Category: Stories
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“Are you ok?”
In Australia, today is “R U OK” day – and as the website says, it is about “a national Conversation Movement that is equipping Australians with the skills and confidence to support those struggling with life.” Because, let’s face it, life isn’t easy, AND it’s not always easy to know…
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The haunting migraine of Hill House
I grew up in a haunted house. It was a 100-year-old bungalow that was apparently built by a whaling captain. It never occurred to me to be scared, because my parents never showed any concern and kept smiling. My mother laughed about the presence of Old George, whilst my father…
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The face of (dis)ability
OK, so the photo is accidentally very low resolution – and it’s not the most flattering image of me I’ve ever taken – but hopefully it gets my point across. People who are sick are also capable. A while ago I wrote a post about living with brain-fog and in…
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“I have a migraine” is NOT a lie
When I was in my 20s, I worked in the headquarters of a large Australian retail company, project managing the construction of their stores across the country. It was a great job, because I got flown around Australia, and OK, I wasn’t in holiday mode, but I got to see…
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My sister’s pain
A few weeks ago, I posted about being interviewed for a new podcast called Chronically Empowered. About the same time, I did what I guess most people would do: humble-brag. I sent the link to my parents and two younger sisters, saying something like “I’ve started this blog where I’m…
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Winning, even when dreams don’t come true
A while ago I wrote about the Boston Marathon and Mount Everest being common (im)possible dreams. I noted in that post that my neurologist had done the Boston Marathon (I think), and that my friend and I ‘mostly’ made it up the Nepalese mountain to reach Annapurna base camp, when…
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Vincent van Gogh’s pain
There are rumors going around the internet that several ‘alternative’ artists from the past, suffered from migraines with visual-auras. We’ll never know for sure, but I’m skeptical that an artist could have migraines on a regular basis, and no one would record them as being ‘poorly’ in their biographical notes.…
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Ghosting, coasting, or boasting: chronic-pain-friends (PART 1)
This post started out VERY long in its first draft. Whilst I try to do my best to minimize how much I write in one go, (because I’m trying to save my pain-brain and yours too much effort), the issue of chronic-pain-friends is a subject that really deserves a decent…
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Breakfast for Dinner
When I was growing up, our family aimed to have a proper sit-down dinner 6 nights a week. My father would come home, we’d each sit in our regular spots at the dinner table, and as we ate, my sisters and I would recount what we’d done that day, what…
The Mindful Migraine 