My name is Céline, I'm 34, and I've had a migraine since I was 18. Before being diagnosed, I had never heard of this pathology . However, my two grandmothers had suffered from migraines in the past, but they had told me little or nothing about it. And no one of my generation had migraines in my family.
My first seizures occurred after a major skiing accident.
It was excessively painful, but I thought it was going to pass, that my body was taking time to recover from the accident. Seeing that the situation was not improving, and that these crises had an increasingly strong impact on my life (I was then in preparatory classes, and my absences multiplied), I made an appointment with my general practitioner, who sent me to the neurologist. What was my surprise, even my disappointment, when the diagnosis fell: migraine?!? It can't be that, what I have, is very painful and very impactful. This surprise was followed by a learning phase, therapeutic education. I then understood that migraine was a real chronic neurological disease, and had nothing to do with the headache that passes as it came. I also understood that it was a complex, multifactorial disease, and that I had to get to know it in order to tame it. I quickly realized that there would be a before and an after as well, and I must admit that I have missed the carelessness of this before a lot since I was 18 years old.
My early years as a migraine sufferer
I felt overwhelmed, I didn't control anything at all, the crises came at the worst time (during competitions, on birthdays, etc.). I didn't see a positive outcome to all of this because on top of that I felt absolutely useless during the consultation: I couldn't describe precisely what was happening to me to the doctor, and I left the consultation disappointed. I had the feeling of not having been able to express myself, that the doctor did not take the measure of the impact of the migraine on my life, and his prescription did not convince me.
