Bonnie Zink's Story

What were the steps leading up to your diagnosis?

After several hospitalizations, investigative tests and a few doctors, I was diagnosed with migraine. I suffer from full-body migraine, which includes headache, vision changes, partial paralysis and other symptoms.

I have been able to manage my personal and professional lives in spite of my migraine attacks.

What lifestyle changes have you needed to make?

I'm now aware of migraine triggers and have made several lifestyle adjustments to avoid mine. However, weather change is one of my triggers, which I have no control over. I am a home-based professional, as I am often afflicted with debilitating symptoms that keep me from fully participating in a professional community/environment.

Who has been there for you? How?

My husband, sister, children and medical staff are very supportive and ensure that I have the help I need.

What accomplishment are you proud of?

I am fairly aware of my triggers, and have been able to manage my personal and professional lives in spite of debilitating migraine attacks.

What's your advice to someone else living with Migraines?

Ensure that you are open and honest with your employer, health care team, and family about your experience with migraine and how attacks may affect your professional and personal obligations.

I'm aware of migraine triggers and have made several lifestyle adjustments to avoid mine.

Is there anything else we should know?

I am a freelance professional who works from home. I have adult children, who no longer live with my husband and me, but who are very supportive. I live on the Canadian prairies, which experiences frequent and drastic weather changes that bring on migraine attacks.

About

Bonnie Zink

Bonnie Zink is a community-based knowledge mobilizer who helps tell stories through the use of traditional and new (digital) media. Bonnie works to connect knowledge producers with knowledge users and to facilitate the process of the co-production of knowledge by connecting researchers with community members, government representatives, and anyone else interested in becoming part of the knowledge mobilization process.
Bonnie is also a knitter, a seamstress, and a fibre artist who develops and shares patterns and other knowledge on her blog. She is a wife and mother who lives, works, and plays on the Saskatchewan prairie with her husband and two adult children.

Find @bonniezink on twitter.