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A friend posted this video to Facebook today and it really resonated with me. Growing up in Evangelicalism in my adolescence and young adulthood, we were exhorted to "do great things for God" and to live lives of "significance". Living an ordinary life was seen as a failure. As we developed our life plans, we were to see how we could use our career and/or our hobbies/avocation to share our faith with others. (Sadly, caring for the poor, pursuing justice, and other such explicit commands of Jesus took a far second place in our calculations.) These were the years that I was training to be a physician. I was going to live a "big life" for God. I was going to be taking care of people's physical

I'm posting an update on how my migraines have been and what is working and not working in hopes of encouraging other people with chronic illness, particularly chronic migraine. Please don't take anything I write here as medical advice. This is just documentation of my own journey. I strongly recommend that you find a medical practitioner with whom you are comfortable working and develop a plan to minimize your symptoms and maximize your enjoyment of life. If you have chronic migraine, I strongly recommend seeing a headache specialist. Even if you don't have a headache specialist nearby, it would be good to get a consultation and have your regular doctor consult with the headache specialist

We've all heard that diet and illness are connected. In fact, I worry that we connect the two too much. I've had patients try to avoid medication or surgery by saying that they'll just work on diet and exercise when they clearly needed intervention. We've also become a society that tends to blame people for their illness. I've heard the sentiment expressed that an overweight person with Type 2 diabetes mellitus is responsible for their illness. It's worse with "invisible illnesses" like migraine and fibromyalgia. Because they don't have easily visible lab or XRay markers, they can have stigma associated with them. And, because some people are triggered by foods or activity, it becomes very e

My depression and chronic migraine toss my emotions around like they are a toy boat in an Atlantic storm, so I feel overwhelmed by life on a good day. But, in this day and age, it's easy to feel the that we are being run over even if we don't have mental illness issues. Climate change is real and it's happening all around us. Many months, we hear that we have had the warmest month on record. Wildfires are becoming the norm in California. Cities are flooding. Yet, what can we do as individuals? Yes, we can limit our use of single-use plastics. I'm remembering to use my reusable grocery bags more than half the time now - yay, me! And I keep the temperature down in the house and wear a sweater.

We are about to kick off the most stressful season of the year which should actually be the most joyful and calm!! We just finished getting the beejeezus scared out of us at Halloween and then remembering those who have passed from this life on All Saints Day. Then we had a solemn celebration of our country's veterans (which also happens to be my brother's birthday). Now we move on the bigger holidays. And the time of year when there are more events scheduled than you have time to think about, much the less participate in! But, I've had chronic migraine now for 13 years after working as a busy family physician for 10 years. I've learned a few things that might help other people out over the

A few years ago, Patrick and I took Ancestry DNA tests as a Christmas gift for Patrick's mom who is really into genealogy. My results were not a surprise at all. They said that I was from the British Isles and western Europe. That matched with all the family stories which said that I'm Irish on my dad's side and English and Scottish on my mom's side. When I was a kid, my cousin (who is my parents' age) did a whole bunch of genealogy on my dad's side. He traced the Cavanaugh family back and found that, surprise! we are from Ireland. The three Cavanaugh brothers came from Ireland to the southern US in the 19th century. Our branch ended up in southwestern Louisiana. My cousin and his wife went

When I was in high school, I was part of the Singing Christmas Tree that our church put on every holiday season and we sang "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year". And I truly believed it! I love so much about the holidays - from Halloween to New Years! The food! The gifts! The concerts! The parties! The parades! It's all so much fun! Well, it was fun. When I was a teenager and even into my late 20s and early 30s, I valued the busyness of middle class life. If I was doing stuff, then I was important! I'm sure you can relate?! Or not so much? Then real life caught up. All of the sudden the holidays became associated with bad memories - friends who died around Christmas time or other unple

Things were really looking up. Thursday night, we went to Stevens Point to do a little shopping and have dinner with Chris and Jenna. I felt well Friday, so I visited a friend, went to the library, and then to the craft shop/artists' studio. The rest of Friday afternoon was spent baking cookies (and, yes, eating carbs), cooking dinner, and helping make sure that Minh had everything she needed for her trip that started today. It was all good till 8pm when the migraine started. I took my meds, none of the orally. Nonetheless, the vomiting started and persisted. I tried more meds - the oral ones came up when I vomited. The others just didn't work. After about four hours, Patrick and I decided t

Today's Old Testament lectionary reading was from Habakkuk 3:17-19. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. 19 The Sovereign Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to tread on the heights. It's kind of a confusing one. The book of a Habakkuk is a long lament with the prophet taking on the role of Judah. Here, the prophet is admitting that life is really hard and there appears to be no hope. Neverthe

Patrick and I homeschooled our kids and we loved it. And the kids say they loved it. Overall, it was a good experience. Now that a generation of kids has been homeschooled, though, we're starting to see some backlash against the homeschooling movement, particularly the Evangelical Christian homeschooling movement. I'd like to explore that a little here. For some real data, go to the Coalition for Responsible Homeschooling. This organization is made up mostly of the generation that came up through homeschooling and has seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. They don't advocate for homeschooling, but for students. I'm going to talk about our family's experience and what I've seen in our local a