The author is a New yorker columnist, and seems to be a practicing / ex-practicing doctor. They talk about their experience with their various doctors and being passed around different medications with various side effects, to some degree of success. Despite all their expertise and expense, they still cannot find a root cause (which may not exist at all), and struggle to find a medication protocol that works for them.
If you really want a bad trip, head over to the r/migraine and r/chronicpain subreddits. These subreddits are full of people, with none of the resources or experiences as the author, betrayed entirely by the medical system which does not serve them, and condemned to chronic pain. The complexity and range of headache and migraine causes does not lend itself well to a 15 minute GP appointment every few months, and without the technical expertise these people turn to alternative medicine, online pseudoscience, and opiates.