Women's History Month: Migraine Mania!

The past few day's in Women's History Tidbits:

March 11, 1923: Agatha Barbara is born in Zabbar. She will serve as president of Malta from 1982 to 1987.*
March 12, 1982: The first games of the first women's NCAA basketball tournament are held. Thirty-two teams will compete in the tournament; in 1994 the tournament will expand to a 64-team field.*
March 13, 1986: Four-time champion Susan Butcher wins the first of three straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog races in Alaska.*

The last three days have been migraine mania for me. I won't go into details on how it came about, but suffice to say that it was an allergic reaction to a chemical. But from Wednesday evening until today when I woke up, I was rocking a world class migraine. Thankfully I have a well stocked pharmacy in my home. Of legal drugs people!

In light of my migraine mania, I thought it was a great chance to introduce or remind you of two women I consider the Queens of migraines and chronic issues:

Paula Kamen: It's hard for me to summarize Paula because while she likes to tell me that I'm everywhere, I say she was there way before me. Paula has written a play about Jane, the abortion collective from pre-Roe days, a loving tribute about her friend Finding Iris Chang and her own memoir about a 15-year migraine All in My Head. Not to mention she was one of the first people to write about young feminism. And now she's a mom of two lucky children. Seriously zip on over to her website and read up on her. You won't be disappointed.

Jenni Prokopy: AKA Chronic Babe. I met Jenni thru Cinnamon and she's always the first thing out of my mouth when a woman tells me she's been diagnosed with a chronic disease/illness/situation. "You have to go to ChronicBabe Dot Com." As Jenni says, she's got chronic diseases but she's still a babe! It took me a long time to identify as a Chronic Babe. What's lifelong suffering of environmental allergies compared to say Type 1 diabetes or fibromyalgia? Well, I think a lot considering that a 30-year-old-runny nose is pretty chronic. Plus the sneezing, stuffy nose and itchy, watery eyes.

In my mid-twenties I started to have migraines. At first I put all the blame on my birth control pills. I think they were partially to blame. After weighting the pros and cons of menstruation suppression, I figured that it's not just my pills. Despite my allergies having killed off a lot of my sense of smell, I am sensitive to some smells. I also get migraines if I don't eat & sleep well in a small period of time. So I know if I'm pulling a long day, I better fortify myself well.

As I try to catch up on the world after my migraine coma, I salute the two Chicago women who have this community covered.


* Source: 2010 Women Who Dare Engagement Calendar from the Library of Congress