Last night, the Huntington Medical Research Institute (HMRI) hosted a presentation/reception/wine and cheese thingy (red wine, which a lot of migraineurs can't drink, but their spouses can). I went because I wanted to learn what I could.
Actually, I went because I want to get off of these drugs. If learning will help, I'll do that. If driving backwards down Colorado Blvd. will help I'll do that, too.
Little is known about migraines, yet there's enough to say about them that we could talk about them for weeks. Among other things I learned last night, one of the most surprising is that very little research is being done into this disease suffered by 30 million Americans. But aren't we lucky? Of the very few facilities in the United States studying migraine, one of them is right here in Pasadena.
And last night's wine and cheese was all about recruiting migraine sufferers to volunteer for research.
Hmm. They have to extract spinal fluid. You know--a spinal tap. Our host Larry Wilson, Public Editor of the Pasadena Star-News and a migraineur, said that when these specialists tapped his spine he "didn't feel a thing."
I have a very low threshold of pain.
Do you think I signed up?
