My Life With Migraines

What it’s like to run a business and raise 2 dogs with a Chronic Health Condition.

Earlier today I found out that this week is Migraine Awareness Week, so as someone who struggles with chronic migraines, I wanted to do a mini series on what it's like having two dogs and running a business while living with a chronic health condition.

For the past few years I’ve been really embarrassed to talk about my migraines. I felt like admitting that I had to take time off sick or having to reschedule client sessions made me unprofessional or weak somehow.

So starting with this blog post, I wanted to break that stigma for both myself and anyone else who struggled with chronic health conditions. So here’s a little bit about my life:

I typically experience migraine attacks 5-8 times a month and have headaches for at least 15 days during any given month.

Sometimes I go through periods where it feels like I have a headache every day and so far no preventative medication has worked for me.

When I have a migraine, they are totally debilitating. Imagine the worst headache possible, times that by ten and add sickness to the mix. It’s awful. While I do have prescription medication to relieve the pain of my migraines, they are quite strong and come with some nasty side effects, so if I do have to take one it means I can’t really do much. They leave me totally spaced out and confused and give me an extreme pressure in my head, so as you can imagine, I can’t drive or carry on my day as normal.

It also really impacts my mental health at times. As someone who’s really ambitious and loves to do as many hobbies as possible, I spend so much time in my life worrying that my own body is going to get in the way of my plans, so it’s super frustrating and is a huge cause of anxiety for me.

They also get in the way of my job sometimes.

These days I do most of my work online, so it’s easy to fit client work around any health issues I have, however when I used to do 121s I had some really bad client experience that made me feel totally worthless.

It was quite rare for me to reschedule as I hate to let people down, so often I would push through my client sessions and by the time I’d finish the day, I’d be in excruciating pain. On the rare occasion I did have to reschedule, most clients were so lovely and understanding, however on one occasion I received a really long and abusive message from a client who was apparently unhappy that I’d had to reschedule his session and this absolutely broke me. I felt like a total failure and spent most of the day sobbing which naturally made my migraine much worse.

I always struggled with the balance of needing time to recover but also not wanting to be looked at like I was weak. It took me a long time and a lot of support to realise that everyone has sick days and it’s just part of being human.

Thankfully as my business has grown, I can be stricter about who I work with, so I’ve managed to build a really lovely community and client base.

I was also hugely affected by my experiences pre-dog training.

Prior to pursuing my passion as a Dog Trainer, I worked in recruitment for 7 years and some of my early experiences really shaped how I viewed my health.

For nearly 3 years from the age of 18, I worked at a Recruitment Agency who were awful in their treatment of their employees. I honestly believe their methods were to target and indoctrinate young people into thinking their way of working was normal. Maybe that’s a topic for a different blog, but think 8am - 8pm work days, having to work weekends for no extra pay, being yelled at if you did the slightest thing wrong and of course, sick days were a huge no-no.

My migraines and headaches have gotten worse as I’ve gotten older so back then it wasn’t as much of an issue, however on the odd time where I would have to call in sick, it filled my whole body with dread. Even thinking about it now fills me with anxiety.

Not only would you be spoken to like you had just confessed to the worst crime ever, you would then be shunned at work in the following days. I thought I got on well with my director but if I was ever sick, the following days would leave me upset and confused as she refused to speak to me and would make it really clear that doing that again wasn’t an option.

You can imagine the impact this had on me as an 18 year old learning to navigate the grown-up world of work.

It can be difficult as a Dog Parent.

Usually if I catch it on time, some of the medication I take helps to stop my migraines from escalating, so often if I’m careful, I can still get the dogs out, do their training and make my videos. However that’s not always the case.

When I have a particularly bad attack, the medication often does nothing, so I’m left with debilitating pain and am unable to do anything other than lie perfectly still in bed. In fact it’s so bad in these cases that even getting up to go to the bathroom can leave me crying in agony on the floor.

Thankfully I have raised and trained my dogs in a way where they don’t mind spending the odd day cuddled up to me in bed. I also have an amazing partner who takes over the dog parenting responsibilities when I’m unwell.

This doesn’t stop me from feeling guilty though. These days I’ve learned to accept it, but I used to really struggle with the idea that I physically couldn’t do something everyone was telling me I HAD to do to be a good pet parent.

I’ve learned over the years that dogs are really good at adapting to you and your lifestyle. The hardest part now is stopping them from trying to lick my face constantly when they can tell something is wrong.

Hopefully by raising awareness we can end the stigma.

I want people to understand just how debilitating and serious migraines can be, but I also don’t want people to think this makes me less-than.

The funny thing about migraines is that they are invisible when you’re not experiencing one. Most people would look at me on a day to day basis and think I was absolutely fine, so it’s often harder for people to realise their true impact. This means that people can often be less understanding when it comes to working around people who suffer from migraines, or they think I just have a headache and am using it as an excuse to cancel or rearrange plans.

When I had to stop drinking alcohol (as one glass of something would trigger a headache) I found that people thought I was being boring, or would continue to pressure me to drink, despite me explaining that it would just give me a headache.

While everyone’s experience is going to be different, understanding what life can be like for people who live with chronic health conditions can really help to make the world a better place. Living with a health condition doesn’t make you any less professional and needing time off, or to reschedule doesn’t make you a failure. A little bit of empathy and understanding from others goes a huge way!

Despite struggling with my health, I still believe that I’m an extremely capable human being and I refuse to let it stop me from pursuing my dreams, taking up new hobbies and being the person I want to be.

As I sit here writing this, coming off the back of a horrendous migraine, I want you to know that no matter what you’re struggling with, I believe in you! You deserve your dreams as much as anyone else and I know how difficult it is to push through and make those dreams happen when your body is fighting against you.

If you’re affected by a chronic health condition, let me know how it impacts your life in the comments.