advocate for equal care takes an emotional toll and can become exhausting.
“During my daughter’s pregnancy, we coached her on how to talk to physicians and what to ask for and what to demand because Black women die during pregnancy way too much in America,” Walker shares. “But shouldn’t we just be able to enjoy the journey of her pregnancy instead of sweating? It’s a weight on your soul. I choose where I go with my migraines – I try not to go to an emergency room. I hope I can make it to a physician because they know my condition. I’m actually afraid to go to somebody who doesn’t know me because I don’t know whether or not they’re going to give me the proper care.”
Coping and Hope for Change
When asked about coping mechanisms, Walker, who just underwent a bout of prostate cancer, has a sobering response.
“I went in there on guard and halfway through our treatment, the doctor said it’s nice to see you let your guard down and I can’t. It’s my life. I don’t think we’re coping – I think we’re surviving or doing the best we can to survive. People think we cope because we survive or come out of it, but we’re not coping. I will never be able to trust a medical professional on day one. That’s not coping – that’s just the reality. I can’t afford to lose my life,” Walker adds.
While the 59-year-old has witnessed some shifts in the treatment of Black male migraine sufferers as he has aged, changed and learned to advocate for himself, certain aspects of the situation have remained unchanged.
Walker believes that training and a younger generation of doctors have caused a shift in how medical professionals view those impacted by migraines. However, when he sees commercials for migraine medications, he still feels that the target audience is women.
“We’ve got a ways to go. but I think it starts with education…We also have to train patients on how to deal with doctors when they don’t want to listen,” Walker says. “I believe that the healthcare system has to change the way that they look at and treat Black patients.”
“I do not believe most medical professionals are racist, but we as human beings all have biases and prejudice. If they don’t train them – if medical schools don’t train them to recognize and see their biases and prejudice – they’re not conscious of how they treat people differently. They’ve got to learn the soft skills: How do you talk to people? What questions do you ask? How do you listen? What is your body language saying to Black men and Black women? We read your body language – the tone and tenor of how you talk is sometimes more important than the words you say,” Walker adds.
Walker’s Advice to Black Male Migraine Sufferers
- Believe in yourself. “You have to believe in yourself because, for a while, I thought I was crazy. My head was hurting. As a teenager and a young adult, I’m sitting there going ‘but these aren’t migraines’ so you have to believe in yourself – you have to trust your body,” Walker says.
- Understand when over-the-counter medicine isn’t working. “When it’s in that much pain, you can’t walk it off. Your migraines get to a point where over-the-counter medicine just simply will not work or you’re going to OD on taking too much of it. So you have to educate yourself on your condition,” Walker adds.
- Find a neurologist or specialist. “Migraines aren’t one kind of headache. They’re a group of conditions. Mine come in clusters. So if I get one, I don’t get one all day, I get a bunch of them all day. We have to start seeing specialists,” Walker says adding that he started seeing a neurologist.
- Learn the difference between a headache and a migraine. “I don’t think we talk about what a migraine really feels like or looks like so people sometimes may think it’s just a very bad headache, but migraines can do physical damage to the brain,” Walker adds.