Migraines make me grumpy! This always helps...
Sweetly snuggling Peaches @ESchnak @somebodyhealme @EmrgencyKittens pic.twitter.com/1nExBZsphH
— Teri Robert (@TRobert) October 13, 2013
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© Teri Robert, 2013
Last updated October 13, 2013.
Good morning to all of my extended Migraine and headache family! It doesn't seem possible that the holiday season has rolled around again, but here it is.
From everything I'm seeing and hearing, I can tell that many of you are having Migraine and headache problems, as am I. You know my very fondest wish is that we could all be instantly and miraculously cured. Since that's unlikely to happen any time soon, my next fondest wish is that each and every one of you find the right doctor to partner with and find successful treatment.
It's not something I've said much about, but my own Migraines have increased since other health issues forced me to cut back on some of my preventive medications last fall, and I'm back to chronic Migraines again. Last week, my Migraine specialist and I took the plunge, and he had the pleasure of adding 31 more little holes to my head in the form of Botox injections. We shall see how that does.
As has become my holiday tradition, I've made donations in honor of the Migraine and headache community as my holiday gift to you. This year, those donations went to The American Migraine Foundation and Clusterbusters.
The American Migraine Foundation has just sent a letter about their plans for next year, and I'd like to share that letter with you:
In this holiday season, as migraine clinicians and researchers who have dedicated our careers to patients disabled with this disease, it's hard not to think of those who will suffer through the holidays and our obligation to contribute to alleviating this suffering. There is little doubt that among our holiday wishes as clinicians the top one is that this time next year we might be able to tell our patients that safer and dramatically more effective therapies are within reach, if not imminent.
While some interesting and encouraging advances were unveiled at this past year's Scientific Sessions in Los Angeles, the fact is that the triptans represent the only specific class of medication designed and approved for migraine in the last half-century. We appear to be, at best, several years away from having newer treatments. It is well known that federal funding for migraine research has been woefully inadequate, and industry cannot make up the slack.
We can do better . . . we must do better. We have the brain trust to move this field forward - what we lack is the funding to do so. So it falls to us in the voluntary health sector to make the right amount of noise in the right way to raise the national funding priority for migraine.
2013 promises to be an exciting year for AMF. We will launch a nationwide campaign to raise awareness and funding support for research. This campaign promises to mobilize the migraine community, public policymakers, well-known public figures, and American business to help us realize our goals. You will hear and see much more about this in the coming year and we hope you will be an active part of this unprecedented campaign. Our goals are to generate the highest possible national visibility for migraine and the need for more research funding -- and to inspire those who make funding decisions to give this disease the attention it deserves. If successful, we also hope to support the development of a national multicenter clinical registry and tissue bio-repository which has the promise of rapidly advance scientific and translational research. In addition, we will continue our quest to facilitate the development and success of academic headache centers around the United States. This will improve patient access to specialty care, facilitate the training of undergraduate and postgraduate medical trainees in the care of patients with disabling headache, and foster collaborative research efforts.
Because you are so integral to our success, we are asking for a donation to AMF. As we near the end of the year, your support can make the critical difference. You can do it by visiting our website at www.americanmigrainefoundation.org/Donation/default.aspx or by mailing us a check at the address below.
We thank you for your commitment to the field, our society, the foundation, and most importantly, your patients.
We wish you the very best throughout this holiday season and a healthy and prosperous 2013.
David W. Dodick, MD, FAHS
Chair, American Migraine FoundationElizabeth Loder, MD, MPH, FAHS
President, American Headache Societyhttp://amex.justgive.org/nonprofits/donate.jsp?ein=43-6058456
PS -- Did you know you can redeem your American Express Membership Rewards points for a donation? For every 1,000 points you redeem, we will receive $10.00. Select the Members Give banner at the link above.
Whatever holidays you may be observing, I hope they're joyful and that you have some pain-free time to enjoy them.
Live well,
Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.
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© Teri Robert, 2012
Last updated December 20, 2012.
Good afternoon to all of my wonderful Migraine and headache friends! I hope everyone is as pain-free as possible and able to enjoy some beautiful fall weather.
Things have been more than a bit busy here, leaving me feeling as if I'm running in circles. In reality, I've been getting a good bit accomplished, but there are times when it doesn't feel like it. In addition to the normal day-to-day things that keep me busy, I've recently had my first experience with attending a meeting on the FDA campus in Silver Spring, Maryland, and will be attending another one next week (more about that in another post). A few weeks ago, it was my great pleausre to attend the Clusterbusters annual conference in Las Vegas and talk with them about advocacy. What a great group of determined, proactive people assembled for that conference! As is usual for this time of year, I'm looking forward to the American Headache Society's Scottsdale Symposium in Arizona next month, but this year, there's an exciting twist. I'll be one of the presenters. Neat!
