17-year-old girl
My story!
I’m 17 years old and was in the children’s pain center in Datteln two years ago. I had bad headaches for months on end. They started after a sports accident at school. I was about 14 when it happened. I fell heavily on my head and had to rest for a long time due to a concussion. But my headaches didn’t go away. I tried to continue living my life with headaches – without restrictions. But that didn’t work. Sometimes my pain was so bad that I couldn’t go to school. I was even taken to the hospital in an ambulance a few times because I had broken down due to the dreadful pain. That was terrible for me. My family, especially my mother, was very worried because even after many doctor’s visits and tests nothing was found that could be triggering my headaches. It was a very bad time for me. I was totally helpless. But then I came to the Lighthouse. At first I was afraid, but then I noticed that they could help me. The therapist explained to me exactly why I have the headaches and also that I’m not imagining them. Just the confirmation that I was not imagining the pain did me good. But the pain was still constantly there. The time on the ward was actually a really lovely time, not the reason I was there, but because I was helped and I met great people. And these people understood me exactly. I was on ward 5c twice. The second time really helped me to be able to use the distraction techniques better. The ABC helped me personally the best, but also the TENS apparatus also helped me a lot. However, sometimes I still had headaches. After some blood work it was found that I have a thyroid condition. I take tablets for it and since then I have my headaches under control! If I notice that my pain is starting again, I immediately do the ABC-distraction; that helps me a lot! With this I can enjoy my life without pain again.
Both of my stays at the clinic were in 2011 and I am glad that I dared to take that step because it helped me.
In the time since the clinic I have achieved a few things: I finished school and have started with my Abitur. That would never have happened with headaches!
A big thank you and huge praise for Dr. Zernikow, Mrs. Hartmann and the whole Lighthouse team. You helped me very much for the long term!