Migraine and Headache Disorder Awareness Month

Well, if you haven’t already heard June is Migraine and Headache Disorder Awareness Month. I began the month with participating in the blog challenge, as I enjoyed my first month long blog challenge with HAWMC event,so naturally I was so excited to participate in one that was directed to my condition! But sadly, a pain flare and a VERY busy month made it next to impossible to blog daily. So I do apologize for that!

So to make up for missing the challenge, I’ve decided to write about the different aspects of this disorder that are not commonly discussed..

1. Mental Health and its Consequences

From my experiences, I have seen too many doctors who wanted to blame my pain condition on a mental health disorder, and ignore the actual pain condition.. At the time, I had no mental health problem, but as time went on and wirh little to no support from doctors, I started suffering from what I believe to be depression.

From all of the previous years of health care professionals trying to blame my pain on a mental health disorder, I was afraid to come forward with this
, fearing they would stop looking for a cure for my pain…

Now I cannot honestly say that I worked up the courage to tell a HCP. Because I didn’t… I was lucky to be put on a anti-depressant to help me sleep, that also deals with depression. Now, I know that I will one day have to face my fears of bringing this forward, but for right now the medication is helping with both aspects.

2.Guilt

I have faced overwhelming guilt on more than one occasion while dealing with my condition. I have faced it for numerous reasons, and each person has their own. My biggest source was from my mother. But not from a reason you would assume, but from her kind heart in a difficult situation.. When I get very sick, and end up in the ER, she would often apologize for everything that has happened to me, apologizing that I got sick in the first place, even though she had nothing to do with it.

Another is the burden and emotional stress I place on my family. There is one specific event in which I wish it never happened, as I could not imagine what my mother must have felt… About one week after my headache started, I was in the ER and they had ordered a CT scan as there was no other exam or test they could perform. Due to the continuous migraine I was experiencing, I was showing many of the warning signs for a tumor, sudden continuous headache, dizziness, nausea and papilledema.. It was late so they decided to push the CT to the next morning. As a 12 year old, I wasn’t told about their concerns… They only told my mother, who was all alone with me as my father was away on a business trip.. They informed her and then instructed her to take me home, and get a good nights sleep because tomorrow will be hard. Needless to say, she didn’t sleep that might

My mother just recently told me about this night, and I will never forget it.

I can never express all of my thanks to my mother. She is my rock, and I love you.