To Those Who Try to Give Me Advice for Treating My Migraines

First of all, allow me to say thank you. I sincerely appreciate the fact that you are kind and caring enough to want to help me feel better, and that means the world to me. The very fact that you are giving me any advice at all tells me you believe more than some of the neurologists I have seen before. You not only believe my pain is real, you also believe that I should strive for the life that others around me take for granted — a single day pain-free. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told that this life of constant pain is something I need to “just get used to,” so hearing your advice as to how I might be able to end this cycle is uplifting.

Now that we are on the same page, allow me to politely tell you to stop.

Yes, I said it. I realize you are just trying to help, and while there is a chance that whatever fad diet/new supplement/exercise regiment you have tried may bring me some fraction of relief, there is an equal chance that it will make my situation far worse. Every change in my diet, every new supplement, every different medication poses a risk. Even the medications that have given me relief did so at a cost. I had a week-long stay on the headache clinic’s ward of St. Joesph’s Hospital in Chicago to receive an infusion of DHE and largely credit my current ability to function as a relatively normal college student to this treatment, but even this came at a cost. The IV infusion caused nausea so bad I spent more than one infusion throwing up, with my nurses insistent that I couldn’t get anything more than what was already pushed through my IV (aside from a can of ginger ale, of course).