So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature

We are now offering IV infusion therapy for migraine! We have done our first Vyepti infusion in our new infusion/treatment room.

Looking for someone to manage your headaches that can be FULLY accommodating? I offer comprehensive headache care - from initial consultation to acute headache treatment to long term management with all treatment modalities. I offer prescription management, referral services for PT/OT, injection therapy, BOTOX therapy, and now IV therapy.

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I’m honored that my new Migraine Specialist is reading and recognizing my book. Thank you, Heidi.

"This is addressed to those who don't want to rent apartments to people with dogs and also to those who won't rent houses to them:

I can't take my dog to the beach for a walk because it bothers you on your vacation. You also won't let me rent a house if I have a dog, and I can't bring my dog on public transport either.
However, I can take my dog through the rubble to find you after an earthquake, into the forest after you got lost in the mountains without a map or GPS, under the snow because you went off-piste despite the prohibition, into the water because you swam despite the red flag, and anywhere else you might need because, in the end, it's just a dog... but it will find you.

Dedicated to all those who don't love dogs."

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"The headache is always there, waiting, and her periods of freedom, however long, always feel provisional. Sometimes the headache simply takes partial possession for an evening or a day or two, then withdraws. Sometimes it remains and increases until she herself subsides. At those times the headache moves out of her skull and into the world..."
- an excerpt from "The Hours" by Michael Cunningham, from "So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature."

After a 42-day migraine, I can relate so well.

With Chronic Pain Info – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

"There are two places in the world that may offer the migraineur sensitive to meteorological and barometric fluctuations some sustained relief: the middle of the Dead Sea and the bottom of the Grand Canyon..." from Catherine Bush's novel "Claire's Head" excerpted from "So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature."

Guess who stole our vegetable out of the fridge and did not want to give it up?!

Here’s a topic I’ve been struggling with since my intractable migraine started 29 days ago. I know the stigmas. I know the invisibility.

https://www.migraineagain.com/what-really-happens-when-you-go-to-emergency-with-migraine/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=ppc&utm_campaign=ma_cs_bot_mig_23845532705370427&utm_content=ma_cs_cid_23850503143400427&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0BMAABHWLLqUh5j7hBp0DKtGedbYUbOF0-japY4xMYttWN2tk-oXkXXpWpWk3W4Q_aem_4AKDXgvGNxfojMTd-urnPw&utm_id=23845532705300427&utm_term=23845532705370427

What Really Happens When You Go to the ER with Migraine What do people with migraine hate more than the pain itself? A trip to the ER with migraine attacks that won’t stop. Personal stories from our community.

With Migraine Again – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

How many of us know this one?!

I'm afraid my recent article for psychologytoday.com hits all too close to home:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/so-much-more-than-a-headache/202407/how-to-know-if-you-are-suffering-from-intractable-migraine

How to Know if You Are Suffering From Intractable Migraine What if your migraine attack goes on for longer than is typical? You may be suffering from intractable migraine/status migrainosus, which will necessitate additional treatments.

Free Migraine Support Community Discover a Migraine community for connection, support, and expert advice – all for free.

I'm afraid my recent article for psychologytoday.com hits all too close to home:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/so-much-more-than-a-headache/202407/how-to-know-if-you-are-suffering-from-intractable-migraine

I'm afraid my recent article for psychologytoday.com hits all too close to home:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/so-much-more-than-a-headache/202407/how-to-know-if-you-are-suffering-from-intractable-migraine

So if I haven't been in touch, I hope you'll understand.

How to Know if You Are Suffering From Intractable Migraine What if your migraine attack goes on for longer than is typical? You may be suffering from intractable migraine/status migrainosus, which will necessitate additional treatments.

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.

Kathy O'Shea

I’m proud to have an article published in the Cefaly blog:

Meet Author and 15-Year CEFALY User Kathleen O’Shea - CEFALY Find out why Kathleen O’Shea, author of So Much More Than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature, calls her CEFALY device “a real gift and comfort.”

In day 12 of an intractable migraine. Of course, I turn to literature to speak for me:

"...a tic throbs in the left temple's
site of bombardment.

Torured syntax, thorned thoughts, vocabulary
like a forest littered with unexploded
cluster bombs, no exit except explosion
ripping the branches...

You take the drugs. Synapses buzz and click.
You turn the bed lamp on, open a book:
reconstrictor and barbiturate
make words in oval light reverberate.
The sky begins to pale at 5 o'clock."

- from "Headaches" by Marilyn Hacker, in "So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature."

"I wanted to describe chronic migraines
as proof
that the chemical operations
in my large brain
are working in an orderly fashion.
I wanted to begin:
My hands are not enough to hold my head..."
--from, "I Describe a Migraine" Iman Mersal,
in
"So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature"

This poet has captured what I'm experiencing today, though the pain over my right eye persists, even after three days and all of the meds I could take. Backing off on those now, so I don't get rebound headache:

"Here's a side effect that's very front and center:
I am forgetting the words for things. It's not a matter

of mistaking the Ash for the Linden, of conjuring
the chickadees to my hand from the Arrowwood...

My head-hurt, that crush of pebbles in a tin pan,
it's still for the moment--but not my forgetting..."

--from "Void and Compensation (Migraine) by Michael Morse, in
"So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature"

Amen.

It’s time for .

1 in 7 people in the UK live with migraine, they deserve better.

The next UK Government need to take migraine seriously and see it as a debilitating neurological condition.

Contact the candidates standing to be an MP where you live and ask them to pledge their support for here: https://migrainetrust.org/what-we-do/policy-and-campaigns/general-election-2024-make-your-voice-heard-for-better-migraine-care/

I’m not quite sure if this is my outdoor water bowl; people are reacting funny to it, but it works. Look how tall I am!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/NW2af8DhfNQk4ZuN/

June is Migraine and Headache Awareness Month:

"The aura is a rumour
of thundner in the distance,
building into a storm
that rattles the shutters
and the beads of the chandelier
before punching a hole
in the load-bearing wall..." Evelyn Lau

From: "So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature"

So Much More than a Headache: Understanding Migraine through Literature Kent State University Press is publishing my anthology "So Much More than a Headache: Understanding

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/so-much-more-than-a-headache/202406/june-is-migraine-awareness-month-take-advantage

June Is Migraine Awareness Month: Take Advantage

My latest article for psychology today.com

Check out my interview on Turning Pain into Strength:

Turning Pain Into Strength | iHeart Is pain a part of your life? How do you keep going when you want to give up? Check out real stories from real people on how they found their life force during the darkest time in their lives.