You wouldn't expect the opening remarks of a medical conference to make a person cry, but that's just what happened at the American Headache Society symposium on Friday. Hearing headache specialists talk about their passion for helping patients with headache disorders and ways headache has touched their personal lives was heartwarming.  They also talked about frustrations with lack of funding for research that would find better treatments for patients and the magnitude of the stigma of migraine.

Toward the end of the AHS president's remarks, the room went dark and he asked everyone to stand with their cell phones lit to show their commitment to "shedding a light on migraine." It was powerful. Then came the first talk, in which the speaker asked everyone who had migraine to stand up. Three-quarters of the room stood up. Then she asked for everyone who had a loved one with migraine to stand. I didn’t see anyone in the room still sitting. The passion and commitment I saw in that room brought both tears to my eyes and a smile to my face. These people are practicing headache medicine because they care deeply for their patients and want to help them find relief.

Unbeknownst to me, while I was in that session, Hart had to leave the TheraSpecs exhibit because of a migraine. Oh, the irony. Fortunately, we had an extra person helping out, so Carey wasn't the only one staffing the booth in the morning rush. In the afternoon, I skipped the rest of the sessions so I could lend a hand.

This was the first time I've worked the booth. Hart and Carey have told me about it, of course, but their words didn't prepare me for the firsthand experience. Just like in the opening session, as I talked to health care providers – doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and even psychologists – I was floored by how committed to and passionate about treating headache disorders they all were. Their enthusiasm for TheraSpecs was exciting.

This is the fourth conference TheraSpecs has exhibited at. Each time, more and more providers come by the booth to tell us how happy they are to recommend a side effect-free way to provide relief and that their patients love TheraSpecs. They tell us stories of people who got a migraine every time they went into bright sunlight… until they tried TheraSpecs. And patients who left work every day with a migraine or headache after working under the fluorescent lights and staring at a computer screen… until they tried TheraSpecs. They tell us about patients whose photophobia kept them in a dark room during a migraine attack… until they tried TheraSpecs. They also told us about the extreme photophobia their cluster headache patients endure and that TheraSpecs make the horrible experience of a cluster attack a little easier to bear.

Hart and I started TheraSpecs because we wanted other people to experience the same amount of relief that I got with this eyewear. We often hear from customers who love their TheraSpecs and it’s tremendously gratifying to see health care providers also excited about them. And even beyond our product, being reminded how much these practitioners care about their patients and how much they want to help gives me so much hope for the future of headache treatment.