While I promise there is a recap of my time at Seaworld coming, and maybe some more into the story of how I came to an intern through City of Life Church's School of Ministry, I have another part of my story to tell and ask you to walk alongside me in.
Some of you that have known for most of my life probably know that I was diagnosed with Chronic Migraines at around 9 years old, after about three years of being symptomatic. I remembers doctors trying to make sure there was nothing else going on because surely a 6 year old doesn't have migraines right? I also remember just being in pain with no real understanding as to why it hurt to get out of bed and why this pain caused me to miss out on school and church. For me, getting a diagnosis even told me that I wasn't crazy because even at that young age I began to second guess what I was feeling. A migraine diagnosis also meant that treatment could start, right? Because if it has a name it has a cure, right? Wrong.
After a few trials with some preventative medicine and nothing helping, it was determined that nothing would help and we would just treat a migraine when I got one. A lot of this also had to do with the fact that I was so young and not much was/ is approved for children needing migraine treatment.
That worked fine until one migraine hit that would ultimately change my life and how I treated my migraines. I was 16, and I had been fighting a severe migraine for 2 weeks, the longest migraine I had ever had. It was Thanksgiving weekend and we were planning a trip to the doctor first thing Monday morning because of the length of this migraine. However, on Friday morning I woke up and my right side was numb and I couldn't use my right arm. It was scary and after several phone calls to doctors and waiting a period of time to see if it would clear up on it's own (that's what the doctor told us to do) my dad and I made a trip to the children's hospital. It ended up being a weird migraine, bit that right side weakness never went away. I learned how to cope with it but it is in fact still around today.
I have a preventative treatment plan that worked well through college, with some adjustments. One of the adjustments to that plan was to use Botox injections for my migraines, and to get those every three months (no they are not fun). They helped though. However, having that as a treatment plan went out the window when I obeyed the Lord and went on the World Race. In fact, I had to go off of all of my migraine medicine to go on the World Race. The Lord was so good to me during that season of life because the fist 8 out of 11 months I missed 2 days of ministry due to migraines, and that is something that had never happened before since I've started having migraines. However, when our squad landed in Africa, my migraines hit hard and fast. I had a consistent daily headache and was dealing with at least 1 migraine strength headache a week. It was hard, and just because it was hard didn't mean that I didn't enjoy Africa. (Check out this picture blog from Africa if you wanna see more of my Africa journey https://jenniekateclark.theworldrace.org/post/africa-a-picture-blog). Africa is probably my favorite continent on the face of this planet, but my migraines made it a hard battle to finish my race out with.
Upon coming home from those 11 months, I started seeing a neurologist again and started fighting toward a new normal in my life. Trial and error preventative medicine again, and figuring out what medicine would treat the severity that my migraines had gotten to. My diagnoses was changed to Chronic Intractable Migraine, which basically means yes, it's chronic, but there's also not really anything we can figure out that will make them go away. I have added a pain management specialist onto my team of doctors to help fight this, but he's even said my case is a hard one to figure out. Having migraines makes going back into ministry hard.
I am a School of Ministry Student now, and that means 40 hours a week on ministry. This past week was a particularly hard one because I have been fighting a migraine all week. This migraine wasn't just hard on me, but I can see how much of a toll that my migraines take on the people that I do life with every day. After abortive treatment not working and having a nerve block done on Wednesday that didn't work, my roommate ended up taking me to the local ER here to see if they could break it. My migraine broke, at least down to a manageable pain level. I went to church this morning, but right now I still feel weak and like there is more healing to be done here.
So here's where I'm asking you to walk alongside me. I'm asking for you to walk through these migraines in prayer with me. If you're around me regularly pray with me, or even feel free to check in and see how I'm feeling. I'm not about fighting this on my own, I would like for others to be beside in this. I don't always admit my pain, mostly because it's almost always there, but also because I don't want to miss out on any more than I have to. If you have any questions or want to know more about my journey with migraines, feel free to reach out and ask questions. Our God is great healer and I can't wait to see what more He has in store for me through this journey, because I'm not letting migraines get in the way!
