Meet Marta and Shelby as they courageously share their journeys with migraine disease in this compelling video. From the onset of debilitating symptoms like neck and shoulder pain, intense eye pain, and sensitivity to light and sound, to the daily impact on their passions for travel, reading, and sports, these individuals shed light on the often misunderstood realities of living with migraine. Join them as they discuss the challenges of social stigma, the search for effective treatments like CGRP medications, and their hopes for a future free from the limitations of this neurological condition. Watch now to hear firsthand stories and insights that illuminate the resilience and courage of those living with migraine disease.
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0:00 when my migraine attack begins i start
0:06 feeling
0:07 more neck pain and shoulder pain there
0:10 will be really bad pain behind one of my
0:12 eyes and i’m nauseous
0:14 my head would be more sensitive to touch
0:16 feeling like a vice was squeezing your
0:18 head i would start having issues
0:21 speaking just in in imaginable pain
0:26 migraine
0:27 is more than just a headache it affects
0:30 every aspect of my life
0:37 i like to travel i’m passionate about
0:40 reading
0:41 i
0:41 love going for walks with my dog
0:44 and i love spending time with my friends
0:46 and family i really like sports and
0:49 baseball is my favorite sport i really
0:51 love going to concerts definitely kind
0:53 of a pop culture fanatic too
0:56 my name is marta
0:58 i live with migraine disease
1:01 my name is shelby and i live with
1:03 migraine disease
1:06 the first time i got diagnosed
1:09 officially with migraine was when my
1:12 family immigrated to canada at the age
1:14 of 15. i first started experiencing
1:16 migraine tax when i was about in grade
1:19 two or three i just thought it was part
1:22 of me and just something that i would
1:23 have to kind of keep living with
1:26 [Music]
1:27 one in seven people in the world which
1:29 is more than a billion have migraine
1:30 disease
1:32 migraine is a brain disorder that
1:34 presents differently in different people
1:36 but the most common feature that we
1:38 think of with migraine is the headache
1:39 but a number of other things also come
1:41 with migraines so sensitivities to the
1:42 environment like to light sound smell
1:46 historically headache hasn’t been
1:47 something that’s necessarily as studied
1:49 or is recognized there’s been stigma
1:51 around people who have headache just
1:53 complaining about having headache
1:54 because it’s not something you can see
1:55 it’s an invisible disorder but it can be
1:58 extremely disabling
2:00 it’s still very hard to understand what
2:03 a migraine feels like unless you
2:04 experience it
2:06 most people are like oh you just have a
2:07 headache
2:08 take something or just drink more water
2:10 and you’ll be fine
2:12 there can be times where i’ll have a
2:13 migraine and maybe it’ll last
2:16 three to six hours
2:19 and there have been other times probably
2:21 last month where i had a migraine for 10
2:22 days straight
2:24 my first initial reaction when i heard
2:27 that i
2:29 have migraine was anger
2:32 that i have
2:33 this disease that i suffered from
2:34 headaches that i have this weakness i
2:36 always had this fear about another
2:39 migraine attack coming up i wanted to be
2:41 normal and i wanted to be with my
2:42 friends
2:44 do i need to prepare myself to not have
2:47 a migraine attack because i have
2:48 something coming up or am i allowed to
2:50 have a migraine attack by participating
2:52 in a certain social event that may
2:55 actually cause it that could be very
2:56 frustrating for me when i turned 30 i
2:59 started to have a lot of rebound
3:01 headaches so i was in non-stop pain
3:05 stopping
3:06 work was the hardest decision that i had
3:08 to make
3:09 and when i went on sick leave
3:11 i was counting days i was waiting for a
3:14 cure i was waiting for a miracle i felt
3:17 very very lost
3:22 historically migraine treatments were
3:24 borrowed from other areas because we
3:25 didn’t understand why people had
3:27 migraine
3:28 and so the two kinds of treatments the
3:30 acute treatments what do you take when
3:31 you have an attack and the prevention
3:32 ones how do you keep them from being so
3:34 bad in the first place were mostly
3:36 things that were for other conditions
3:37 but taking many of the medications that
3:39 are short acting to treat those headache
3:41 attacks can lead to medication overviews
3:43 or rebound headache and it can make the
3:45 headache problem get worse
3:46 so cgrp treatments are the newest family
3:49 of migraine treatments they’re really
3:51 exciting because they’re the first
3:52 treatment that’s actually migraine
3:53 targeted it’s really important for
3:55 patients with migraine to be able to try
3:57 multiple kinds of treatments because we
3:58 don’t have a way of predicting what type
4:00 of treatment a given person will respond
4:02 to
4:04 my fears about treatment moving forward
4:07 is
4:08 it just starting to become ineffective
4:11 how’s it going to affect my migraines
4:12 even in 10 years from now
4:14 when my neurologist suggested the cgrp
4:17 medications i was all for it and in my
4:20 case it did work my migraine attacks
4:23 right now are
4:24 episodic but what changed for me is that
4:28 i am not afraid of them and i’m not
4:31 angry anymore
4:33 right now at the age of 47 i’m trying to
4:37 relearn
4:39 who i am
4:40 and what do i like now being 30
4:43 definitely see a change in just life
4:46 with everyone kind of getting engaged
4:48 married or starting to have kids how is
4:50 migraine going to affect my future when
4:52 i decide to have
4:54 kids and a family
4:56 so the future is very unknown which
5:00 definitely scares me
5:02 i hope more people learn about how
5:04 debilitating
5:05 migraines truly can be because it is
5:08 definitely not something that people
5:10 should have to hide or push through in
5:11 life
5:13 i’m looking forward to enjoy life and
5:16 not to hide behind this mask of someone
5:18 who’s pretending to be
5:20 someone else anymore just to be me
5:24 person living with migraine disease
5:27 [Music]
