Putting Our Heads Together

A New Year's Change, MyMigraineConnection

With his new year has come an unexpected, but pleasant change for me. Nearly seven years ago, I started the headaches and Migraines site at About.com. It was a great opportunity, and I value the time I spend working there. Still, there comes a time when even good things come to a close, and I left About earlier this month.

That doesn't mean, however, that I'm not continuing to write and work toward better patient education and support or that I won't be continuing my advocacy efforts. I'll still be writing here, and I've joined the HealthCentral Network as the Lead Expert Patient at MyMigraineConnection. At MyMigraineConnection, I'll be writing the same type of articles you're used to, blogging, and participating in the forum. When you have a few minutes, come say "Hello!"

MyMigraineConnection

CNN Update

What a wild ride! After the abortive attempt at our local television station, I went to Pittsburgh Friday and was on CNN Headline News, Prime News Tonight, Friday evening. Everything went very smoothly. Believe me, I won't complain about how it went. The only thing I do wish is that they had put the URLs for my Web sites on the screen as we had discussed.

I was blown away when I watched the rebroadcast, and the cover of my book filled the screen! My email is showing the success of the show. People are emailing me on my Help for Headaches address and my About.com address. They're not just saying, "Good job," either. They're emailing questions. That, to me, is the measure of the success of the interview. More people now know they can go online and find help.

This is just so cool!

On CNN or not?

Yesterday was a pretty exciting day. I got a call from CNN, asking me to do a five-minute interview for the CNN Headline News Channel. They made arrangements with our local television station for me to do the interview from there, LIVE. Of course, I was super excited! It was a great opportunity to give a huge audience information about headaches and Migraine disease. The rest of my day was filled with phone calls and preparations. At 9 p.m., I was at the local station with the ear bud, microphone, the whole ball of wax. A bit after nine, the technician told me CNN was ready to switch to me. I waited... only to find out that the station's fiber optics cable had gone down yesterday MORNING, something they hadn't told CNN about when agreeing to do this interview. So, I was read; CNN was ready to go to me -- LIVE -- but couldn't. Sigh.