07/18/2025
What is your first memory of having a medical episode? For me it was when I was about 12 or 13 and my mother, sister and I were driving to the mall in Novi Michigan. My sister was in the backseat with me and was chewing mint gum. I reminded my mom that I hated the smell of mint and it made me feel bad and here I am trapped in the car with the smell of fake mint. I then started getting a headache and got super nauseous. I told my mom if my sister didn’t immediately get rid of that gum I was gonna puke in the car. My poor sister cried and complained and made a big fuss because she had used her allowance money to buy that gum (a valid argument from a pr***en in the 80s who barely got any allowance). My mom yelled at her and told her to spit it out the window. She shot daggers at me as she tossed that gum out the window. It was the 80s and my headaches were just that, headaches because migraines didn’t exist in the 80s even though my father was diagnosed with them as a very young child and missed tons of school because of them in the 60s until a relative in the family prayed over him and he never had another one ever again. To this day, almost 35 years later, mint is still a migraine trigger for me. I wasn’t officially diagnosed with migraines until I went to college and had regular access to a doctor.
When you think back what was your earliest memory of your medical condition even if you didn’t know what it was called?