Shownotes Transcript
Hey, everyone. It's Lauren Bright Pacheco, and welcome to a special bonus segment of Symptomatic. We've honestly been so blown away by the outpouring of support for the stories we've been sharing this season and for the community that they've helped create.
So many of you have reached out to share how these stories have resonated with your health journeys. So today we wanted to update you on one particular story that we've received a ton of outreach on this season. Case number nine, Michelle.
So if you haven't listened to that episode, here's your spoiler alert, because we've invited Michelle back to share some of the messages that we've received from listeners and to get her reaction and update on all of the above. ♪
It is so good to see you again. It's so good to see you. I'm happy to be back with you. I want to share some of the reactions we've gotten from your episode, but first I want to hear how did your friends and family react to it? Everyone was so excited to listen. Many people were surprised. I heard a lot of people say, oh, I had no idea you had been going through that for all those years. And I was like, oh, I'm so glad to hear that.
It feels good that I can talk about it and I'm comfortable talking about it and it just feels good. At the end of the episode, I had expressed the optimistic hope maybe you would find some silent migraine twins of sorts in terms of your symptoms.
I feel like I kind of did. I had two friends reach out to me to say, wow, I have experienced similar symptoms for years and didn't realize it was related to migraines. And that was a shock. Two really good friends. That was pretty interesting.
Isn't that so amazing? Because there is this empathy and this understanding of going through what you went through for years, for decades. And we got some amazing emails and messages, and I'd love to share some of them with you. So the first one was an email that we received from a woman named Cheryl in Massachusetts.
And she said, I was just listening to your podcast featuring Michelle. I went through a similar experience. I was tested for MS, had blood tests, MRIs, but nothing definitive came back. They had run every test imaginable to no avail. They referred me to a migraine specialist. He knew what it was immediately. Michelle can feel free to reach out anytime. I'm glad she was finally able to find out what it was. Cheryl. Wow, that just brings tears to my eyes.
I'm just so grateful for this podcast and to know that it wasn't in my head all those years. And to know how your story resonated with other people and that if you hadn't reached out to me and expressed the desire to share, this wouldn't have happened. Yes, that is incredible. So we don't have time to read all of the ones that we got, but one that really resonated with me was a review, actually, that we got on Apple Podcasts. And
It was just so moving. The woman wrote,
And now it's my turn to use your story to finally cure my symptoms. Thank you, Michelle, and to everyone on this podcast. Fun side note, this was maybe my third podcast ever. Wow, isn't that incredible? It just gives me chills, especially when she says one side of her throat. That was one symptom that always stood out to me. Like, how is that even possible? And that she stumbled upon the podcast the third time she'd ever listened to a podcast ever. And the episode she's listening to is...
is describing the exact symptoms she's experiencing in real time. Yes. Oh, my goodness. Wow.
Thank you so much, honestly, Michelle, for sending me that email a year ago, basically. Well, thank you for allowing me to share my story. It has really made a lot of difference and it's changing people and connecting people. And that's honestly what makes this really a joy for me to work on. And my daughter really appreciated the chance to participate in it also.
Oh, she was wonderful. She wanted you all to know how much she appreciated. And Lauren, I just want you to know how much I appreciated how well it was done and how well it was produced. So thank you so much. And thank you, as the kids say, for slipping into my DM. Thank you.
All right, so that wraps this up. And thank you again to all of our listeners and to everybody who took the time out to share their experiences with silent migraines. It means the world to us. And we're so excited to connect with more of you in the future and to continue bringing awareness to overlooked and underdiagnosed health conditions.
If you'd like to share the impact our show has had on you, or even if you want to share a medical mystery of your own, you can reach us at symptomatic at iheartmedia.com. And of course, as always, you can like, subscribe, and follow Symptomatic, a medical mystery podcast, on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get the stories that matter to you. Thanks again for listening. And until then, we very much hope you stay well.