Finding Light in the Depths of Darkness

​My advocacy story began as I believe many do; out of pure necessity.  I sustained a traumatic brain injury, also referred to as a TBI during a motor vehicle accident.  Although at the time I wasn’t diagnosed as such.  I was simply treated for injuries and told to move on. 

I had the misfortune of being predisposed to medical mistreatment because I am overweight.  Prior to my MVA many doctors had already ruled out my physical complaints, saying they were “in my head” for this fact.  Well now, it truly was.  

It took four long years of grueling appointments, being told I was imagining my pain, and that I couldn’t possibly be experiencing what I was telling my medical team, before I was finally reassessed by a set of fresh eyes.  That doctor was the first one to truly look at me, Laura the woman who was living the past four years in horrible pain. 

During the following year I would find out that I did in fact have what was called post-concussive syndrome, a type of TBI.  That TBI would also turn into intractable migraine.  I would undergo countless orthopedic surgeries for the many issues that were overlooked during those years that my pain was ignored.  But not all of this pain was in vain.

​​I have been in dark places with my pain.  When I was suffering, especially with migraine that has made me consider ending my own life.  Having years with little to no support from my medical team made me search for my own answers.  That pain also made it very difficult to sit at a computer to look for any possible answers that may be the key to making the pain the slightest bit better.   

​That’s why I have started this website.  A place for others to find some of the best resources that I have found over the years in one convenient place.  The website domain, LitUpMyMind.com, is inspired by the thought that light can always be found in darkness, through all adversity – whether that is brain injury or emotional trauma, there is always light and hope.

LitUpMyMind shares the most valuable content I personally endorse and have found helpful on my journey of healing to help educate others about headache, migraine health, and brain injury. 

​I have been blessed beyond measure that I got through my darkest days.  I have been able to come out to the other side and I am seeing that there is life to be lived with chronic pain.  I thought that it was a bunch of rhetoric but once I truly stopped fighting the pain and accepted it as part of my life, my life truly did get better. 
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With the newfound sense of acceptance I have found an inner peace I didn’t know existed.   Now I am able to give my pain purpose by helping others advocate for themselves. I am so lucky that I never gave up advocating for myself, so I can help advocate for others.