2000 Migraineur Misfits Members on Facebook, Happy New Year 2014, and Dedication to those Lost Due to Suicide

 WE'VE ACHIEVED OUR GOAL!!!

#HappyNewYear! We're NOW 2000 MEMBERS STRONG! Help us by sharing this page and ask your friends and family to join you in spreading migraine (all variants), headache, cluster headache, neuralgia, and traumatic brain injury awareness! ~Seizonsha, Founder of Migraineur Misfits and the Misfits Team 

https://www.facebook.com/MigraineurMisfits

#migraine #headache #MigraineurMisfits #invisibleillness #support #suicide

*Our milestone is dedicated to those lost in the fight against chronic migraine to suicide. We're sending love to their friends and families this New Year and always ♥ ~Seizonsha and the Migraineur Misfits Team

Update and THANK YOU

More in this blog is soon to come!  With the start of the New Year, there will be more information added to this site... stay tuned. Until then, please endorse me on the Wego Health Activist Awards.
♥ Thanks for your support!  

I need our migraine community too.  Without you all, I know I would be unable to deal with this debilitating chronic illness. ~"Seizonsha", Gueneviere W., Volunteer Founder of Migraineur Misfits on Facebook

http://awards.wegohealth.com/nominees/gueneviere-seizonsha-founder-of-migraineur-misfits-989

https://www.facebook.com/MigraineurMisfits

Pretty Woman #7, Little Shop of Horrors #8

Pretty Woman #7

Addressing this question is funny because I enjoy using makeup, doing my hair, my nails, and generally looking good even when I feel like crap.  On those migriane days when I am so ill I cannot function though, honestly, I don't really bother.  If I am so sick I don't even want to get out of bed and the thought of sunlight makes me cringe like I am Lestat in the Vampire Chronicles, why try?  

Thank goodness there are not THAT many moments when this happens.  However, even if I am forced to go out, I make sure I have my sunglasses and my hooded shirt with me to prevent the photophobia from making my migraine even worse.  If I make myself, I wear makeup and bring my Relpax with me.  The fear is what keeps me inside though, so if I have to "give in" to it, I try to sleep, take a hot bath and use an ice pack on my head.  Eating mints and using lavender scented  lotions or a light lavender spray helps too if the postdrome phase is making me feel like I have a hangover. 

I have recently started beading when I cannot stand the sight of the computer screen too.  I've made a new page called "Awareness Jewelry by Seizonsha" on Facebook for those times I cannot do my masters college work or write to other migraine and chronic pain suffers on Facebook.  Here is the website: https://www.facebook.com/AwarenessJewelryBySeizonsha  Please visit my page and see the items I create.  I make these-for donations and I do not make any profit from making and shipping these items. Your donations simply spread awareness. I make customized items too. Please have a look at the items and message me and I can give you an estimate ♥

Little Shop of Horrors #8

I love eating anything mint when I have a migraine that does not cause aura or nausea.  Around Christmas time, I collect candy canes and eat them every chance I get.  When it is not holiday time, I keep Altoids (peppermint and spearmint) and mint Life Savers with me everywhere I go.  Nausea is a huge problem for me, so I tend to keep my generic Zofran with me whenever possible.  If I can manage to eat, it's usually crackers or cereal or possible light tasting fish or chicken.  I can never have anything heavy when I have a migraine.

But, if there is anything that is really BAD for me as a migraineur, but that I seek as comfort food, it is ice cream. I love it.  So, there it is.  I admit it.  I am an ice cream addict :)

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project of FightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Premonition: Where I'd Like to See Treatment Options for Chronic Migraine in the Future - We Can Share Our Knowledge

First off, if you are a migraineur, you know that there is no cure.  This being said, I'd like to see a cure!  A real one - not some shoddy attempt to sell vitamins masked in a bottle that says "miracle cure for migraines".  I hate when companies act like their product can just wash all of your pain away by popping a pill.  Such bull.

If there is no miraculous migraine cure, then I would at the very least like to hear more about migraine drugs specifically geared towards treating all phases of migraine and the distinct variants that exist.  More information regarding the possible link between aura and stroke in women with migraines, and a definite confirmation that white matter hyperintensities in the brain caused by migraine do NOT cause long term cognitive decline in the brain.  I always hear "this research suggests" and hypothesis tested on only a small amount of people.  Maybe something longitudinal with thousands of participants.

