One of the clearest memories of my childhood is of a migraine. I was probably eight or nine (it was right after we moved from Alaska to Washington), curled into the fetal position near my Barbie Dream House in the family room. I was sobbing because "my heaaaaaaaaaaaad hurtsssssssss!" Instead of comforting me, my parents had sent me to the family room to cry myself to sleep, which was the only respite from my migraines - either that or I had to throw up. (Which makes me think now, that I had an intense food trigger and the pain would go away if I could just get it out of my system.)

On more than one occasion, my parents would find me wrapped in my blankets in the hallway, in the family room, on their bedroom floor, and even asleep on the bathroom floor after a migraine. Although my mom, her sisters and her mom all lived with Migraine disease, they didn't realize that it could strike children as badly (and oftentimes even worse) than adults. I was a child with migraines.

Through junior high and high school, I lived off of diet Pepsi and Advil - it was the only thing that would lessen any of my migraine pain. When Excedrin Migraine came out, I thought that I had been saved. Three months later I was taking four pills at a time with no effect on the pain and realized that my body had adjusted to the medicine and so I stopped taking it. I went back to diet Pepsi and Advil, sometimes throwing in a Tylenol or an Aleve for variety. Looking back on my high school years, I am so very impressed with myself. I worked part-time, took a full course load, was the National Honor Society Secretary and the German Club Vice President. I volunteered, I traveled, I was an active church member, and I was in constant pain. I slept 5 or 6 hours a night, I ate very little (when I have a migraine, I'm normally so nauseated that even thinking about food makes me want to vomit), and I was miserable on the inside.

My parents never addressed my pain. Never. I bought my own bottles of Advil (so they may never have realized how often I was taking the stuff) and I drank the diet Pepsi on campus (my mom never bought soda!). By my Senior year of high school, it was weird to not have a migraine. I was in pain more often than not ... but didn't realize that I could do something about it.

Freshman year of college was rough - a new schedule - a new living arrangement - and STRESS. My migraines increased, and fewer and fewer things would help them. Sophomore year of college, because health care services were covered by my student fees (I didn't know this Freshman year!), I began seeing Dr. Johnson. She, too, lived with migraines, and I credit this woman for turning my life around. In December of 2001, Dr. Johnson put me on amitriptyline for my migraines, and I broke down sobbing in her office at the follow-up appointment when I told her that I didn't realize how amazing life without pain could be. I couldn't believe how clearly I was able to think, how much more I could get done, how many activities I had never done because of my migraines.

I honestly thought that when people would complain about a headache, they were dealing with the same pain I was. I now know that they weren't. I know the difference between a tension headache, an ice cream headache, and a migraine headache now. I know that I could have been treated years and years earlier, and have lived a fuller life.

Between 2001 and 2006, I had to switch preventative (and abortive) migraine medications over a dozen times. By the time I turned 24, I had probably put more medications into my body than my mother had at 45. My body builds a tolerance to pain medications relatively quickly, and so I was constantly trying to find the right balance of preventives and abortives. I had MRIs, CT scans and spinal fluid tested on more than one occasion during bad headaches. Living in Oregon gave me the chance to even try medical marijuana for the migraines (it dulled the pain but made me so retarded that I only tried it a half-dozen times).

In 2006 when my ex-husband left me, instead of the emotions triggering more migraines, my headaches essentially disappeared. The stress in my life of that relationship was gone, and so was my body's reaction. Growing up I lived with migraines 20 days out of an average month, and now that I have learned to control my environment, I live with migraines maybe 2 days out of an average month.

I stay away from wine, beer (most of the time), too much (or too little) sugar, too much (or too little) caffeine, and try to get the "right" amount of sleep. I take B vitamins, vitamin D, fish oil, flaxseed oil & magnesium as a preventative regimen and nine times out of ten, two Advil, an ice pack and some deep concentrated breaths will lessen the pain in my head. I no longer even have any abortive medications, or even Midrin (which turned out to be the best pain killer for me). I get incredibly frustrated when I have a migraine now-a-days since I don't handle them like I used to. I can't work through the pain, I can't function regularly, and I am no longer "used to" the pain. It's frustrating and encouraging to see my body changing.

My mother and aunts still suffer from pretty bad migraines, and until my Grams' recent death, she did, too. I stay up-to-date on migraine news and within migraine communities because I want to encourage other people who are so tired of the pain - it can be managed - it just takes time.