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Author Archives: migrainefreeme
Challenge Accepted – My Resilience Playlist
I’ve been challenged to write a-post-a-day for 30 days, but I decided my chronic migraine life is a bit too dull/depressing for that so I’m going to give it a different slant instead: I’ll hit random on my Resilience Playlist … Continue reading
Posted in Resilience Playlist
Tagged courage, hope, inner strength, migraine, motivation, music, playlist, resilience, songs, spoonie life
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When choice gets taken away
Health warning: moaning post – though there is a Gandalf quote to make it all ok if you manage to get through to the end (or just skip straight to that if you like, no-one will know!) One of the … Continue reading
Posted in Living with chronic migraine
Tagged choice, chronic illness, freedom, frustrations, Gandalf quote, migraine, restrictions, spoonie life
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Special delivery
So my new treatment device has arrived… Not only is it good for playing innuendo bingo, it’s also a highly developed new technology that’s recently come on the migraine scene. (You can find out more at gammacore.com if you’re interested) … Continue reading
Posted in My story
Tagged chronic migraine, gammacore, hopeful, new treatments, science, technology, treatment plan, vagus nerve stimulation
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Cloudy skies make better sunsets
We’ve had some lovely weather recently – clear blue skies and bright warm sunshine (which mainly means I’ve been hiding behind curtains in dark glasses like a vampire but that’s totally beside the point). Spring has well and truly sprung … Continue reading
Why migraine-free me?
For the people who’ve recently asked how I got in to blogging and why I called the site migraine-free me, and for others who might have been wondering the same Why do I blog? I write to help make sense … Continue reading
Posted in My story
Tagged blogging, chronic illness, coping strategies, migraine, solution focused approach, why I blog, writing
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Sitting in the dust
Health Warning: not quite as positive as the last one, sorry A strange thing has happened recently. I mentioned in a previous post (Onwards and Upwards) that we’ve seen some progress – instead of the vast majority of time being … Continue reading
Posted in My story
Tagged chronic illness, grief, hurt, loss, migraine, mourning, pain, sadness
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Onwards and upwards
At last I can write a celebratory post 🙂 The combination of topiramate and nortriptyline seems to be working to some extent and there’s finally been a bit of progress. Back in January we set a bold target of having … Continue reading
Posted in My story
Tagged chronic migraine, gammacore, nortriptyline, progress, topiramate
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Easter hope
Happy Easter! I see today as a day for celebrating new life and holding on to hope. We have an Easter Tree in our house – apparently it’s a German tradition originally. We hang decorated eggs on branches as a … Continue reading
Good Friday?
I’ve never understood why today is called Good Friday. (Except of course that it’s a bank holiday and in 2 days time I get to eat half my body weight in chocolate – oh yeah!) What’s ‘good’ about an innocent … Continue reading
Posted in Faith
Tagged chronic illness, cross, crucifiction, Faith, good friday, Jesus, redeeming, suffering
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Post poach – secrets of successful chronic migraineurs
A post on migraine.com caught my eye today. It made some interesting points so I thought I’d share it. You can read it here if you’re interested: 10 secrets of successful chronic migraineurs If you don’t want to read the … Continue reading
Posted in Living with chronic migraine
Tagged acceptance, chronic life, chronic migraine, strategies
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Mindful Mondays – Bitter Sweet Symphony
Sometimes life can seem wonderful, the sun is shining, we’re on top of the world and everything’s going our way. Then at other times the walls come crashing down, we’re left desolate in the rubble of the blows life has … Continue reading
Posted in Mindful Mondays
Tagged chronic illness, chronic migraine, good and bad bits of life, mindfulness, pain management
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One year on…
Today marks an anniversary of sorts, though not really one I want to celebrate. It was one year ago today, on the evening of Sunday 16th March 2014 to be precise, that the first full migraine struck after coming off … Continue reading
Posted in My story
Tagged chronic migraine, migraine, migraine fighter, my story, pushed to limits, spoonielife, still standing
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The Code
After the Mystery Option C and Dilemma posts, my friend Tony had an idea – if I found it difficult to talk about how I was actually feeling, perhaps I could use some kind of visual symbol or code, like … Continue reading
Mindful Mondays – Primary Pain & Secondary Suffering
Sometimes life sucks. And there’s nothing we can do about it. Or is there? It’s inevitable that we will run in to testing times at some point in life, whether that’s in health, relationships, work, finances, or something else. These … Continue reading
Mindful Mondays – an introduction
I’ve mentioned a few times I’ve been using mindfulness over the last couple of months and it’s been really helpful. A lot of people have shown an interest in it and have asked for more info so I’m starting a … Continue reading
Posted in Mindful Mondays
Tagged chronic migraine, migraine, mindfulness, pain, pain management, spoonie, spoonielife, wellbeing
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It’s not all doom and gloom
I’m aware that my posts have been a bit more negative recently. I’m not sure whether I should apologise for that or not – I did say I’d be honest after all. But I do want to redress the balance … Continue reading
Mystery Option C
Thank you so much to everyone who responded to the previous post Dilemma, either in person or online. I’ve really appreciated your honesty on how you talk about (or more often don’t talk about) invisible illnesses with friends and family. … Continue reading
Posted in Friendship, Living with chronic migraine
Tagged chronic illness, chronic migraine, invisible illness, migraine, spoonie, spoonie life
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Dilemma
Migraines are invisible. Which means no-one can see just how much devastation they cause. On the inside, it’s like a big-budget disaster movie. Tornados wreak havoc, tsunamis broil out of control, volcanos erupt sky-high. Everywhere you look the landscape has … Continue reading
Migraine-free me 