Help Katie raise money

I’m Katie, and I was diagnosed with migraine disease 17 years ago when I was 11 years old.  It was a scary diagnosis.  My migraine disease state worsened from episodic to chronic at 16 years old.  At age 17, I had my first intractable migraine attack(intractable - meaning it did not respond to medication), which lasted for 93 days of my junior year before it broke and I returned to having chronic migraine.  

In February 2015, I woke up with an attack that I have lived with ever since. 

In 2019, I lost my job because of the severity of my migraine disease.  

In 2020, I was also diagnosed with spontaneous intracranial hypotension, more commonly known as a cerebral spinal fluid(CSF) leak.  As of last August, I have been on bedrest for 229 days.  Currently, there is 1 headache specialist to every 86,000 migraine patients in the US, and there is currently one centers in Texas that is certified to treat patients with CSF leaks. 

Additionally, we are meeting our out-of-pocket with our insurance by March, meaning that our family is dealing with somewhere near $10,000 of medical bills, about ¼ of our annual income, during the first 3 months of each year.

So, I advocate with the Alliance for Headache Disorder Advocates every year because I believe that policy work is the key to helping migraine and other headache disorders get the care they need; I come to advocate to support my fellow migraineurs who are unable to participate in policy advocacy due to the progression of their disease state; I advocate for our providers who do so much to serve this community; and finally, I choose to advocate for more research so that someday there will be an effective therapy or maybe even a cure for me and for my future children.  

Katie Pearson Mahaffey

Instagram: @the.technicolor.zebra

Twitter: @techncolorzebra

Facebook: The Technicolor Zebra

Blog: www.thetechnicolorzebra.com