Any Face, Any Place

....could be smiling behind severe pain. Why? Because if every pain of every person living with a chronic invisible condition let each ripple of pain stop them in their tracks, most of us wouldn't get out of bed in the morning. In any given crowd of people, you can be assured that at least a few are silently living out their own personal form of lonely torture.

Of course, there are different levels of pain for each individual person, but all of it is a struggle in its own way. Today a US politician with hopes for a presidential run in 2012, Michelle Bachmann, spoke openly about her migraine disease. Now, I'll be honest. I disagree with pretty much everything this woman has to say politically. No, make that everything.

On the other hand, I found her comments today to be very brave. To speak openly about an invisible illness is not easy. It takes courage. It takes profound trust in the people around you....a deep and abiding faith that they will believe you, support you, and never assume that your pain is little more than a reason not to work or function in the world. The people who love you the most will see that shade of grey in your skin and the black circles around your eyes and know better than to question the veracity of your suffering, but others will always wonder.

Michelle is not alone in coming clean with her illness. Others, such as Serene Branson whose atypical migraine symptoms were demonstrated on national television and Percy Harvin, wide receiver for the Minnesota Vikings - are putting a face on an otherwise unnoticed issue.

I am really glad that Michelle Bachmann spoke out today. She made it very, very clear that her condition is:

1. Treated with appropriate medication (I'm guessing one of the migraine-abortive meds such as Imitr*x) and responds to that medication well.

2. Monitored properly by her personal care physician.

3. Rarely gets in the way of her energy level and work day.

I also consider her to be one of the fortunate ones. Not all migraineurs are so blessed. It's true - some simply cannot keep a job because of too much down time. Some cannot afford the ridiculous cost of the meds mentioned above. They average $15-$20 per tablet up here in Canada. I'm not sure what they would sell for in the US. If my extended health care plan did not cover these meds for me, I simply would not be able to take them. Also, in my case, they only work about half the time, so the money would not necessarily be well spent.

Given her political leanings in general, and her homophobia in particular, I don't see this woman as a good choice for the 2012 elections. But I will give her this much. She is honest, and stepped up to the plate with a condition that the media would have dug up later anyway. They would have made a huge deal of it and she would have been made to defend herself in a profoundly unfair way.

She would likely have been accused of "hiding" a part of her life that could potentially make her unable to serve in office. She would have faced accusations of "using" her illness as an excuse to bail on campaign activities. Some would have claimed that her medical history only proves that women's "frailties" should keep them out of positions of power (because women have more migraine disease than men), taking us all back a few centuries to Victorian England and women with the "vapours."

Michelle did not wait for that obscene media sweep. She faced it with the confidence gained from knowing her own body better than anyone in the mainstream media. The truth is, she did not ask for migraine disease - no one does - so she should never have to defend her ongoing journey down that particular rabbit hole.

None of us should.