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Novel
BY KATIE MORELL
Discovery
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Photo by Stephen Simonetto
Andrew Levy, 49, remembers a time when he was around six years old and saw“ motes dancing in front of [ his ] eyes.” The New Jersey native didn’ t think anything of the sensation at the time, but as he grew older he recognized those motes as auras preceding migraines. Sunlight seemed to trigger auras( such as partial blindness) in his early 20s and 30s, and he began to experience headaches. But it wasn’ t until 2006, when Levy experienced four months of steady headaches, that he sought medical attention.
In 2009, Levy, the Cooper chair of English at Butler University in Indianapolis, Ind., released a book documenting his experience with migraines titled A Brain Wider Than the
Sky: A Migraine Diary. The book received rave reviews thanks to its delicate prose and well-researched view of the history of migraine. Levy recently spoke with Head Wise to discuss his experience with migraine, how he copes and why modern culture still stigmatizes the pain.
Head Wise( HW): Why did you decide to write your book and share your story with others? LEVY: So many migraineurs muddle their way through, and I think it is totally unnecessary to do so. I felt that I was in a position to honestly admit that I had migraines and to talk about them and describe them in some detail that might help people. It was liberating to write about pain, to take control of it in that way, to beat it in that way.
HW: Do you have a known family history of migraine? LEVY: Not on my father’ s side, but my mother did experience migraine events and headaches so bad she needed to throw up. We think my grandmother experienced them, too. Back then she would close the door and disappear for hours at a time. Our guess is that she was experiencing migraines.
HW: How did you cope with migraines at first and how has that coping changed over the years? LEVY: Back in my 20s and 30s, I really didn’ t do much. They were pretty infrequent, so I would take medication and they would go away. In 2006 when I realized I was having migraines, I changed my lifestyle, my diet, tried different medications and went to the doctor.
I got a CT scan to see if it wasn’ t something more serious and then
www. headaches. org | National Headache Foundation 37