Whuf, That Was a Nasty One

If I had mentioned that I had a headache when I wrote on Tuesday, that could have been what we call ominous foreshadowing, but I didn't mention it. It had been mild, I was functional, it wasn't bad.

Well.

In the evening, it started getting worse, into what I class as moderate (on the scale of Mild - Moderate - Severe), and after a while, I decided that going to bed early, with the hope of sleeping it away, was what I would do. The Bruins were playing badly, I felt rotten, why not. I was in bed around 8.

It didn't work.

I woke up about an hour later, fell back asleep, woke up again around 10, and by that time, was into severe, with the head pain and awful upset stomach that entails. It was terrible for roughly an hour, then faded back into moderate, and I was able to get back to sleep.

Unfortunately, when I woke up Wednesday morning, I was still in moderate. I tried eating some rice, hoping it would settle my stomach. Then I opened the Globe and started skimming along through the paper. When I got to the sports section, I tried to read about what had gone wrong (they lost in regulation for the first time in months), and realized I couldn't concentrate. That right there is the key to what I mean by mild and moderate: With a mild headache all day Tuesday, I was able to work, communicate, do laundry, all that good stuff. In moderate, forming sentences was more of a challenge. I knew I couldn't work, so I logged in just long enough to let them know I was taking a sick day, and went back to bed.

And that's what I did all day Wednesday: sleep for about an hour, get up in pain and misery for a while, go back to bed, repeat. I did finally throw up at 3, which I hoped would help, but frustratingly, it did not. Onward and onward.

I woke up at around 2 AM and thought I might perhaps be hungry (I never had dinner Tuesday, and only the rice [and plenty of water] all day Wednesday), so I got up and had a few crackers, considered things, and went back to bed. I woke at 4 and wasn't sure anything had improved, but I woke again after 6 and felt, startlingly, somewhat better and actually hungry. I got up and had a bowl of cereal, and decided that yes, I was actually feeling somewhat normal in both head and stomach. Hooray!

I get these terrible migraines so infrequently, compared to how I used to, but this one was a long one by any stretch, and came with all the usual frustrations when nothing worked to make it better. But eventually it's gone.

So today has been the standard "headache hangover" day, when I feel weak and wobbly, have to rest a lot, and am grateful all the same for the improvement. So, I'm wiped out by nothing, so what: my head doesn't hurt! It's amazing.

It's also nice to be hungry again. Feels closer to normal.