. Now there are migraine news sites that report in accurate terminology and are readable, insightful and relevant.

I have a much better understanding of blogging and still think that I can provide information that encourages my readers. Blogging between migraines can be a challenge, but I have found it totally invigorating for me. Thank you to all my readers. I hope that I that I am able to continue providing a reason to return and maybe for a different point of view.  Take a look below right, for a list of some of the blogs I read. Thanks again!

 

The Canvas

Think of our lives as very large canvas. The Lord is the painter with brush in hand. Sometimes He is meticulous with His strokes and the color must be "just so". Other times, He lets the paint run and mix with other colors. He has the final product in His head. He knows how it will look in the end, but he doesn't want to control every nuance of the piece.

The canvas is so large the we are only able to see the tiniest of pieces. These pieces of the mural are so intricate that it is impossible to understand even our part of the masterpiece. But we try.

We try to understand the brush that causes our illness. Albeit migraine, fibromyalgia, or another invisible illness, the canvas is to intricate to fathom. All we can do, is live this "complete" life to it's natural fruition. Let the Master be the painter. Know that in the end everything that you have accomplished, everything that has happened to you or through you will eventually be a part of the canvas and the masterpiece.





 

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Setting Spiritual And Leisure Goals

 There's a lull between this and my last post, due to a minor family emergency that took me away from home for over a week. If you are following along at home, you know that I am currently setting my personal goals on my blog.
I am doing this, not because I love to share my personal life, but because I wanted to make myself accountable. By stating in my blog that I am going to do this, I am setting myself up to succeed!
After writing about setting goals and Goal Setting Tips, I realized that I was having trouble putting my own goals down on paper. So, in order to motivate myself, I decided to post them. Today, I am working on my spiritual and leisure time goals.
Remember that your goals have to be taken in small steps in order to reach a larger goal and dream.

II. My Spiritual Life

• I want to become closer with God
• I will do my best to attend church every Sunday.
• I will read my bible daily.
• I will pray daily.
• I will give God credit for every blessing in my life.

III. My Leisure Time

• I want to take better advantage of the amount of leisure time I have between migraines.
• I will keep a consistent bed time.
• I will not go to bed just because I am bored.
• I will spend more time with my family.
• I will spend more time outdoors.
• I will spend time each week to pursue my hobbies.
• I will use more time to prepare timely blog posts.

• I want to get into better shape and be healthier.
• I will exercise at least 3 times a week.
• I will change my diet and eat better.
• I will maintain a low carbohydrate diet.
• I will eat fewer sweets.
• I will eat smaller portions.
• I will lose 25 pounds by implementing the above changes.

I don't know that this is the perfect outline for my goals. After letting this sit for a week, I am having a mental block. I hope that, this in some way, inspires your to create a statement of your goals. Take time to ask yourself, "What are my spiritual and leisure goals?"

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Setting My Personal Goals

I am adamant about setting my goals for my life, so I set myself up in my blog. As I shared in my post, Goal Setting Tips, I am sharing my goals as I make them and hoping that others will take this challenge to sit down and set goals in their own lives in order to reach their dreams. Today, I am working on my Family, Spiritual and Personal Goals.

Our personal goals are those outside of our career path. They often have to do with family, friends and personal growth. In order to set these goals I need to list specific objectives I want to achieve in:

1. My Relationships
2. My spiritual life
3. My leisure time

It's best to focus on activities and the amount of time and effort you want to give to these activities. It's important to be reasonable and live up to your plan. Take the steps - not leaps - needed to meet your goals. So, today, I am focusing on goals for my relationships.

My Goals;


I. My Relationships
   My family and myself are slighted of time we spend together due to my
   migraines. I want to make sure that any reprieve time that I have is spent with
   my family and friends.

• I want to become closer to each member of my family. Even when we are all home, it is difficult to plan time together. At any moment plans may be scuttled due to my illness. A migraine usually means that I go to bed and the family goes on about their business without me.
• I will spend at least one hour a week with each immediate family member that currently resides at home. This does not mean that is all the time they get, but rather that in addition to smaller amounts of time spent together, I intend to spend at least one hour of one-on-one time each week as they are able.
• I will work with each person to plan our time together. Examples of time together could be walking, going out to eat, exercising together. Or my serving them in some way such as back or foot massages.
• I will take time (several times per week) to call, text and/or Facebook my daughter and son who are currently away at college.
• I will call my parents and my brother at least once a week.

