Readers of my blog will have noticed by now that I have been conspicuous by my absence of late. Sadly, I was taken sick this past week, and I have been unable to post anything. See, I am one of those fortunate individuals who has been blessed with migraines. If you've ever experienced the joy of the migraine, then you need read no further. You know what I'm on about and you can go back to something more relaxing, like...say...root canal 
surgery. If you've never had the pleasure of experiencing a migraine, then you truly do not know what you are missing. first of all, let me say that a migraine is not - NOT, I say - a headache. It may affect the head, but it is not a headache. you cannot take a couple of aspirin and get back to business when you have a migraine. You cannot - as someone once said to me - just get over it. A migraine is a whole-body ailment that must be experienced first had to be truly appreciated. It strikes the head - front and back - a hard, dull throbbing in your temple and down the back of your neck, pounding in time with your heartbeat, as though someone were hammering on your head and neck with a two-by-four. It also strikes the stomach. nausea, total and all encompassing. You break out in cold sweat, your stomach lollops. You hug the toilet praying that you won't throw up, because with every heave of your stomach, you head explodes afresh! Then, when your stomach is empty, comes the dry heaves, your poor stomach's gut-wrenching attempt to climb up through your esophagus and pop out of your mouth. It also strikes the senses. Some see sparkly lights and hear strange noises. For me, all light is too, too harsh, all noises too, too grating. Rooms become unbearably hot. Try taking aspirin. Tylenol. Ibuprofen. none of them will do you a bit of good. The migraine gobbles them up and laughs at them. nothing stops the pain, the nausea. By Tuesday night, I was reduced to a quivering mass of jello, whimpering, unresponsive. Michelle called 911. In rolled the paramedics. People pawing me, asking me questions I didn't want to answer, because it hurt to much to listen. I mean, after all, my eyebrows hurt! Next I'm up and on the gurney and out the door. MOTION! Urp! There went the dry heaves again. Into the ambulance. MORE MOTION!!! More dry heaves! More lights in my eyes. things poking me in the wrist. In the arm. then the most blessed words I had ever heard in my entire life: "We're giving you something for the nausea." And they did, may their houses prosper and their children rise up and call them blessed! Then we wheeled into the ER. The pain in my head throbbing with every movement. More questions. more prodding. More lights in my eyes. And then, something slammed into my heart, making it race while fire burned through my arms and legs and my head exploded in pain.
surgery. If you've never had the pleasure of experiencing a migraine, then you truly do not know what you are missing. first of all, let me say that a migraine is not - NOT, I say - a headache. It may affect the head, but it is not a headache. you cannot take a couple of aspirin and get back to business when you have a migraine. You cannot - as someone once said to me - just get over it. A migraine is a whole-body ailment that must be experienced first had to be truly appreciated. It strikes the head - front and back - a hard, dull throbbing in your temple and down the back of your neck, pounding in time with your heartbeat, as though someone were hammering on your head and neck with a two-by-four. It also strikes the stomach. nausea, total and all encompassing. You break out in cold sweat, your stomach lollops. You hug the toilet praying that you won't throw up, because with every heave of your stomach, you head explodes afresh! Then, when your stomach is empty, comes the dry heaves, your poor stomach's gut-wrenching attempt to climb up through your esophagus and pop out of your mouth. It also strikes the senses. Some see sparkly lights and hear strange noises. For me, all light is too, too harsh, all noises too, too grating. Rooms become unbearably hot. Try taking aspirin. Tylenol. Ibuprofen. none of them will do you a bit of good. The migraine gobbles them up and laughs at them. nothing stops the pain, the nausea. By Tuesday night, I was reduced to a quivering mass of jello, whimpering, unresponsive. Michelle called 911. In rolled the paramedics. People pawing me, asking me questions I didn't want to answer, because it hurt to much to listen. I mean, after all, my eyebrows hurt! Next I'm up and on the gurney and out the door. MOTION! Urp! There went the dry heaves again. Into the ambulance. MORE MOTION!!! More dry heaves! More lights in my eyes. things poking me in the wrist. In the arm. then the most blessed words I had ever heard in my entire life: "We're giving you something for the nausea." And they did, may their houses prosper and their children rise up and call them blessed! Then we wheeled into the ER. The pain in my head throbbing with every movement. More questions. more prodding. More lights in my eyes. And then, something slammed into my heart, making it race while fire burned through my arms and legs and my head exploded in pain."What was that?" I groaned, as I writhed on the bed.
"Just a little morphine for the pain," the man said.
"It's not working," I told him.
"It will soon," he said.
"And people actually like this?" I asked.
"Some do," he said.
I didn't. It was an awful feeling. And it didn't stop the migraine. In fact, it didn't even phase the migraine. A short time later, they gave me more morphine. Same hammer to the chest. Same burning. Same explosion in the head. it didn't help either. Then they decided they better check to make sure i didn't have meningitis. what luck for me. A lumbar puncture! No worries; although , there are some side effects. Like a headache.
"Oh, thanks," I moaned at the doctor.
Well, several hours later, I was released. The diagnosis? A migraine caused by a severe sinus infection. treatment? Anitbiotics. Midol. Bedrest. I needed that last one. Remember the possible headache from the lumbar puncture? I got it. I've had it since Wednesday. It's nearly debilitating. I'm wondering when it's going to end. Oh, and on Thursday, I got to have a molar yanked out of my jaw!
So that was my week from Hell. Can't say I want to repeat it anytime soon.
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