Is Illness-splaining a thing? | Chronic Migraine Ellie
I'm a college-aged girl trying to figure out my life with chronic migraines.| chronicmigraineellie.blogspot.com
I'm a college-aged girl trying to figure out my life with chronic migraines.| chronicmigraineellie.blogspot.com
BackgroundIf you've been on social media recently, you may have seen the rise of green light therapy for pain relief. While it may seem new in the migraine world, the effects of green light therapy are well-documented. According to Dr. Bing Liao, a neurologist at Houston Methodist Hospital, green light can change the level of serotonin and alter the endogenous opioid system, a pain-relieving system, throughout the central and peripheral nervous system, gastrointestinal tract, and immune syste...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Today is Shades for Migraine Day! It’s part of Migraine and Headache Awareness Month (#MHAM2020) to raise awareness about living with migraine. Post your photo on social media with the hashtag #shadesformigraune and challenge 3 friends!| Chronic Migraine Ellie
It's been a while since I've written a blog here. In the past year, I wrote a thesis that got high honors, graduated college, moved to a new city and started a full-time job, all while navigating my life with migraine disease. I've joined Migraine.com as a writer and Lyfebulb as a patient ambassador. This past week, I co-hosted #MigraineChat with Beth Morton (My Counterfactual Brain) and talked about migraine advocacy. Since Headache on the Hill (HOH) is next week, I wanted to take some time...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Yesterday, I tweeted about how writing a thesis with chronic migraine has been one of the most difficult things that I've done. It got an outpouring of love and it just so happened to be on a day that I finished the first draft of my body chapters. I was already feeling good, and I'm a month out from my final deadline. But it hasn't been like this for the whole process. I feel like I don't read enough about young adults with chronic illness going through school/university, so I thought that I...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
In June of 2018, I took my first dose of Aimovig, one of the new CGRP medications. I livestreamed on facebook about taking my first dose, posted about how excited I was to try it and then haven't talked about it since. I've always been one of those unlucky people with medications where it either has terrible side effects or it works for a bit and then isn't effective anymore. I was excited to try Aimovig, but also completely terrified. What would happen if it didn't work? Even more terrifyin...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
There's a state that migraineurs know that's an in-between of being functional and non-functional, where you're alive, but not completely there. You're able to complete small tasks and make small talk, but still are forgetful and can't fully focus. It's almost like there's a haze of brain fog surrounding you and no matter how much you rest and sleep and do everything that you're supposed to do, you don't get better.| Chronic Migraine Ellie
As I'm preparing for my second Headache on the Hill, I've been reflecting on how I got to the place where I am. Being a patient advocate is something that I never saw myself doing, especially when my health was at its worst. At the end of the day, being a patient advocate is about sharing your story. The more that I told my story to people in my life, and then to people that I met, the more I realized that my story and my experiences impact other people and how they think about migraine and c...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
It's been a while since I've sat down and written a blog. 2017 was a monumental year for me in so many ways. To start off, I am a lot healthier and more active than I have been in the last 6 years. I participated in Headache on the Hill 2017, which was one of the most exciting and fulfilling experiences that I could have attended. I'll be back this February for HOH 2018! This summer, I lived in Washington D.C. working full-time at a start-up healthcare company named Aledade Inc. at which ...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Hello hello!| Chronic Migraine Ellie
This week, I interviewed Courtney Kilian, founder of Om & Ink! I am excited to share her story with you all, because she is such a wonderful, positive soul. Her story and her work is also inspiring- and you will see why in her interview! | Chronic Migraine Ellie
#day3 of #mham17 is about comorbid disorders and migraines! Migraines often come with other health problems, including mental health issues as well. Feelings of guilt and shame about having migraines and headache disorders often compound the hardships of chronic illness, and may people feel scared to reach out for help when they need it. If you know someone with a chronic and/or invisible illness, take a second and think about how you react when they tell you about their pain/medical prob...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Welcome to #MHAM2017, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month! Last year was the first year that I participated in #MHAM. It was an amazing experience, albeit a difficult one, so I'm excited to do it again this year! A couple general announcements: every week I will be compiling the facts, pictures, and infographics and putting them into a blog every Friday. Secondly, there is a new event during MHAM this year that I am a part of that I would love to share with all of you! Shades for Migraine...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
