I was cruising down River Road, late to meet someone. First there was a flash of light, followed by sudden blinded vision and then increasing extreme headache pain. Yes, I was experiencing the onset of a migraine while driving alongside the Ohio River with only a riverbank separating it from me.
Common with migraine sufferers, earlier that day, I had felt some pressure on one side of my head. I knew the signs since I’d been suffering from migraines since I was 17 - the result of a head injury sustained in a car accident. Thinking it would take some time to develop into a full-blown migraine, I continued on with my day’s activities. Unfortunately, that day, the onset of headache pain happened quickly.
Unless you (or a family member) suffer from migraines, you probably don’t realize that migraine ranks in the top 20 of the world’s most disabling medical illnesses. Nearly 10 percent of the population suffers from migraine. That number is on the rise, and according to the American Migraine Foundation, there is no cure and many of the (reported more than 100) current treatments can have serious side effects. Most sufferers live in fear, just as I used to, knowing that any time a sudden attack could disrupt their work or home/social life.
I had been taking pills for migraines for more than a decade by then and I pretty much knew I was about to experience a few days of extreme pain. I also knew that because my vision was suddenly impaired, there was a good chance I could have an accident, even possibly driving into the river.
At that moment, there wasn’t time to reach for a pill to find relief. And, there was no time to slow the car down and get off the road. I needed immediate help. Just five days beforehand, a co-worker had shared with me a book about the role prayer can play in healing. (And I read it in its entirety.) At this moment of pain and desperation, I thought about what I had read in that book and said a very quick prayer….I remember pondering just one idea from the book - that I was a child of God, perfect and loved.
Almost as quickly as I prayed, my vision returned, the pain began to subside, and I was able to get off the busy road without incident. That had never happened before. My usual episodes included a trip to the ER to get a pain shot, followed by long periods of sleep in a dark room. And, like other sufferers, I often missed work and other obligations.
Since about 18 percent of American women and 6 percent of men suffer from migraine (about 36 million people in the US alone), US employers lose more than $13 billion each year as a result of 113 million lost work days. This experience on River Road gave me a first glimpse of a different way to treat chronic pain so that I would no longer be one of these statistics.
As you read this, you might be skeptical or you might even think it sounds like a miracle. But, my experience is not such an unusual occurrence. Thanks to the internet, I regularly read accounts of how people are finding paths to healing through a much wider variety of methodologies than only bio-medicine, including prayer and various forms of meditation. Studies also indicate that more and more physicians are recognizing the value that prayer can offer as a treatment for pain and other illnesses.
Recently, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams (America’s most-watched newscast) ran a two-part report titled “Power of Prayer” – an overview of medical evidence revealing the positive health outcomes people can experience when they pray.
For this show, Cynthia McFadden interviewed Dr. Harold Koening, director of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. After his extensive review of over 4,000 research studies on health and spirituality, he changed his own mind on the value of prayer. He said that people who have a good relationship with God have higher levels of well-being.
Ms. McFadden also interviewed a Catholic priest who had been told he would never walk again after injury to his spinal cord from a fall. He stunned his doctors when, after a year and a half in a wheelchair, he recovered from this severe paralysis as a result of his own prayers.
Growing up, I had read about healings in the Bible – and I believed them - but this immediate healing of pain was a turning-point in my own spiritual - and health - journey. I began a prayer-based practice that has helped me prevent and heal pain - without drugs - for many years now.
Debra writes about the connection between thought, spirituality and wellness. She has been published in the UK, chattanoogan.com, UK Health Triangle Magazine, Jackson Sun Health Magazine, and in the Memphis Commercial Appeal. She is the media and legislative liaison for Christian Science in TN.