Sarah Hendren, living with migraine
- Sarah lived in Minnesota for 40 years and went through 100 different types of migraine treatments.
- She was part of trial for Botox for migraine treatment at the Mayo Clinic – it helped, but was not a long-term solution for her.
- When she moved to Kansas City, Sarah finally found relief and a preventative medication that would stop her headaches before they began. Six years later, Sarah feels better and is making up for lost time.
- She gets an injection once a month and it does not totally eliminate her migraines. She lives with an average of eight to nine migraines a month, but they are controllable.
- She uses the word “onward” to describe her approach to dealing with migraine. Move forward and don’t look back.
Dr. Deetra Ford, division chief, General Neurology, The University of Kansas Health System
- I always try to talk to people and let them know that this is a medical diagnosis. This is not just a headache.
- Migraine is a medical diagnosis just like diabetes or hypertension.
- If you look at the data, many people actually miss work and their normal life activities in their 20s to 40s, which is the most productive time because of this disease.
- I think that's why words matter -- making sure that we recognize that this is a disease process. It's a medical issue.
- Basically, migraine is caused by this area in the brainstem that has some pain generators, and it releases all these inflammatory cytokines and things that cause pain and what then happens is it spreads throughout the rest of the head and causes this throbbing unilateral headache.
- There are different options for treatment and that is dependent on each patient’s situation.
- Going to your family doctor first is definitely the way to start. A lot of the primary care physicians now are able to start these medications or at least get the conversation going by the time you're able to get with a neurologist.