• I want to cultivate my relationships with my friends. My relationships with my friends has suffered due to my chronic illness. I don't see them very often, and when I do they don't know what to say to me. My friends have all but stopped calling to invite me to ball games and other functions.

• I will find ways to communicate with my friends via phone,email, texting, Facebook, church  and local activities.
• I will attempt to spend time with one or more of my friends at least once a month.

If you have suggestions for things that could be added to this portion of the outline, PLEASE feel free to send me your comments. My next post will examine my Spiritual Goals.

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Goal Setting Tips

I'm writing it. I'm seeing it. I'm believing it, but, I'm just having trouble getting started. Having trouble getting my head around it. I'm trying to tell you how important it is and yet I'm having trouble setting goals for myself. Maybe my first goal should be outlining my goals in smaller pieces that will make the overall task much more manageable. Join me over the next few posts as I attempt to put my goals down.

Dr. John Ingram Walker in the Summer 2010 issue of LifeWorks, breaks the goals up like this;

Family, spiritual and personal goals
Personal goals are those outside of your career path and often have to do with family, friends and personal growth. List specific objectives you want to achieve in:

1. Your relationships
2. Your spiritual life
3. Your leisure time/relaxing/learning/volunteering

Focus on activities and the amount of time you want to give to these activities. Be reasonable with these areas and then live up to your plan. Take the steps - not leaps - needed to meet your goals.

Career goals
Career success requires a game plan and persistence. Most of us make career wishes or we follow career goals mandated by our companies. We fail to make and write down specific plans for our professional life, such as how to meet our goals and feel successful.

Ask yourself what your goals are for your career. Be specific. How can you advance your career in the next 12 months? What do you want to accomplish in the next five years? What are your lifetime career goals?

Self-improvement goals
Success in life depends on a steady pursuit of self-improvement. Read books that improve your attitude and people skills for 15 minutes every night. Reading just before you go to sleep allows the words to sink into your unconscious. Reading positive literature daily helps dilute the negative in your life. Listen to educational cassettes or disks when you are driving in your car. Join Toastmasters, or a group like it, to help set your words – and your career – on fire. Learn a foreign language.

Goal Activity List
To achieve your goals, act. Act now! Without action, your dreams are worthless, your goals are wishes and your plans are ashes. Action alone gives worth to your dreams. Your actions describe you.

Plug away at the daily activities that fulfill your dreams. Through self-discipline, you can gain the maximum benefits from your time. Cultivating a strong, healthy routine supports a successful, fulfilled life.

Your activities become habits. Habits become your character. Your character becomes your destiny. Become a slave to good habits. Doing the right things right develops strength of character that leads to success.

Routine activities develop habits that will help you achieve your goals and your dreams. If your goal is to write a book in one year, one of your daily activities would be to write a page a day. If you wanted to make a million dollars in annual sales, one of your activities may consist of making 10 sales calls daily.
Focus your activities on those things that will help you achieve your goals. Make a list of activities that you will do daily or weekly to accomplish your goals and do them every day, every week, every year.


LifeWorks is written by John Ingram Walker, M.D., director of Psychiatric Education at Carilion Clinic Saint Albans Hospital. www.CarilionClinic.org

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I'm Just Saying

I'm just saying. Or, more to the point, I haven't been saying much of anything. One of the side effects of having a chronic disease can be depression. Sometimes it's hard to determine where my migraines end and depression begins. I have been remiss in my blogging for the last few months. Yes, I posted a few articles, but not as many as I would have liked.

It's not that I don't have anything to say. I go around all day with thoughts of what I would like to write about. Ideas for a lot of things, blog and not blog related. But when I sit down later to put them in the void of posterity, I dry up and can't remember any of the turns of phrase, stories, and other ideas that seemed so important to me during the day.

It may seem obvious to keep a journal throughout the day, but that requires discipline. I have discipline in a very short list of things. I routinely brush my teeth, eat and take my medicines when I am supposed to. There may be a few others, but you get what I mean. Also, it is difficult to take time to make notes when you are suffering through a migraine. Pain can really make it hard to concentrate and later remember the thoughts I had.

