My creative piece is based on an encounter from my HCA shift. On the ward, I met a woman being monitored for epileptic seizures. We spoke about her health problems, but what really stood out was something different: she suffered from severe, debilitating migraines. I have never had a migraine, nor had I spoken to anyone who suffers from them; all I knew was that they were a type of headache, so I asked her more. She described it in an incredible yet horrifying way. There is excruciating pain, but she said there are also other sensations that come with it – such as a deep throbbing that ebbs and flows in waves, almost feeling like her head is exploding. She said the pain switches from side to side and goes from her eyes, over the top and down to the back of her head. She described seeing a kaleidoscope of light, obscuring her vision.

The way she described her symptoms really struck me, and I took the opportunity to further explore her experience of migraine in my creative piece. I used Procreate to develop piece of digital art. I wanted to depict someone suffering from a migraine, capturing the exploding metaphor in both the pain and bright aura. Through this process I feel I’ve become more empathetic, as it was challenging yet interesting, to put myself in someone’s shoes…

Producing this piece has been eye-opening – I’ve learnt about pain and how it can affect people reminding starkly me that pain can be invisible, so it’s important to be compassionate and aware that you don’t always know what people go through.