Petition Letter
To Dr. Johanne Bénard,
I am appealing the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for a minimum of one year. Due to extenuating health circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to fully commit myself to my academic success, and subsequently failed to pass my courses.
Over the course of my first year at Queen's I have been dealing with chronic migraines. I have had migraines over much of my adult life, but over the course of the summer and first semester they began to grow in frequency and intensity. The migraines are incredibly debilitating and often prevent me from engaging in any sort of activity. Depending on the intensity of the migraine, every task becomes either exponentially harder or I may not be able to work at all, and instead spend the time in pain. This made it incredibly difficulty to stay on top of my course work. Even when I planned to complete work ahead of deadlines, scheduling out time for potential migraines, I had more work than I could hope to accomplish in the time that I wasn't suffering from a migraine. I spent the school year doing my best to catch up on work, all to no avail. Having these migraines prevented me from completing work and studying, even when I really wanted to, making it difficult to stay hopeful.
After realizing the extent to which these migraines were affecting my academic success, I consulted my family doctor back in Vancouver and was prescribed medication that I began taking in early December of 2016. Although the medication alleviated the migraines somewhat, I would still get them more often than not. I assumed that this was the best the medication would be able to do, and continued to do my best despite getting migraines very often. This was an incredibly frustrating time for me as it seemed that even with the medication the migraines were taking over my life. I ended up missing two of my December exams because of these migraines, and wrote one at a later date (BIOL 102) while dropping the other course completely (PHYS 106). On March 9th I went to the doctor's office to discuss my migraines and to see what could be done about the course work I was falling behind in. After telling the doctor that I was still getting migraines quite frequently, she told me that my dosage may be too low and increased it. As for missing course work, she wrote me a note to get extensions to the work I had missed. Although this helped, I was still getting a migraine a couple times a week and was struggling to catch up on course work with all the time I spent dealing with my migraines. It wasn't until exam period that I decided to try a higher dosage as to prevent missing another exam. Only then did I begin to see major changes to my migraine frequency. Unfortunately, by this point I had already fallen very behind and due to many missed deadlines, I failed my courses. I did my very best to work hard and stay on top of my work, but the migraines made this impossible and my success was completely out of my control. I knew I can do much better if only I had the chance, and that was the most frustrating feeling of all. I'm passionate about Biochemistry and the Queen's community; I'm volunteering in a lab in Botterell Hall this summer, and on the executive team for multiple clubs next year. Now that I am finally on top of my migraines, I hope that you will give me the opportunity to reach my full potential here at Queen's and to prove how well I can really do in this upcoming school year
Going forward my plan for dealing with my chronic migraines is a combination of both physical and mental changes as follows:
1. Continue taking my medication as directed by my doctor
2. Continue avoiding my list of trigger foods
3. Continue exercising daily
4. Continue meditating daily
5. Continue eating healthy
6. And continue to meet with a doctor on a regular basis
I am appealing the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for a minimum of one year. Due to extenuating health circumstances beyond my control, I was unable to fully commit myself to my academic success, and subsequently failed to pass my courses.
Over the course of my first year at Queen's I have been dealing with chronic migraines. I have had migraines over much of my adult life, but over the course of the summer and first semester they began to grow in frequency and intensity. The migraines are incredibly debilitating and often prevent me from engaging in any sort of activity. Depending on the intensity of the migraine, every task becomes either exponentially harder or I may not be able to work at all, and instead spend the time in pain. This made it incredibly difficulty to stay on top of my course work. Even when I planned to complete work ahead of deadlines, scheduling out time for potential migraines, I had more work than I could hope to accomplish in the time that I wasn't suffering from a migraine. I spent the school year doing my best to catch up on work, all to no avail. Having these migraines prevented me from completing work and studying, even when I really wanted to, making it difficult to stay hopeful.
After realizing the extent to which these migraines were affecting my academic success, I consulted my family doctor back in Vancouver and was prescribed medication that I began taking in early December of 2016. Although the medication alleviated the migraines somewhat, I would still get them more often than not. I assumed that this was the best the medication would be able to do, and continued to do my best despite getting migraines very often. This was an incredibly frustrating time for me as it seemed that even with the medication the migraines were taking over my life. I ended up missing two of my December exams because of these migraines, and wrote one at a later date (BIOL 102) while dropping the other course completely (PHYS 106). On March 9th I went to the doctor's office to discuss my migraines and to see what could be done about the course work I was falling behind in. After telling the doctor that I was still getting migraines quite frequently, she told me that my dosage may be too low and increased it. As for missing course work, she wrote me a note to get extensions to the work I had missed. Although this helped, I was still getting a migraine a couple times a week and was struggling to catch up on course work with all the time I spent dealing with my migraines. It wasn't until exam period that I decided to try a higher dosage as to prevent missing another exam. Only then did I begin to see major changes to my migraine frequency. Unfortunately, by this point I had already fallen very behind and due to many missed deadlines, I failed my courses. I did my very best to work hard and stay on top of my work, but the migraines made this impossible and my success was completely out of my control. I knew I can do much better if only I had the chance, and that was the most frustrating feeling of all. I'm passionate about Biochemistry and the Queen's community; I'm volunteering in a lab in Botterell Hall this summer, and on the executive team for multiple clubs next year. Now that I am finally on top of my migraines, I hope that you will give me the opportunity to reach my full potential here at Queen's and to prove how well I can really do in this upcoming school year
Going forward my plan for dealing with my chronic migraines is a combination of both physical and mental changes as follows:
1. Continue taking my medication as directed by my doctor
2. Continue avoiding my list of trigger foods
3. Continue exercising daily
4. Continue meditating daily
5. Continue eating healthy
6. And continue to meet with a doctor on a regular basis