I'm not a lazy person. I just find it hard to express myself when I'm not feeling well. I have a lot of ideas and thoughts throughout my day, but then can't find them in my brain when the time comes to put them down in an article. Today, I make a conscious effort to try harder. I hope to keep my journal and put my thoughts down in the written words of my blog.

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Happiness Is A Hard Skill To Master

Juggling, riding a unicycle, bathing a cat, playing the game GO, and raising one eybrow are all hard skills to master. I can raise either eyebrow and juggle at the same time. Happiness is a hard to master, but here are components that we can practice to hone our skills.

According to former American Psychological Association president, Martin Seligman, there are three components of happiness: positive emotion, engagement and meaning. Positive emotion involves our longing to feel good about the past, present and future for the longest time possible. Positive memories have been linked to feelings of happiness and can defend against depression. In order to promote our own positive emotions, we need to look at our past with satisfaction and appreciation. We need to look forward to the future's potential with hope and confidence.

Engagement, the second component of happiness, indicates deep involvement in our work, leading to involvement of your total attention and enjoyment in the activity. We need to enjoy the things that we do. Lack of engagement has been corresponded with, and causally linked to depression.

Martin Seligman states, that we pursue meaning, by using our best strengths “to belong to and serve something that one believes is bigger than the self." We gain satisfaction through using our abilities for a greater purpose. We need to believe that our actions count for a greater good.

These three things can be hard to juggle in our lives. Practicing these "components of happiness" may also help to live a life filled with love:

• Keep a list of the good things that have or are happening in your life. Start with the past and add to the list as you go.
  
• Make a list of your strengths and ways that you can use them daily. Visit authentichappiness.org for a list of character strengths.
• List some things for which you would like to be remembered. 
• Take time to complete and enjoy a daily task. Feel good about getting something completed. Start with a small task and then go bigger.
• Say "Thank You" often.
• Smile (a lot).
  

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Living And Working To Regain Our Lives

Unfortunately, the rest of the world cannot see the waves crashing over our heads or the water pulling at our feet. Our foothold on a slippery deck that wrenches at us everyday.  Trying to determine if "our work" is for the profit of regaining our lives or simply making it through the day.

No matter how hard it is to overcome the unfortunate bad days forced upon us, by an invisible illness, we must keep our balance. Even if the center of gravity is changing at a daily rate. Work is work, whether you travel to and from work outside or inside the home. Gain is gain, whether it be money or satisfaction. We must learn and teach others about our strife and successes. Our work, even if only to get out of bed each day should be counted as profit. Regaining our lives requires hard work. One thing we each can do to help ourselves, is to keep a diary/calendar to note the weather, possible triggers, and pain levels of each day.

Keep the faith.

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Tired Of Being, An "Interesting Patient"

I've been a migraineur since 1981. I've been to so many specialists that I have run out of fingers and toes to count them on. I have tried so many medicines, homeopathic remedies and diets that I could (not should) write a book. 

So, today, I visited one of my primary care physicians (PCP's) to get new scripts for my current diet of drugs. After the usual barrage of questions and comments. After discussing ad nauseum what I had and had not tried in the past, and as she handed me my check-out paperwork, she told me that I am an interesting patient. She told me she could not believe that some doctor had not taken my case and really explored and hence solved it.

I should be grateful that she takes the time to 'really' talk to me. I did smile, as I agreed and apologetically told her "the only person in the world that cares enough to work that hard, is me. No one person, other than myself will ever work on my case 24/7."

I am constantly doing research, as are many of you. Everyone I talk to has heard of a cure, most of which I have tried. I know it's out there. Diligence and hope is what keeps ME going. Keep the faith.

~Andy

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I Don't Wait to Procrastinate.

I have been trying to put a post together for weeks.  I've hit that wall, where I just don't know where to begin.  When I do have an idea for a post, I am usually in the thralls of another migraine. The last 6 or 7 weeks have been very tough, physically, mentally and emotionally (are those two the same?). I have given myself so many reasons why I can't do something (like writing a blog article) and prolonged or pushed back everything on my to-do list.

It's just too easy to come up with reasons for "why not". Too easy to keep myself paralyzed from accomplishing things that I want to do. It seems too hard to shift myself into drive during the times that I am not suffering.

