Category: Stories

  • Winning, even when dreams don’t come true

    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…

  • Vincent van Gogh’s pain

    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.…

  • Ghosting, coasting, or boasting: chronic-pain-friends (PART 1)

    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…

  • Breakfast for Dinner

    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…

  • Chronically Empowered Podcast

    Chronically Empowered Podcast

    This morning, I experienced a full-on jump-scare moment. I opened up LinkedIn while I was having my morning half-cup of coffee, ready to read through what other people had posted last night while I slept, and… OH! There was my chitty-chatty face chitty-chatting away in a video clip! You see,…

  • Tarot cards for pain

    Tarot cards for pain

    When I was at university, in my early twenties, I lived in a big share house.  I can’t remember what prompted us, but one of my friends and I began to practice telling fortunes.  She got very good at remembering what all the cards in the Tarot deck meant, whilst…

  • Hairdressers with migraines

    Hairdressers with migraines

    I finally made it to the hairdressers this morning.  After many long months of ‘hibernating’ at home with chronic migraine, I sort of gave up a little bit on my personal appearance and stopped worrying too much about how my grey hair was getting a bit long and lanky.  Even…

  • “Medical retirement” – leaving your job because of migraines

    “Medical retirement” – leaving your job because of migraines

    Dehenna Davison (1993-) was born in South Yorkshire, England. After studying British Politics and Legislative Studies at the University of Hull, she was elected as MP for Bishop Auckland during the 2019 general election. [I hope that’s right, because it comes from Wikipedia and as an Australian, the titles and places…

  • Lady Gaga’s migraine ad

    Lady Gaga’s migraine ad

    A few weeks ago, I did a post labelled ‘migraines as advertised’ that showed several (not great) migraine medication ads from decades ago.  Seconds after I hit ‘publish’ I noticed an article about a ‘controversial’ Lady Gaga ad for migraine medication.  Lady Gaga is well known for her singing and…