But who am I kidding?  All of this costs money, and many more people need to sign petitions to the government indicating how desperate we are for more information.  We, as sufferers, need to do anything we can to make our condition more visible, in order to reduce the stigma of migraine.  Many people think migraine is a headache, and it clearly is not.  If we start from there, with us, by simply sharing this information, we are already heading in the right direction.

Do all you can to educate those you interact with regarding all forms of migraine.  We can do it if we do it together.

Gueneviere

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project of FightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Carousel: You'll Never Walk Alone!

Ahh, the merry go 'round of chronic illness....

I was unable to post on June 5th because I was very ill and overwhelmed by both good and bad news.  My brother-in-law died earlier this month and my sister, whom I've been estranged from for over three years, told a family friend about her husband's death and I was devastated.

He was a very nice man.  The last words he said to me directly were on Christmas of 2009.  He said that he knew he was going to die and that he wanted my sister and I to continue to be close.  Well, that actually didn't end up happening and it makes me feel very guilty.  It also set off my PTSD and panic attacks... then I was crying and blubbering for hours, thus, the migraine attacks began.  It's like dominoes or a carousel ride....

Speaking of rides, vertigo really has taken over for me lately during the aura phase of my migraines, and this is unusual for me.  Insomnia has been rampant as well and I think that last week I went for three days without sleeping.  Maybe that triggered the strange green streaky aura and spinning room?  Not sure, but I was finally able to fall into blissful sleep after I found out some GOOD news.

Yesterday I was told that I was awarded SSI! I am still in shock, so I'll just post the link regarding the differences between SSD and SSI, which still confuse me and many of you may want to read about: http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/245/~/difference-between-social-security-disability-and-ssi-disability

So, my emotions are all over the place and I am not quite sure HOW I feel at this moment.  I wish things were different between my sister and I, but if we cannot get along and she tries to hurt me constantly, our relationship is toxic to my psychological and physical health and things are better off this way.  I wish her no ill will, but I have to put my health and MY life first.

Hopefully I'll start to feel more like me as the weeks progress....... gotta move on to Day 6..... and the carousel spins..........................

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project of FightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Finding Nemo: "I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.", Blogger Challenge #4

I am sure I am not the first person to say this, but today's question is difficult.  " How do you keep going in life when Migraine or another headache disorder deals you a difficult setback?"  I guess that depends on what you mean by "keep going"!

I often just fall flat and give in to depression, my migraines, and/or my panic attacks and chronic anxiety... even the PTSD.  It's about what I say to myself to pull myself out of the rut that makes a difference.  I admit that more often than not, despite medications, I am unable to function or even feel because I want to be psychologically and emotionally numb.  Sadly, not only does life and a swift reality check of conscience usually get me moving again, but so does the pain.

Since we're talking about movies, although this topic is about Nemo and how he found himself... If you've seen the movie G.I. Jane, you can recall one of the quotes from the movie that can easily apply to anyone suffering from chronic pain, psychological comorbid disorders, or all variants of migraines, etc.  It is in regards to self-pity or self-loathing.  Here it is:

I never saw a wild thing

sorry for itself.

A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough

without ever having felt sorry for itself. ~By D.H. Lawrence 

I often compare myself to a wild thing for this reason.  I aspire to continue fighting until the bitter end, no matter what that may be.  I hate giving up, and I guess that's because I've made it through so many things before I was afflicted with multiple disabilities... I don't know.  However, I know that, first and foremost, we are all human.  We are in essence, animals with free-will, intelligence, conscience, and the ability to make good or bad choices that can either be beneficial to us or detrimental to us in all fashions.

My own advice to me, which some people may feel is primitive or archaic, is to allow the animal side in you to believe in the fight!  You are a beautiful, magnificent creature, capable of helping yourself, your friends and family, and others if you will it!  Even the slightest gesture can go beyond words.  Materialistic things only go so far, but gifts from the heart last a lifetime. If you don't have it in you to help others, at the very least, be good to yourself.  You deserve self love as much as any other animal or man (or woman) out there.

Sending spiritual healing and empowerment to you, dear readers.

Warmest Wishes,

Gueneviere (Seizonsha) 

June 2013, Migraine and Headache Awareness Month, is dedicated to Unmasking the Mystery of Chronic Headache Disorders. The 2013 Migraine and Headache Awareness Month Blog Challenge is a project of FightingHeadacheDisorders.com.

Image via Google