Pain is so different for everyone. Take for example when you go to the dr and they ask you if you are in pain and to put a number on it between 1 and 10. Well, a 2 for one person may be the same pain but a 7 for someone else. I think about this because with migraines www.migraineresearchfoundation.org almost daily (some weeks it is daily for weeks at a time) and having fibromyalgia http://www.fmaware.org/site there is always some kind of pain in my body. Some migraines are even more painful than others. It is painful to lay down, where the body meets the mattress it hurts, getting a hug (which I always encourage, as I am a hugger) is painful. When people say they hurt how is it possible to compare if their pain is worse or the same as yours. Comparing is not necessary except for doctors to know how to treat.

I am thankful for and blessed by family and friends who are always sharing information they hear or see on TV, magazines or other sources. Believe me I have heard and tried them all. I have been to pain specialists and to neurologists and had lots of different tests and there is no rhyme or reason for the migraines only that they are there. As far as I can remember I have had migraines for most of my life. Of course back in the days when I was a child migraine was not a common diagnosis so my mother was told to cut my long hair and keep it short to help prevent the head aches I suffered. I was sent to eye doctors to have my eyes checked because, I must have needed glasses, which I did but it made no difference in the head aches. Then it was oh she is a nervous child so that is why she is having head aches. As time passed all the treatments did not help. When I was an adult and would go to the doctor I was told I needed to reduce the stress in my life and that would reduce the headaches. Then finally one day a doctor told me I had migraines and tried different types of medications to prevent them which did not work. For years I would suffer them out and if I could go to the doctor to get some kind of shot to help with the pain and nausea but it would only put me to sleep. As I got older and they increased in number and intensity it was so hard to work and suffer through the pain. I would try and some days just had to go home. I remember hearing comments from coworker like "I wish I could go home when I have a head ache" which made the fact that I was suffering even more stressful and irritating. I was thankful for and still am for the invention of imitrex injections. I have tried the nasal spray and the pills with no relief. The injections help the most and at one point when I was trying to work with migraines and had good insurance I was taking as many as 36 shots a month. I had a prescription filled yesterday for 6 imitrex injections and it was $385.00 and I don't have good insurance any more. So out of pocket that is not possible on a regular basis so I suffer it out most of the time. Some doctors have given me samples of other migraine meds that I have tried with some relief. I splurged you might say because we are going on a trip next week and I do not want to be having migraines that will keep me in bed during the trip.

Migraines are hereditary and I understand my mother, her sister and their mother all suffered from them and I have learned as well that my fathers, father also had severe headaches but were not diagnosed migraines because that was not a common diagnosis in those days. My father was an alcoholic dying at the age of 41 and he would refer to his alcohol as medicine so it leaves me to wonder if he had migraines too and that was his way of getting rid of them. I will never know. I am sad to say my children suffer from them now as adults and I wish they did not have to bare that burden.

As for the fibromyalgia I am thankful for the pain medication I get, as well as the new medication Lyrica, www.lyrica.com/ that has given me more freedom although the pain is never fully gone. There are so many other symptoms of this disease that they can not all be listed but, they are hard to deal with even though they are not visible to others. http://www.restministries.org They may not be visible to others, but are still debilitating, such as hypersensitivity to sound, brain fog, insomnia, chronic fatigue when you want to stay awake but your body just won't let you, etc. It is also hard to hear well, so and so has FMS/Fibro and they don't have that or they can still work. That is good I am happy for them. I would not wish any of these health issues on my worst enemy. Like most illnesses they effect each person differently. I would much rather be working than spending the time in bed. Just because I have time now, my body won't allow me to do the things I would love to be doing.

I am thankful for what I am able to do and even though it has taken me quite sometime to accept that I cannot do what I used to and that my brain does not work like it used to I still have things I can do. Some days depression is heavy and I struggle to make it out of the dark, I do know there is always a better day in the future. I also know that even though it may be hard to realise now, there is a reason for everything and I thankfully accept that and look forward to the many blessing the future will bring.

I am thankful for my husband, children and other family members and friends who are here to help and support me when I need help.