I had a review consultation via telephone with the specialist at the National Migraine Centre today.

It didn’t bring quite the news I was hoping for.

I was looking forward to talking about things like ‘recovery’,  ‘getting back to full health’ ‘returning to work’.

Instead we talked about ‘managing expectations’, ‘setting realistic goals’, ‘learning to live with a life-long condition’.

Disappointment doesn’t come close.

I’ve been looking at this as an unpleasant but temporary phase.

Turns out it’s more of a ‘from now on…’

There’ll be times when they have more of an impact on day-to-day life and times when their impact is less, but the migraines are here to stay.

It’s been said several times before but I don’t think it had really sunk in until now.

Oh.

In other news, the topiramate (preventative medication) should have reached full effect by the end of February/middle of March, so we’ll know by then if it’s going to work. It won’t take the migraines away altogether but it should make them easier to manage.

Sadly I need to reduce the amount of dizziness/vertigo medication I take, which is going to be horrid and means I probably can’t drive for a while.

Looks like there’s a whole new round of adjusting to do…

But not tonight.

Tonight I shall be mainly eating ice cream and watching Michael McIntyre!