Chronic Migraine Awareness

Are you aware?

Getting To Know CMA’s Blog Director; Kristi’s Story

I am Kristi Estep and I am the Blog Director for Chronic Migraine Awareness, I also work from home for Discover Financial Services and Tori Belle Cosmetics. My husband and I have been married for 31 years and we have two adult daughters and four fur babies (3 dogs and a cat).

I had my first migraine with aura at the age of twelve, but have had headache for as long as I can remember. Migraine disease is very prevalent in my family and unfortunately I have passed it down to my daughters. I remained episodic with migraine until July of 2016 when I woke up one day and the migraine has never truly gone away. I am, however, much more functional now than I was for the first three plus years of being chronic. At the end of 2021 I made the very difficult decision to leave my job of 27 years at Lake West Medical Center due to my health, working from home has been a big blessing for me.

It was in one of my darkest days that I began my search for people like me living with chronic migraine. At that time, the first person I found was Erica Carrasco aka AchySmile and felt an instant connection with her. This lead me to Chronic Migraine Awareness and at first I just watched and read everything, from the outside, but a couple months later I signed up for CMA’s ARMS volunteer program. This began opening doors that helped me find my voice as an advocate and grow into a semi decent writer and blog director. I sincerely enjoy bringing your stories to life on CMA’s Blog!

I have had the opportunity to attend Headache on the Hill & RetreatMigraine. I also have participated in Miles for Migraine, CHAMP sponsored ECHO training and Community Leader with Shades for Migraine. I hope to continue growing with my advocacy work in the future.