It all must start with a single step, a positive attitude, and pushing myself. I know that if I just take one step at a time, I can accomplish a real life between the lost hours or days of my migraines.

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Migraine; Par For The Course

I've had a rough week. It started alright, but by Thursday, I was sporting the scowl of a migraine. By Friday, it was a grimace and on Saturday, it turned into a full quasimodo migraine. Left eye drooping, slurred speech, and loss of motor control on the right side, were Par for the course.

I have been having three to four migraine days a week since the end of January. A whole bunch better than the seven a week for the eight months before. I have also been blessed in that, the severity has been less than before as well.

When I told my mother that I would be there for her, during her back surgery this week, I prayed that my migraines would let me see that promise to fruition. I needed to be there, six hours from my home, on Sunday. So the Saturday ringing of the bells of Notre Dame was more scary than usual.

But, God provides! I woke up Sunday, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and drove the six hours (a little less due to prevailing winds) with nary a sign of quasimodo. Today, makes four days in a row; migraine free. I am feeling good and confident that I will be able to stay that way for as long as my mom needs me. Praise the Lord.

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Migraine: It Runs In the Family

It has been a tough week. I have been beaten upon by the migraine monster since early Sunday morning. This morning I woke up in pain, but as the day has progressed I've been left with the hangover.

In addition to my in uneventful loss of a week, my oldest daughter spent her week being poked and prodded in an attempt to diagnose her headaches. In January she had four wisdom teeth removed. Since, she has had an onslaught of headaches that are almost certainly a type of migraine. This week saw her getting blood work, a CT scan, and an EEG.

Since many migraine experts say that migraines are hereditary, the odds are not in her favor for these occurances to be isolated. My hope is that her headaches will be short-lived. If they are not, I'm hopeful that my experiences can at least help to find a way to manage her monster.

-- Andy

Migraine: Pain Free Day (PFD)

I wish I had found this heart generator before Valentine's day, but you know what, we should be showing our love, our compassion and our feelings for the one's we love every day of the year.

You too, can generate a heart (image on your computer) to share with others by clicking the link above. After making your heart, you will need to do a screen capture in order to download it. If you are using Windows, click "F3". On a Macintosh click "Command"+"Shift"+"3". After downloading to your desktop, use your favorite graphics program to edit or crop the image to your liking. You may then upload the image or email it to the loved ones in your life. I hope that you had more than a Happy Valentine's Day,

I hope you had a pain free day (PFD).

Migraine: Make It Easy on the Family

I found a series of videos sponsored by Zomig about planning ahead. I tried this medicine, but determined that it was not right for my migraines. Even though this series is sponsored by a pharmaceutical company, the information contained here is priceless.

The video below is about dealing with family. This one hit pretty close to home. I have been trying very hard to make each moment with my kids, and wife, as positive as I can. Everyone in my life is affected by my migraines. I need to remember each of these five things as my family and I cope with this illness; communicate, make peace, stick to routines, love them, and have an emergency kit.



These things are a little different for me; my family is made up of adults. My youngest is 15 and she is much wiser than her age, and my other two are in college. In my communication with my family, I try to keep my pain out of my conversational voice. Too often, the pain in my voice seems as if I am mad at the one I am talking to. My tinnitus doesn't help. I sometimes talk too loud, because I can't hear my own voice over the buzz in my brain. My family may take the loudness in my voice to mean, I am mad at them. I need to always communicate my true intentions and feelings.

Making peace, for me, means retreating to my lair. While at the same time, not disturbing the other activities in the house. If I need to go lie down, I just excuse myself and go. The rest of the family knows that I am in pain and they seem to turn down the volume without anyone having to ask (or decree).

Sticking to routines is very hard when my ability to participate is so sporadic. For me, establishing routines for myself helps to survive the daily headaches that have plagued me for so long. I try to go to bed at the same time each night, and wake at the same time each morning. I take my medications at the same time each day. I need to implement a work out regimen that I can keep on a continual basis. Making sure that my inability to participate does not affect the routines of the rest of the family is just as difficult. We incorporate extra time into preparation for our day, in case dad wakes with a headache or has had a headache all night (or all day, or all night and day). The rest of the family works hard at keeping to their own routines despite me.