So a little life update: I cut my hand pretty badly and had to get 5 stitches in the palm of my right hand on Friday. As I am right handed, this makes things pretty difficult (I'm typing with my left hand). That said, with finals, moving out of my dorm and stitches, blogging is going to be on the backburner for a bit. However, I have some great plans for the summer for all of you, including another Facebook live! Stay tuned for updates, but I wanted to let you all know why I haven't really be...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
A lot of people ask me how I can be so happy when my life always feels like such a mess medically. Something is always wrong, I always seem to be fighting for something and on top of that my personal life feels like it is always changing, for better or for worse. My mom jokingly calls me Pollyanna because I seem to have such an optimistic view of life for most things. I always say that if I got stuck on the negative parts of my life, I would be constantly depressed. That's not to say that I d...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
After meeting so many amazing and inspiring people from Headache on the Hill and other people| Chronic Migraine Ellie
By Dr. Mark Khorsandi| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Every morning, I wake up and assess how I'm feeling. Some days, I can't move from my bed. Other times, I can pull myself up and somehow can get to class. My clothes and my makeup provide a mask that helps me get through the day. I don't know what it is about makeup, but it just helps me to feel like I'm a bit functional. Eyeshadow brightens up my tired eyes. Foundation balances my skin tone, hiding the redness of my skin. Concealer covers up the bags under my eyes, hiding my lack of sleep. Bo...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Self-care is important. As I sit here, writing this, I am recovering from almost a week of straight migraines. I'm exhausted. I have 3 million things to do. I have book reviews to write, jobs to apply to, events to plan and schedule and yet, here I am, listening to music and writing this blog post. For years, I put my academics and activities above my health. When I wasn't able to read or write, I would still try to push myself to try and study a bit or write a paragraph of the essay looming ...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Hello everyone! I will not be posting this week, but I am going to be doing a Facebook Live with Migraine Support this Sunday, at 12 pm EST! Go to their page to watch and you can rewatch it later on their page!| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Coming back from Headache on the Hill, my sleep schedule was completely out of wack. Between my crazy travel day on Sunday, my early morning and late flight on Tuesday, I was exhausted. It wasn't surprising that after all of the activity, I crashed and had a migraine last Wednesday. I was exhausted for the rest of the weekend, but overall I dealt with it.| Chronic Migraine Ellie
I am still running off of the adrenaline of HOH 2017 earlier this week. Headache on the Hill is an annual lobbying event by Alliance for Headache Disorders Advocacy. This year was the first time that I participated, but it will hopefully be the first of many.| Chronic Migraine Ellie
A year ago today, I was hospitalized for a blood clot (Deep Vein Thrombosis) in my right upper arm. I wrote about it a week later for my blog, and dealt with the emotions for months after. A year later, I'm still dealing with the emotions and problems associated with having a traumatic medical experience.| Chronic Migraine Ellie
In the past couple weeks, I've done a lot of reflecting. I've been thinking about healthcare in America, and how legislators have been approaching healthcare. When many legislators think about healthcare, it falls into partisan territory. The Republicans did x. The Democrats did y. Each party feels the need to rescind and de-legitimize what the previous party did. Currently, this is playing out in the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (commonly known as Obamacare).| Chronic Migraine Ellie
Last June I was told that I had a hole in my heart. A Patent Formulae Ovale is a hole in the heart that did not close after birth and is found in approximately 25% of the people. It's actually pretty normal. So normal that there are minimally invasive surgeries to repair it. Upon hearing this new, I became excited. There was a study done at UCLA that showed some promise in patients who had PFOs and migraines if the PFO was closed. Normally, people don't get excited when they find out that th...| Chronic Migraine Ellie
