Saturday, January 20, 2007
Why the hell am I awake at 4:30 in the morning?
Oh yeah, because I was having a headache day today and spent much of Friday asleep. Oh well, at least a migraine was successfully avoided.
Artificially induced estrogen withdrawal...it's not always pretty.
I purposely stayed close to home tonight because I most often seem to develop migraines when I have to be in some sort of moving vehicle. And really, the worst part of a migraine for me isn't so much that feeling that someone has stabbed an ice pick into your frontal lobe, but the accompanying nausea. And barfing only makes your head hurt more.
The worst migraine I've ever had was in Italy, actually. We had spent a wonderful day in Pompeii, but my dumb ass was out in the sun all day long without a hat. So all that time frying my scalp resulted in my getting a headache when I had no access to any kind of painkiller. And I had like a four-hour train ride ahead of me. The headache just grew and grew and grew, and the train ride was endless and nausea-inducing, and I had some time to ponder, should I make a run to the bathroom or just barf in this bag I have conveniently in front of me? Fortunately I was able to make it to the tiny bathroom on the train to revisit my previously delightful gelato, but I suffered until I could get back to our hotel room with all the lights off and a cold rag on my head. And here I just want to extend kudos to Nick Hawkins, who helped me cross a busy street in Rome, when I couldn't even think straight and could barely walk.
If I had to live with constant migraine pain, I'd be looking into euthanasia. Seriously. My poor sister-in-law has these incapacitating migraines that will land her in the hospital for weeks. I think she's been able to keep those under control lately, thank GOD. Compared to her, I am a whining amateur. Because if Excedrin Migraine cures your ills, you have what she calls "a soccer mom migraine." (I'm a devotee of Tylenol Rapid Release, myself.) But you don't ever want to be a member of her club, trust me.
Here's to happier craniums for everyone in 2007!
--karen
Artificially induced estrogen withdrawal...it's not always pretty.
I purposely stayed close to home tonight because I most often seem to develop migraines when I have to be in some sort of moving vehicle. And really, the worst part of a migraine for me isn't so much that feeling that someone has stabbed an ice pick into your frontal lobe, but the accompanying nausea. And barfing only makes your head hurt more.
The worst migraine I've ever had was in Italy, actually. We had spent a wonderful day in Pompeii, but my dumb ass was out in the sun all day long without a hat. So all that time frying my scalp resulted in my getting a headache when I had no access to any kind of painkiller. And I had like a four-hour train ride ahead of me. The headache just grew and grew and grew, and the train ride was endless and nausea-inducing, and I had some time to ponder, should I make a run to the bathroom or just barf in this bag I have conveniently in front of me? Fortunately I was able to make it to the tiny bathroom on the train to revisit my previously delightful gelato, but I suffered until I could get back to our hotel room with all the lights off and a cold rag on my head. And here I just want to extend kudos to Nick Hawkins, who helped me cross a busy street in Rome, when I couldn't even think straight and could barely walk.
If I had to live with constant migraine pain, I'd be looking into euthanasia. Seriously. My poor sister-in-law has these incapacitating migraines that will land her in the hospital for weeks. I think she's been able to keep those under control lately, thank GOD. Compared to her, I am a whining amateur. Because if Excedrin Migraine cures your ills, you have what she calls "a soccer mom migraine." (I'm a devotee of Tylenol Rapid Release, myself.) But you don't ever want to be a member of her club, trust me.
Here's to happier craniums for everyone in 2007!
--karen
# posted by karen gsteiger @ 4:33 AM 
