Hi, guys.
I'm afraid the State of HP is pretty much suckage. Highlights:
- My son William (God, I nursed him as a Buffista!baby) is 17. He has not been in school since, at 15, he began a migraine that has lasted for two solid years now without ever stopping. He's in private tutoring but is frequently too ill for that.
- In June, my husband was finally diagnosed. Yup, he has migraines, too. His affect him almost entirely cognitively -- he gets severe migraine-brain and stays there for a day or longer.
- My migraines continued to get severer and severer and severer. After two years of having 22-25 migraines every month, I gave up and filed for a disability accommodation, asking to work variable part-time. Three months after I had begun working under the accommodation, I was called in to an HR meeting. Surprise! You may have been working under the accommodation, but we didn't actually *agree* to it. We think you're well enough to work full-time, making up missed days. In June I filed for full-time disability. You have no idea how much I hated that. I spent all of August/September in bed thanks to Topamax. In late September the insurance company called to tell me that I wasn't disabled at all. Now I'm gearing up and getting a lawyer to prove that, yes, 22-25 days a month of crippling pain and/or impaired cognition due to drugs does indeed keep you from performing an intellectually demanding job.
On the whole, I would rather be in Philadelphia.
Oy. I think we need to add "fuck migraines" to "fuck cancer".
Oh, god, Betsy. That's awful.
It is absolutely right-on to apply for disability if you're too disabled to work. And having migraines so many days out of the month sure qualifies. I hope you're successful in your fight. I hope for a HP family miracle where you all no longer suffer from migraines anymore, but barring that, I hope that you can get the naysayers to acknowledge that you're disabled and that they start paying up.
Betsy, that's just terrible. I'm so sorry that that is happening to you and yours.
Oh Betsy, that's a lot of aggravation on top of a lot of pain. I am hoping for better days for you and your family.
Besty, I am glad to see your pixels around here, but I hate you're update. Fuck migraines indeed. I really hope modern medicine figures that shit out and can make people feel better soon.
Hey, Betsy. The level of professional assbuttery you've had to go through is phenomenal, and when you layer that on top of the chronic pain--yours and your family's, well...words abandon me.
Too many of my loved ones suffer from migraines. I can't even imagine trying to function with that level of pain. All the ~ma in the world that some brilliant minds find solutions to what is clearly a complex problem.
Betsy, nice to see you. So sorry for all the pain in your family, and the bs bureaucracy on top of it. Good thoughts for some relief and resolution.
BETSY!
Oh its good to see your pixels, even if they're weary pixels.
