Lucky for me, I do not need my awareness heightened, since chronic migraine makes itself quite known to me most days, thank you, and today is no exception.
But for those of you unfamiliar with the condition, Teri Roberts has a terrifically informative post over at Putting Our Heads Together. She also offers a very useful definition of chronic migraine:
As defined in the International Headache Society's International Classification of Headache Disorders, Second Edition (ICHD-II), which is the gold standard for diagnosing and classifying Migraine and other headache disorders, chronic Migraine is Migraine or tension-type headache 15 or more days per month with at least eight of those being Migraine. In other words, people with chronic Migraine are in pain more often than not. Some people actually have a Migraine or headache every day. You can read more about chronic Migraine in Chronic Migraine - What Is It?
Today's National Migraine Awareness Month Blogging Challenge prompt is:
I am a little uncomfortable with this challenge, because to me it feels like a plea for favors, with which I am deeply uncomfortable. If you are interested in suggestions made by other bloggers, you can find them in the posts linked in the comments here.
I think the nicest thing a person could do for a chronic migraineur is try to understand. Knowing the ICHD-II definition is an important start, because then you know that a chronic migraineur is not making this up, that it is not in their head, that they are not exaggerating, and that really this is not something that is going to go away tomorrow.
But beyond that, understanding that there are more days than not that a person might not be their best at work, or might not be up for something fun, or might have to cancel at the last minute (again!), or might not answer their phone, or whatever.
And if you happen to run into that person and they have that horrible scrunched-up look on their face, or they seem spaced out, or you've found them lying on their office floor with the lights off, you might ask if you could bring them a coke, or a snack, or something like that.
The thing is, gestures of kindness need not be large to be very, very appreciated.
1 comment:
Dear ISIS: I suffered from migraine all my life, until I learned a big secret. One of the symptoms of magnesium deficiency is migraine. When I began supplementing with magnesium, my migraine problem disappeared.
One trigger always has been barometric pressure changes in advance of powerful high pressure systems, but I rarely have migraines anymore. I still keep OTC migraine med in the house just in case, but it's been almost 20 years and as long as I take my magnesium I'm okay.
My health history is complicated by bad diet, taking birth control pills, early loss of progesterone production, no competent doctors, TIA clot probably caused by B vitamin deficiency at age 29, no competent doctors (I know, I repeat myself but that was a huge negative factor), onset of insulin resistance at about age 40, no competent doctors, cured my own insulin resistance by reading PROTEIN POWER LIFEPLAN by Eades and THE DIABETES SOLUTION by Bernstein, and adoption of a carb-restricted diet (lots of saturated fat and protein, not more than 5 carb grams per meal, no starches, no gluten) and magnesium everyday. I'm 68, feel like a million bucks, and blood tests results prove my health is stellar.
Everything is about what we eat or don't eat, and about minerals and the lack of them.
links:
http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/
http://ketopia.com/
http://brainfuels.com/2010/08/the-seven-effects-of-ketone-bodies-making-them-powerful-neuroprotectors/
http://brainfuels.com/2012/06/the-high-fat-western-diet-is-more-dangerous-for-the-youngsters-than-for-adults/
http://www.magnesium.com/w3/data-bank/index.php?mgw=190
http://www.townsendletter.com/Dec2012/warcancer1212.html
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