I love my family. I tell them how much every day. We have little rituals that we use to tell each other how much we love them. Saying, "So Much", in my family will result in a kiss on the forehead. It's a tradition that we have had for a long time, and those two words mean a lot more than "I Love You". I never leave or let my wife and children leave home without telling them that I love them.

Having an emergency kit means two different things to me, the tangible and the intangible. I have a toolbox of items, some of which are intangible. Some of the physical items that I keep prepared are ice packs, medications, and a quite room. The intangible items include a positive attitude, relaxation techniques, and hope.

Making plans is important. I have plans for how to deal with each migraine. As the pain level increases, so also, does my steps and tools for dealing with it. My family makes plans for themselves that do not require them to be at the mercy of my headaches. If dad can participate, fine. If not, I know they are thinking about me and miss me.

Especially when they return with a chocolate milkshake.

Migraine: Hibernate on Groundhog's Day?

I missed Groundhogs day! I was holed up in my bed, suffering through another migraine.

Groundhogs are one of the few mammals that enter into hibernation. This is true, also, of Andy "the migraineur", who has been known to burrow deeply into the dark caverns of the bedroom or even a closet, to escape from the sensory overload and pain. To migraine sufferers like me, the dark burrow that we create is sometimes our only refuge from the outside forces that seek to harm us.

There is actually research into human hibernation. The true science is called H2S induced hibernation. In 2005 there was research done with mice in which they were put into a state of suspended animation. The mice were subjected to this procedure for 6 hours and showed no ill effects. Later attempts to replicate the procedure with larger mammals were not as successful. Maybe they should have used someone suffering migraine or cluster headaches.

It was suggested that "life Tivo" might be a great way to live life when you want, in an article posted in the newsgroup, newsgroups.derkeiler.com, in 2005.

"Tivo for life - This is an extension of the time travel idea - sort of
fast forward when you want, live life when YOU want. Let's say you're a
basketball fan but hate the rest of the year - beep, beep, beep. Treat
the boring parts of life like one big commercial. Live life on YOUR
terms!"

If only I could. I would fast forward through each and every migraine. The downside would be that I would be Tivo'ing through half of my life. But the upside would be that I would not have missed ... Wait, in order for this plan to work, I would have to hibernate my family and the rest of the people in my life as well. Otherwise we would also miss half of their lives. Oh, wait again, I already am missing half of the life of my loved ones. I guess time travel isn't all it's cracked up to be, unless it could truly be like Tivo. Speed me up to the end of the migraine and leave everyone else in real-time!

I want Migraine Tivo !

I guess I'll have to create this new invention. With my new invention I would not ever have to hibernate and miss the living that the rest of my family experiences. Migraine Hibernation would be a thing of the past.

Migraine: Get Up!

I have been a Nik Kershaw fan for a long, long time. His early music was criticized for being too "bubble gum" but I thought the his use of proverbs to be stimulating to my imagination. My favorite song, of his, is "Wouldn't it Be Good", but I re-heard one of his tunes the other day that hit me between the ears. If you haven't heard "Get Up" before, take the time to listen. 

This song exemplifies exactly how it feels, to me, to be suffering from the migraine malady and missing out on life. What hit me hardest was the fact that when the song played off the ipod in the car, my 15 year old daughter pointed out the obvious. "Dad, that song is about you!?".

  I couldn't keep the tears from my eyes. You can hear "Get Up" on YouTube, but this is not the artist's video.  I also found a good book on Amazon.com that I have ordered, but yet to read, with the same title. I'll give a review as soon as I finish it.

Here's the song from Youtube;

Here are the lyrics.

Get Up

It’s dark in there and you’re quite unaware
That the cracks on the ceiling are mocking you
Your airless bag, your dust in a shaft of light
And you think you might
Yeah you might stay there all day

Get up, get on your feet
Get up, don’t go back to sleep
Get up, life is bitter sweet
And it’s all going on without you

You’re safe in there, no sharks anywhere
Not a soul to get you doing what you don’t want
Go on pretend it’s Sunday again, it’s Sunday again

It’s so warm in there, feels like camembert
All the things you’d do if only you had the energy
You bargain for just ten minutes more of this
When a prince’s kiss
Turns you into a swan
Dream on

Get up, get on your feet
Get up, don’t go back to sleep
Get up, life is bitter sweet
And it’s all going on without you

Migraine: Aching

The following is a poem that I wrote some time ago to describe some of the sensations of having a migraine and dealing with it. Tell me if you find any of yourself in this writing.


