People ask me things about chronic migraines all the time. These are the typical questions I get.
How often do you get migraines?
Every day, man. Every day. But with medication and other treatments like Botox and the Oska pulse I do get less INTENSITY. Which isn’t something people ask, because they don’t think about it. But when you have pain all the time, intensity is a Big deal.
How do you get migraines that often?
I know it doesn’t make sense. How can they be that frequent, right? Well 4% of people with migraines go chronic which is more than 15 migraines a month and some of us do go daily or practically in my case, since I get days of. Thank god for that. It has to do with central sensitization. The brain becoming more sensitive to triggers. Essentially pain begets pain.
How can you manage all that pain?
Beats me. How can I not? Not much of an option being given out. Or is there? No? Well, then I guess I have no choice.
What is an aura like?
Surprisingly not all auras are visual which people assume. But in the case of visual they can be like a lot of things. Waves of multi-coloured sparkles arching across the vision. A pulsating vortex in the center of my vision that reminds me of a flower opening and closing. Black spots. White spots. All sorts of spots. Sparkles. Very sparkly. Or like looking through heat. Or warpy, where lines move when they shouldn’t.
Oh but what about not visual? Tingles on the skin. Numbness. Aphasia. Auditory hallucinations. Tinnitus. Hearing loss. Olfactory hallucinations where you smell something really foul or weird and have no idea your brain is misfiring. Same with taste.
Why can’t they do anything about your migraines?
Oh, they tried. And tried. And tried some more. Chronic migraines are complex and it is hard to find the right treatment that will work. I was lucky when I found something that is now working for intensity. Two decades it took for That.
How long have you had them?
I was diagnosed when I was 20. I am now 40. What? No, I am Not Old. 40 is the new 30. Even if I feel like 80. I will totally rock 80 when I feel like 80.
Brainless Blogger 
I feel you! People just don’t get it! My boyfriend doesn’t think that I have migraines as much as I do, because he had a “migraine” once and couldn’t get out of bed for a day and I can function somewhat every day with them…well, try having them daily for 19 years? You have to learn to function…you can live in bed man!!!!
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Totally! There is a difference between episodic and rare migraines to frequent and chronic migraines. We have chronic pain. So we have to find a way to function with them. Sure laying in bed in the dark and silence Is a great way to handle a migraine… but you can’t really do that every day.
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If only we could find a way to help people understand…they will never get it unless they get it and we don’t wish that on our worst enemy let alone the ones we love most….so we just keep trying 😘
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I feel your pain. People just don’t get it.
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