Working with chronic migraine
Affecting 1 in 7 people, migraine is the second leading cause of disability worldwide – yet it remains poorly understood and frequently dismissed as ‘just a headache’. In reality, migraine goes far beyond a simple head pain – it is a complex neurological condition characterised by a variety of symptoms. In my case these symptoms are: Visual disturbances, nausea, brain fog, sensitivity to light/noise/smell and, of course, severe pain.
Apart from these debilitating symptoms, living with chronic daily migraine brings a lot of stress and anxiety and, while I try not to let the condition rule my life, it is always lingering in the background.
Juggling full-time work with migraine is not easy – particularly in a job with unpredictable workloads and often very tight deadlines. I rely a lot on the support and understanding of my colleagues as I try to manage life with this condition. Being able to work from home has helped enormously – it allows me to control my environment to avoid some of the common migraine triggers, and I have easy access to a darkened room when necessary.
The daily dilemma I face is: To treat, or not to treat? To avoid the dreaded medication overuse headaches, I am limited to 10 painkiller days in a 28-day period, with use of abortive therapies (triptans, which bind to serotonin receptors on the cranial nerves and block transmission of pain signals) restricted to just 8 of those days. The math, as they say, just doesn’t math.
So, when I start to feel the onset of symptoms, I try to guess how bad this attack is likely to be and decide whether to make this one of my precious painkiller days. I consider my workload, what meetings I have and how functional I need to be. On quieter days I will just try to power through, getting by with my arsenal of headache strips and various balms that all claim to soothe and ease migraine pain (spoiler alert: They don’t).
More often than I would like, I get it wrong and must take a sick day. This is where having understanding colleagues to pick up my work for me is invaluable – it is possible to work with chronic migraine only with the support of those around you. I am very lucky that my managers are among the 1 in 5 who do think that migraine is a valid reason for sickness absence, and that InterComm has a strong culture of understanding, acceptance and collaboration which makes living with this incurable condition a bit more bearable.
To learn more about migraine, please visit: Home – The Migraine Trust