Aching
Silence broken by a siren
Pounding at my ears.
Driving darkness closing in
Soliciting my fears.

Confusion drumming at my thoughts
Rattling it’s beat.
Pounding down, it
Pins me to my seat.

Helpless to the forces
Gnawing at my strength.
Aching from the torment
And it’s awkward length.

Fighting back, I scream aloud,
As I am prodded by the fright.
I concentrate on memories
To form a new insight.

Complete control awakens now
And stands up to inspect.
It reaches in, removing stress,
Putting calmness in effect.

Stretching soul and limbs,
Shaking off the pain.
I total up my strength
To start the cycle once again.

-- Andy Honaker (1984’ish)

Migraine: It's All About Attitude

Today is my birthday. My first thoughts were that 47 is not one of those special birthdays you celebrate with gusto. Then, I began to think that I was glad to have another, and not have left off at 46. So, today is my BIRTHDAY!! That kind of makes me feel better about this day.

I was given a copy of a newsletter over the holidays and told I should really read it. Yes, it was my wife who thought enough about me to keep sticking it in places I was sure to find it, and later directly in my hand. This newsletter is not published online anywhere that I can find, and it is such good information that everyone should get the chance to read it. The author is John Ingram Walker, M.D., the new section chief at Carilion Clinic Saint Albans Hospital in Montgomery County, Virginia.

Please take time to read this article and leave any comments you may have. I have saved it as a .pdf file, so you will need Adobe Reader to open it. It is worth every second of time you give to it, I know, as it took me four weeks to finally get the hint and read it myself.

... My poor Wife.

I can make my life better in 21 days. My first step has been to quit calculating the scale of my headache and to start calculating the scale of my life. I am doing this by ranking my day, not by the level headache that day (4 out of 10), but by ranking my day as a 6 and knowing that this is a better than average day.

Today is my birthday, and it is a 10!!!

Click either image to download the PDF version.

Migraine: Keeping Hope

I returned from a sixteen hour round trip to Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, earlier this week. Eight hours each way to spend less than seven minutes combined with both a doctor and a nurse. This was a pre-admittance visit. I had tried to handle the preliminary stuff over the phone, but it was a no-go.

Sometime next week I will be going back to Philly and will be staying somewhere between one and several weeks. I am apprehensive and hopeful at the same time. The expectation is that through an IV, they can hydrate and detoxify my system, and then, try several different medicines within a short period of time.

It wasn’t really a New Year’s resolution, but as of the first, I stopped taking any pain medication and I quit drinking caffeine. Caffeine has not been a problem for me, as I usually have a maximum of 1 cup of coffee or a soda in a day if at all. I have quit all together a few times for years at a time. I have done well with no pain meds, and have been able to subsist using meditation and exercise. My thought is that the detox should be simple if there’s not much to detox.

Many years have passed since a doctor has looked me in the eye and told me, with a sense of certainty, that there was something that could be done. Hope. I’ve claimed to have it, but I know I don’t always trust in it.

What is hope? Not desperation, not optimism, realistic hope? Eyes wide open, encouraged, organized, and realistic, faith in a pragmatic outcome is my personal definition (after a day of research). I don’t discount my Christian faith. As a believer in God and Christ, my comfort in the truth of eternity is my hope in an eventual cure. But I have a hope, a practical belief, that the answer to my pain is also in this world. Someone, somewhere has the key to unlocking this mystery.

Is the answer in Philly next week? I am hopeful. But, even if it is not, I still have hope. Five years ago, the word migraine was a shadow without any understanding by the general public. Today, there are more professionals seeking the answer than ever before. I have to keep the hope, and writing this down has helped me make it through another day.

Here are a few of the sites I found helpful today. I am not endorsing, just referencing;

http://changingminds.org/explanations/emotions/hope.htm

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/31/f-vp-handler.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope

http://expreacherman.wordpress.com/2006/11/20/what-is-hope/

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/1986/537_What_Is_Hope/