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💜 Mission Migraine: Making Migraine Impossible to Ignore 💜

Hi, I’m Stefania, and this is my first year leading Mission Migraine and joining the Miles for Migraine community, though I have a long and trying history with migraine.

For over twenty years, I’ve lived with severe cluster migraine, chronic migraine, and status migrainosus—long, unrelenting attacks that have required ER visits, IV infusions, and inpatient treatment. Since June 2025, I’ve battled one of my most persistent attacks yet. Only recently, on October 21, 2025, did I experience my first migraine-free day in months, thanks to the incredible care of the UHealth Neurology and Headache Team at the University of Miami.

Migraine is not “just a headache.” It’s a complex neurological condition that can interrupt your ability to think, work, connect, and simply exist. It’s unpredictable and relentless. Despite every effort—from medications and infusions to trigger management, countless neurologic evaluations, follow-ups, and hospital stays—it can still bring life to a halt.

Migraine may be invisible on a scan, but its impact is impossible to miss for those who live with it. It doesn’t care about your plans, deadlines, or commitments; it can take over at any moment. You can do everything “right” and still the pain can strike without warning and persist for days or weeks, leaving you unable to function. The pain easily reaches 8–10 out of 10, and over time you just learn to adapt and “function” through the less intense days. Extreme sensitivity to sound, light, blurred vision, nausea, yet the condition remains invisible. Tests and scans look “normal” but migraine can completely disrupt work, education, relationships, and daily life—a reality I have faced numerous times.

For me, sound has always been one of the hardest parts of migraine and one of my most insidious triggers. While many associate migraine with light sensitivity, I experience extreme sensitivity to sound. Even everyday noises can feel sharp, overwhelming, and impossible to block out. It’s a kind of sensitivity that makes the world feel louder than it should and adds another layer of exhaustion to an already relentless condition.

This is why I’m on a mission.

Migraine is invisible to those who don’t understand it. I am on a mission to make it impossible to ignore—to advocate for deeper understanding, research, and compassion so that people living with this condition are seen, supported, and believed. Migraine is the second leading cause of disability among women between ages 18-45, and it deserves the same level of compassionate attention, research funding, and urgency as any other serious and debilitating condition.

This walk is deeply personal. It’s to thank the UHealth Neurology and Headache Team for helping me get back on my feet and to support their ability to continue doing the same for others. It’s for every day I’ve quietly showed up in pain, every plan I’ve had to reluctantly cancel, every setback I’ve had to fight through, and for everyone who continues to endure this invisible condition with resilience and grace.

💜 Join me and Mission Migraine as we raise awareness, advance research, combat stigma, and make migraine impossible to ignore.

💜 Follow us on Instagram @missionmigraineinitiative