Category: Stories
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Make a wish (on an old lady)
When I was a child, it was fairly standard to spot the golden yellow flowers of a dandelion in unmown grass, head over, and gently pluck out one of the fluffy-seed-puff-balls. Then you would blow on the poor uprooted plant and make a wish as you watched the winged-seeds fly…
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The year 2025 in review
>>Ta-toot-ta-tooooom<< (that’s me blowing my own trumpet!) Today is another one of my monthly blogging anniversaries. From a very early stage, I promised myself that I wouldn’t wait for BIG milestones, instead, I would celebrate the little inch-stones that occurred along the way. Today I am 23-MONTHS old – early…
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Medical detectives (in art)
Many, many, years ago there was an ad on Australian television that suggested that modern doctors could tell that the model in a Renaissance painting had breast cancer based on some dimples near her armpit. I’ve always remembered it, and it came into my mind again the other day when…
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Feeling a little Picasso-ish
A little while ago, one of my blogging friends, Silver Apple Queen, left a comment on my post “Our Woven Selves” to say that when she thought about migraine metaphors, she imagined her migraines as Pablo Picasso paintings. And if you know anything about his abstract art, it’s not hard…
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Making a monster of your chronic pain
Many, many months ago I wrote about how living with chronic migraine was akin to a horror story filled with darkness and jump scares (here). Elsewhere, I suggested that one way to reduce your suffering was to imagine your migraine-mess as part of a silly sitcom rather than a horrible…
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Serena Williams and her migraine meds
Serena Williams, tennis-player extraordinaire, has been in my news feed quite a lot lately. Seeing her name reminded me of a little itch in the back of my mind about a story from 2024… something to do with migraines… medicine… and complaints… I went looking, and here’s the first article…
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Feeling lost… and found
Only a brief post today…. and a trigger warning since I talk about death… * * * * * While I was down the coast some time ago, I went to the beach to walk the dogs. I wasn’t in a great mood. I knew that a walk on the…
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Darwinian migraine madness
Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is often summarized down to a key concept: “survival of the fittest”. Given this fact, I have often wondered why – given how much migraine reduces functionality – why has migraine not been “bred out” of humanity…? Surely when our ancient ancestors needed to pack…
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Lessons learnt from Icarus
When I was young, I was an enormous fan of Greek Myths and Legends. I was in awe of Zeus on Mt Olympus looking down on humanity, and adored the idea of Apollo, the sun-god riding a gilded chariot across the skies. Soon, single words were enough to conjure up…
The Mindful Migraine 