Friday, April 17, 2009

Goodbye, Migraine

Today I saw one of my facebook friends’ status update. It said that she had a huge migraine yesterday because of the terrible heat. People commented/recommended Excedrin Migraine tablets to her. This reminded me to check on my stocks. I had plenty! As in a few more boxes, thanks to the generosity of an aunt from the US. I knew I couldn’t possibly use them all before the expiry in November 2010.

My friend’s status update had a huge impact on me because I’ve been having migraines since I was in 1st year college. The earliest severe attack I could remember happened during a spiritual retreat. And it’s been 17 years! Terrible, terrible headaches. Socially incapacitating. I know I appeared irresponsible to one pediatrics resident when I was an intern because I had to sleep through the whole night because of one severe attack. And I just had a really bad one last Black Saturday evening and it lasted until the Monday after, can you believe that? Three days of migraine. It disappears for awhile but comes back soon after. Because of this problem, I’ve become a bad pill-popper. I worry about the side effects, especially before my period comes where there is always the risk that I might be pregnant (no matter what the precautions are). The fact that my attacks are usually premenstrual further complicates the situation. So I worry because I have migraine… then I worry because I took a pill and I haven’t had my period yet… and the worry gives me another round of migraine. Whew.

Anyway, I sent a message to my friend and offered to give her some of my Excedrin. She appreciated the offer and so I will be bringing her some soon.

Anyway, what happened after is the fascinating part. As you can see, because of that exchange in facebook, migraine was in my head today (though I was pain-free, thank you, God). Late in the evening, while surfing through the TV channels, I chanced upon the 700 Club. Let me tell you, this behavior of mine is rather unusual as it coincided with the timeslot for my favorite show, The Practice. I watch it almost every single day.

Back to the 700 club. It came to the part when the host closed his eyes in prayer for people who are watching and are in need of healing. He prayed for this person who’s having a bad asthma attack. Then he prayed for someone with heart failure/congestion. Then he prayed for someone with sinusitis. At this point, I was thinking to myself, “Yeah, right. The chances that someone with sinusitis is watching your show is not really that slim”. I wasn’t impressed, I must admit. As I write this, I am surprised that I had stayed tuned. After the prayer for the person with sinusitis, he said that there is a person out there who has been suffering from migraines 3 to 4 times a week. And he prayed for that person. Before I knew it, I was raising my hands in prayer, thanking God for this gift of healing. I felt in awe, and surprised, and grateful, all at same time.

I thanked God. How silly of me to suffer from this condition and not pray about it, as if it is an inevitable fact of life that I just have to deal with. Happiness came over me. Hubby, who can be skeptical sometimes, was happy for me, too, and said that maybe it was high time we became more spiritual. That maybe we’ve been only thinking about ourselves and need to give back to God. He said something about wanting to go on a spiritual retreat.

Everything is amazing. To think that I detest this over-used word (amazing, that is). But I can think of no other way to describe what has transpired.

Praise You, Jesus! Thank You for the gift of healing. Amen.

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