Morning struggle

Getting out of bed in the morning is a carefully staged process for most people dealing with chronic migraines.

Stage 1: Prop your upper body up, elbow high, from your pillow. This is to check your pain level. Either your head is pounding too much, or the level is low enough to let you stand. When I have a minimal pain day I continue onto stage two. We will discuss maximum pain levels in a later chapter. Stage 2: Sitting fully upright on the bed, feet still under the covers. This stage is somewhat of a double check for pain and a first check for nausea. Again focusing on minimal pain levels I would move right along to stage three. Stage 3: Time for the feet to touch the floor. Even on my minimal pain days, this is the most excruciating stage. I get shooting pins and needles in my feet that make it extremely difficult to walk. However, it usually wears off in about two to three hours. Knowing that it will go away is the only motivation I have to move on to step four. Step 4: Standing. Reaching this step means you are officially out of bed. On a relatively good day these four stages only last two to three minutes. On a day when the migraine pain has come to stay, the stages can last hours, if not all day.

Most times the lack of energy, or complete willingness to put yourself through the pain, leads some sufferers to keep pills by their bedside, or as a last resort, to wake someone else up to get their pills for them. I can tell you I have done it myself. I keep my pills in a blue plastic pencil case in my purse, that is the perfect size for my pill bottles, so I have them when I need them. I am not ashamed that I have sent my 13 year old daughter to bring me "my blue bag" from my purse, my fiancé has also been my gopher (go-for). Sometimes when a migrainer needs relief, they will ask anyone capable of understanding and following directions to help them.

This is an okay thing! Every now and then even "normal" people need help. Asking for someone to bring you medication does not make you weak. Asking for help is a perfectly acceptable option when you are too sick, or in too much pain, to do it yourself. Chronic migrainers aren't superman/superwoman. Asking for help is not going to kill us. Every now and then, even the strongest person is dependent on something or someone.

We need to change the way we look at ourselves and our disease. Yes, our disease is a hateful thing to live with, we may resent all the times it takes us away from our family, we may loathe the fact that there isn't a quick fix for us, we probably harbor hostility towards this disease because it doesn't "show" when we suffer every day, but we definitely do not wish this on our worst enemy, and definitely not on our children (who are the most likely to get it). We need to come to terms with all of that, and find our own way to rise above it, and make this world a better and more tolerant place for everyone.

There is a migraine group on Facebook that is doing just that. The name of the group is HeadsUPMigraine, and they are hard at work to get chronic daily migraines placed on the disability list for social security. They are busy cultivating contacts in senators offices to help chronic daily migraine sufferers get on disability, they are also a great support network for anybody tackling this disease. Do yourself a favor, check them out HERE (if the link doesn't work for you, search them out on Facebook) and see what they are doing for you.

"Please, don't judge. You don't know what it took for someone to get out of bed, look as presentable as possible, face the day, & face the world. You know nothing of their daily struggle." - Chronic Illness Awareness