Overlake Donors Help Change Lives

In the spring of 2019, with the help of many generous donors, Overlake opened a new service: a headache clinic. Headaches are more than an occasional annoyance. For some, they may be severe or even debilitating. With Kate Kennedy, ARNP at the helm, the headache clinic has already received hundreds of visits from patients age 14 and up with severe headaches. A multidisciplinary team of providers offers everything from physical therapy to weight-loss counseling in addition to neurological therapies. Thanks to strong community support and generosity, many patients are receiving effective, life-changing treatments.

When Kiley Short was just 14, she had migraines so severe that they lasted eight weeks at a time and caused her to hide in a closet to escape from the noise and the light. Too sick to attend school, she missed over half the days of her freshman year of high school and eventually left school altogether. Doctors doubted her description of her symptoms and suggested she was “just depressed,” treating her with anti-depressants rather than attempting to treat her migraines. She thought she would never escape the pain.

Then she met Kate.

“Kate changed my life,” Kiley says. “She believed me and she was 100% open to finding other ways to treat me.” With Kate’s help, Kiley learned that her headaches were caused by nerve damage from an incident that happened earlier in her life. Nerve blocking agents and a new medication that prevents migraines from getting started finally brought Kiley’s headaches under control.

Without pain, Kiley finished high school. Now 21, she works 30 hours a week and studies accounting at Skagit Valley Community College.

When Kate moved her practice to Overlake, Kiley continued working with her. “Overlake is so lucky to have Kate, and so am I. I got my life back, and I can do all the things I want to do. No more dark rooms!”