So, yes, I've been feeling a bit as if I'm running in circles. Yesterday, I was a bit concerned about a good friend who's a fellow Migraineur. Nothing really specific, but feeling as if she could use a bit of a pick-me-up too.
Following this line of thinking, who among us can't use a pick-me-up? That's one way we cope with Migraines after all. Then a great song came to mind. One that always makes me smile and sing along. Lo and behold, I was able to find it on YouTube so I can share it with you.
So this is for all of you, and I hope it makes you smile and want to sing along too!
Live well,
Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.
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© Teri Robert, 2012
Last updated October 18, 2012.
Hello, Migraine family! Watching The Today Show this morning, I heard a musician I'd never heard before, Jason Mraz.
Wow! He's amazing. His style is what I'd describe as a combination of jazz, pop, and calypso, but that really doesn't do him justice. Several things struck me as I watched:
Although I often enjoy the concert series on The Today Show, it's not usually to the extent that it was this morning. This morning, I pulled up iTunes to check out Jason Mraz and ended up downloading two of his albums. Then I checked out his web site www.jasonmraz.com. From there, I went to Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
Thanks to YouTube, I have a little Friday Migraine inspiration gift for you - a video of one of Jason's songs. Take a few minutes to sit back, uninterrupted, and watch it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
I hope you have a happy, safe Labor Day weekend!
Live well,
Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.
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© Teri Robert, 2012
Last updated August 31, 2012.
Today's prompt for the National Migraine Awareness Month is:
Migraine Awareness Month #12 "Let's Do The Monster Mash!" Choose a movie monster that reminds you of your Migraines and tell us why.
While the song "The Monster Mash" is fun to listen and dance to, when I think of my Migraines I think of something more sinister.
I call them The Beast.
There are a lot of reasons why, but because I tend to think about them that way makes this post an easy one for me. Two 1980's movie monsters together fit the bill here...
1. Kurt Russell stars in an old creature feature called "The Thing". In this horror flick, Mr. Russell's character is in an isolated Antarctic research facility when a friendly dog infected with an alien life form is chased into their compound. The alien life form has taken over the dog, cell by cell replicating it and it actually only appears to be a dog. When the dog is alone with the facility's other sled dogs, it begins killing and replicating the bodies of the dogs. Soon, one by one, the life form perfectly takes over members of the crew. No one trusts anyone, and for good reason.
When a Migraine is hitting me, I feel like that life form has taken me over. I have to try very hard to remember who I am and act like me instead of acting out like my head and body makes me want to. I don't want to attack those who are closest to me. I don't want to hurt them. But the nature of the beast in my brain makes controlling this really tough.
2. The movie monster I think overall represents my Migraine beast the most comes from a series of movies that began with the film "Alien" starring Sigourney Weaver.
If you're one of the 10 people on earth that haven't seen one of these, in this film the crew of a space ship goes to an asteroid and finds a large ship filled with eggs. When a crew member comes near, the egg opens and a "face hugger" leaps out and attaches itself to his helmet. When he is found, the face hugger has used acid and eaten its way through the mask and has tightly attached itself to the crewman's face and neck. It is planting an alien larvae down the throat and in the crewmember's stomach. While at dinner, the matured larvae grows and while the crew holds the crew member, down it bursts out of his torso, killing him in agony.
Put one of these things inside my head, and you've about got what a Migraine feels like - something alive and pissed off and completely beyond my control is inside my brain trying to violently split my head open to come bursting out near my eye.
National Migraine Awareness Month is initiated by the National Headache Foundation. The Blogger's Challenge is initiated by www.FightingHeadacheDisorders.com.
To help raise awareness about Migraine, please Tweet this post with the hash tags #NMAM and #NMAMBC and share it on your Facebook page. Thank you!
Ellen
This has nothing whatsoever to do with Migraines. It's just for fun. I saw this on the Today Show this morning, and I laughed so hard! You have to take a look at this. Enjoy!
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Live well,
Get the latest Migraine and headache news, informational articles, tips for living well, and more in my free weekly newsletter. To subscribe, CLICK HERE.
Follow me on or
© Teri Robert, 2011
Last updated December 27, 2011