I joined this forum looking for others' experiences with migraines, as well as to communicate with others who understand the frustration of being told to "just take an aspirin."
I'm 16 years old, have had migraines since I was 10 and bad ones since I was 13. I'm going into 11th grade, and am, most likely, going to have do cyber school for the 3rd year in a row. The official diagnosis is "idiopathic chronic daily migraines." Other diagnoses (such as occipital neuralgia) have been tested by my doctors and disregarded/disproven; mostly by failed treatments. I've done physical therapy, biofeedback, botox injections, nerve block injections, acupuncture, and a DHE treatment. I've been prescribed a myriad of drugs (and special diets), most of which have done little. There's no pain medication that hasn't been hit and miss for me. As much as I dislike the lack of social interaction that comes with cyber school, getting work doing work at my pace (meaning when the pain is less) does take away some stress and therefore help halt the circle of suck.
My older sister (17) is depressed, has PTSD, and recently had a diagnosis of severe POTS. She did cyber school along with my last year due to fainting in school several times.
Despite all of the failed treatments, I'm still optimistic thing swill get better. Both my sister and I's conditions are ones that are possible to grow out of, which gives me hope. We've formed sort of our own support system and she's one of my very best friends. I've lost a lot of friends (or rather they've lost interest in me) with not being able to always go out when they want or hold plans with the unpredictability of my headaches, but true friends have stayed and helped me tremendously in the emotional aspect. Another bright spot is my Hahn's macaw, who's really become a therapy animal for me.
So that's my long and slightly whiny story. I hope you all have a brilliant and pain free day!
