106: That Chronic Pain Life with The Migraine Diva Jaime Sanders

Uninvisible Pod with Lauren Freedman

Jaime Sanders’ journey with migraine has been life-long. From a toddler with abdominal migraine to a wife and mother with chronic intractable migraine, Jaime has learned to turn her pain into empowerment. She also manages her daily life with depression and anxiety, surviving two suicide attempts, along with fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, spinal stenosis and chronic back pain. Despite these conditions and their limitations, she strives to do her best to find her optimal health. Advocating for headache disorders and mental health are her passions. She is the author of the award-wining blog The Migraine Diva, and was the Migraine Patient Advocacy Coordinator for Global Healthy Living Foundation. Through her work with GHLF, Jaime contributed as a patient reviewer for their First Edition Migraine Patient Guidelines. She is also partnered with the American Migraine Foundation and Shades for Migraine and is a stakeholder with the Coalition for Headache and Migraine Patients and the Headache and Migraine Policy Forum. Jaime is a member of the Society for Women’s Health Research Interdisciplinary Migraine Network and helped to curate their Migraine Patient Toolkit. She also sits on the Patient Leadership Council with the National Headache Foundation. Through her advocacy work and blog, Jaime’s mission is to make a very invisible disease visible to the rest of the world and validate the real pain of millions. You can find her written work on Migraine.com, Teva’s Life Effects Program sponsored by Healthline Media, NewLifeOutlook.com, HealthCentral.com, and PracticalPainManagement.com.

Tune in as Jaime shares:

• that she was diagnosed with migraine at eight years old
• that she has lived in chronic pain since the age of two — in the form of abdominal migraine
• that her mom also lived with migraine — and as such, she had a shoulder to lean on from the very beginning, as well as someone to learn advocacy from
• that having support from such a young age was critical to the foundation of her advocacy work
• how chronic pain is directly connected to mental health — and that she lived with depression from an early age because of her pain
• that she was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2012
• that she developed fibromyalgia as a direct result of persistent daily migraines, which had her central nervous system working in overdrive
• that migraines often have no known cause, and are totally individual to the person who lives with them
• that she manages her pain with a combination of medications and holistic methods: Botox, nerve blocks, massage, CBD salves, and meditation, among others
• that the pain scale is subjective, and her pain is at level 2-5 daily
• that aside from chronic pain, she also lives with gastric distress symptoms every day — and how the brain-gut connection is so clear when you live with chronic pain conditions
• how she finds self-worth and confidence in her relationships…and beyond her pain
• how she minimizes stress to manage her spoons
• how she tackles the “angry Black woman” and “hysterical” narratives
• that migraine is so much more than a headache
• what’s coming up for her: she is the lead writer on a new white paper aiming to address disparities in communities adversely affected by migraine and headache (the incarcerated, immigrants, and BIPOC, among others)

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit uninvisiblepod.substack.com/subscribe