Brainstorm is an adventure, a treasure hunt, a Job-like tale of "one thing after another." It's a story of discoveries about migraine and migraine treatment told with pithy humor.
Most importantly for the reader, author Susan P. Ryan provides hard-earned insights into confronting migraines and offers hope to fellow migraineurs. She arms readers with information to make them better advocates for themselves and for loved ones who suffer from migraines.
From the Foreword by Dr. David Sherer:
Migraines are a worldwide problem. According to The Cleveland Clinic, migraine impacts more than 10 percent of the world's population, affecting females three times more than males. It is the third most common disease in the world and strikes 1 in 7 people. To give you a sense of its prevalence as a disease, in the United States alone, 1 in 4 households houses a migraine sufferer. . .
Many patients who suffer migraine often get shuffled from doctor to doctor, starting with the family physician, then on to the neurologist and finally the pain medicine specialist. Along the way, they receive this or that medication or treatment, attempting to find the right magical potion to alleviate their suffering. Susan's experience was clearly no different.
Rather than writing a dry, clinical tome, she has an engaging and sometimes humorous style, revealing to the reader what was going on in her life and how those events affected her symptoms and her ability to find effective treatments. Indeed, when one examines the lives of many migraineurs (people who suffer migraine), one sees that those affected are often strongly influenced by a number of disparate factors, which may include, the weather, whether the sun is strong that day, work-, financial-, or relationship- related stress, and even odors. Susan reveals how these and other factors impacted her life as a migraine patient, offering insights that non-migraineurs cannot readily understand. In this way, she educates non-sufferers-from both a personal and environmental standpoint-as to what it feels like to be a migraineur. She also relates how a woman's migraine experience can be so different than a man's.
Many migraine patients will readily identify with the author's journey.
The truly remarkable thing about Brainstorm is its breadth. The author is successful in covering just about every angle one can imagine when it comes to migraine, be it symptom description, impact on one's life, treatment options, and even the natural history (or progression) of the disease. I cannot think of another book available that deals with migraine so completely. If you suffer migraine, or know someone does, this book will be an invaluable resource.