I love you all!!!
Love, Jennie Kate
Some of you that have known for most of my life probably know that I was diagnosed with Chronic Migraines at around 9 years old, after about three years of being symptomatic. I remembers doctors trying to make sure there was nothing else going on because surely a 6 year old doesn't have migraines right? I also remember just being in pain with no real understanding as to why it hurt to get out of bed and why this pain caused me to miss out on school and church. For me, getting a diagnosis even told me that I wasn't crazy because even at that young age I began to second guess what I was feeling. A migraine diagnosis also meant that treatment could start, right? Because if it has a name it has a cure, right? Wrong.
After a few trials with some preventative medicine and nothing helping, it was determined that nothing would help and we would just treat a migraine when I got one. A lot of this also had to do with the fact that I was so young and not much was/ is approved for children needing migraine treatment.
That worked fine until one migraine hit that would ultimately change my life and how I treated my migraines. I was 16, and I had been fighting a severe migraine for 2 weeks, the longest migraine I had ever had. It was Thanksgiving weekend and we were planning a trip to the doctor first thing Monday morning because of the length of this migraine. However, on Friday morning I woke up and my right side was numb and I couldn't use my right arm. It was scary and after several phone calls to doctors and waiting a period of time to see if it would clear up on it's own (that's what the doctor told us to do) my dad and I made a trip to the children's hospital. It ended up being a weird migraine, bit that right side weakness never went away. I learned how to cope with it but it is in fact still around today.
I have a preventative treatment plan that worked well through college, with some adjustments. One of the adjustments to that plan was to use Botox injections for my migraines, and to get those every three months (no they are not fun). They helped though. However, having that as a treatment plan went out the window when I obeyed the Lord and went on the World Race. In fact, I had to go off of all of my migraine medicine to go on the World Race. The Lord was so good to me during that season of life because the fist 8 out of 11 months I missed 2 days of ministry due to migraines, and that is something that had never happened before since I've started having migraines. However, when our squad landed in Africa, my migraines hit hard and fast. I had a consistent daily headache and was dealing with at least 1 migraine strength headache a week. It was hard, and just because it was hard didn't mean that I didn't enjoy Africa. (Check out this picture blog from Africa if you wanna see more of my Africa journey https://jenniekateclark.theworldrace.org/post/africa-a-picture-blog). Africa is probably my favorite continent on the face of this planet, but my migraines made it a hard battle to finish my race out with.
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| I'm reminded of the Lord's faithfulness in my migraine journey. This picture was taken a day after a bad migraine. Without the healing power of God I wouldn't have been able to make it to this service or stand close to where they played the drums to signal the beginning of church like they did on this day. |
Upon coming home from those 11 months, I started seeing a neurologist again and started fighting toward a new normal in my life. Trial and error preventative medicine again, and figuring out what medicine would treat the severity that my migraines had gotten to. My diagnoses was changed to Chronic Intractable Migraine, which basically means yes, it's chronic, but there's also not really anything we can figure out that will make them go away. I have added a pain management specialist onto my team of doctors to help fight this, but he's even said my case is a hard one to figure out. Having migraines makes going back into ministry hard.
I am a School of Ministry Student now, and that means 40 hours a week on ministry. This past week was a particularly hard one because I have been fighting a migraine all week. This migraine wasn't just hard on me, but I can see how much of a toll that my migraines take on the people that I do life with every day. After abortive treatment not working and having a nerve block done on Wednesday that didn't work, my roommate ended up taking me to the local ER here to see if they could break it. My migraine broke, at least down to a manageable pain level. I went to church this morning, but right now I still feel weak and like there is more healing to be done here.
 |
| This girl was literally the first person ever to offer to pray for me and migraines. It's amazing how in Western culture we rely so heavily on doctors and forget that we serve the ultimate physician! |
I love you all!!!
Love, Jennie Kate
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