Chronic Migraine Awareness Inc. is pleased to present part five in our series, written by Emily W.
My name is Emily and I grew up in a suburb of Atlanta, GA; I love yoga, hiking; good beer, wine and food. I have a Ph.D in Higher Education Administration, and have worked as a college administrator for almost 15 years.
Growing up I can remember having “bad” headaches as a child, but I wasn’t
“officially” diagnosed with migraine until I was in college. It was then
that I began seeing neurologists; once a year, usually, just to check in and
make sure that there had been no major changes in my headaches. I would call
the headaches at this time “mild and occasional”; I would get them once every
few months, and I could take some medications and fall asleep.
I became a person with chronic migraine in February 2014. My husband and I
were in a minor fender bender (no one was hurt) and two weeks to the day of the
car accident I awoke with an AWFUL migraine…It was discovered that in the car
accident I had herniated a disc at C5/6. I had my first cervical spine surgery
in June 2014.
The surgery went well, immediately I awoke from surgery with no headache and
no nerve issues…it was considered a success! Less than 6 months later, all the
symptoms came back but this time MUCH worse. I had to step away from my career,
because I spent most days in a dark room. It was discovered that the two
discs above where I had my prior surgery had herniated. In May 2015, I had my
second spinal surgery, this time at C3/4 and C4/5. The next year or so seemed
to float by in a blur, I was in constant pain from the surgeries, which had
made my upper back and neck muscles to basically turn into concrete. I again
was having terrible migraine attacks, debilitating to the point that I barely
left the house.
I began seeing a headache specialist in 2016. I was still having awful
daily migraine attacks. He suggested that perhaps, with all the trauma of the
surgeries, that I could have some impinged nerves at the base of my skull. In
September 2016, I had bilateral occipital nerve decompression surgery. All in
all the surgery did seem to help with my daily migraine, but I still just
didn’t seem to be able to get them under control. I was seeing an acupuncturist
and a massage therapist twice a week. I would say at this point I was having a
migraine attack at least several times a week, which was SO much better than
before, but still hard!
At this point in our lives, my husband and I decided we needed to try to
really start our family, we were 37 at the time. In the midst of all my
surgeries, we had been trying to have a child, but with no success. After my
final surgery, we made an appointment to meet with a fertility doctor, who
indicated the BEST chance for us to get pregnant was to do IVF. So in March
2017, we went through our first round of IVF, and were successful. We were pregnant. EXCEPT, my headaches seemed
to be worsened by the pregnancy. The next 10 months were an absolute
blur.
In midst of all this, my husband was
presented with an opportunity that we could not turn down, so at 5.5 months
pregnant, we sold our house, packed it up and moved cross country to NC. In
December 2017 our son was born, I was so relieved. I had been having such
horrible migraine attacks while pregnant, I had hoped that once he was
delivered, they would subside.
In 2018, I was having daily intractable migraine. I barely left my bedroom, and could hardly care for my newborn. I began seeing a doctor who could not figure out why I wasn’t responding to any treatment. So, in December 2018 I was referred to an inpatient headache program in Ann Arbor, MI. This inpatient program, quite honestly, saved my life. I stayed ten days in the program, where they diagnosed and treated a CSF leak (Cerebral Spinal Fluid Leak); which could have happened during my delivery, epidural or any one of my spinal surgeries.
Today, I still manage 3-5 times a week migraine attacks. I am on daily
medications that help lessen the length and intensity. But I have found I am
incredibly sensitive to the changing weather patterns in the area of the
country we live in, so I am constantly battling that.
I also am on Ajovy, and get Botox. Both of these seem to be helping
tremendously with the length and duration of the migraine attacks.
I am learning to live within my box. I do not know how long I will be in
this box, but I am equipping myself with tools and strategies so that I can
better manage the attacks.
After leaving the inpatient program, I decided that I wanted to help others
in my situation. This led to me starting my social media accounts. My hope is
that I can help, inspire and motivate others who are trying to manage their
migraine attacks.
My plans for the future are to continue to build my tool belt, take each day a moment at a time and to focus on my health and spending time with my son. I do hope to one day go back to work full time and step back into my career. But, the one thing I have learned over the past 6+ years battling “chronicness” is that your health and family are more important than anything else in your life.
