If you know me well, you know that I love to dance! Dance and music are huge passions of mine, they are my therapy, they help ease my stress level, and overall music and dance make me happy. I love to be happy, even in the most dire situations, I always try to find that little snippet of positive hidden beneath the stress, burdens, hurt, and pain. I try to focus on the positive instead of focusing on all the negative things. I know that I am not perfect at this. I know that I have my days, where I too say, "woe is me, why me?" I might complain about it, I might cry at times, but we all have our days.
Voicing my "woes" is healing for me. I don't like to keep things bottled up. I like to talk about whatever is bothering me. If my issues involve a person, I like to talk to the person directly and try to get it taken care of. I don't like to hurt anybody, and if I know that my words or actions have hurt somebody, I feel terrible and I try to amends so there are no hard feelings. If my woes are my health, I speak up because I want those that are around me and/or know me best to know what I am going through. I don't tell them because I am complaining and want them to feel sorry for me. I speak about it, because I want to educate them so that they will know what to do when I have one of my "flare-ups". There are times when I get an acute migraine attack I become extremely confused, I slur my speech, my words don't make sense, I become disoriented, and parts of my body go completely numb. Many of these symptoms are very similar to a stroke. I don't want my acute migraine attacks to go ignored, because what if I really am having a stroke. I have educated my children and husband how to check for stroke.
As I have stated in a previous post, I keep a copy of all my information on the fridge, so if they ever have to call 911, they can give it to the paramedics. The information contains my name, date of birth, height, weight, medications I am taking and for what reason, allergies and adverse reactions I have had in the past, my blood type, my emergency contacts, a list of all my medical providers with phone numbers and addresses as well, detailed medical history, and a list of all my past surgeries. Is it a little over board? Maybe, but if this will help them narrow things down much quicker, it will benefit me as well as those who are trying to help me. My girls know that if we are the only ones home and they have to call 911, they give that packet to the paramedics as soon as they arrive. I am a "what if girl" and I always like to be prepared. I have a back-up for the back-up, just in case.
Anyways, I share this information because it might make a difference. I know that people get sick of seeing things on my Facebook page about migraines, part of the reason why I started this blog. More often than not, I post information to help spread awareness and education. People may say that nobody reads my post, and maybe they don't, which is fine. But, what if one person reads a post and that person learns something that will benefit him/her. What if the information I share benefits one person? Then all my posts, blogging, meme's, etc. will not have been for nothing.
If my journey can help even one person, then my journey has not been for nothing. I thought I knew a lot about migraines before I became "chronic", but looking back, I was pretty naive. I had no idea that migraines were a very complex neurological disease, that the medical world knows very little about. I spend a lot of my days doing research on the latest studies and such, and if my research helps one person, then I have not wasted hours of research for nothing. Why bother? I bother because if only one person becomes aware of how debilitating and painful migraines are, that is one more person that is now aware. I will make a difference in the migraine community, even if I only help one person. I am not suffering in vain. I have things to learn, I have things to share, and I am NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GOING TO GIVE UP!!! I will sing, I will dance, I will write, I will speak, I will do whatever it takes to change the stigma of migraines and spread awareness!
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