The Headache That Won't Go Away

Over the years I've known a few people who've had severe migraines, but until the past few days, I was never one to suffer from one. But, sometime after lunch on Wednesday, my head began to ache. It got progressively worse during a two-hour drive home in hellish traffic, and the pain just never went away.

By Thursday morning I kept getting the sensation that things were moving. On the way to drop my kids off at school, I thought we were having an earthquake, because things seemed to be moving, but everyone else in the car was like, um, no mom, nothing's moving. My vision/head sort of felt like this photo, except everything was swirling around. But, I did what other irrational people who are too arrogant to admit that something is very wrong do: I went to work...where my condition quickly deteriorated.

The area behind my right eye felt like it was being stabbed. I couldn't look at a computer screen for too long. I vomited twice and had to be taken home by one of my colleagues. Talk about embarrassing!

I'm so used to always being on the go, so it was hard to admit I couldn't do anything but stay in my room with the curtains drawn and cold compresses and ice packs on my forehead --and that's been my life over the past day. I have gotten a LOT of sleep, so that's probably a good thing. But of course, the minute I began feeling a little better, I decided to drive to Rite Aid to get some medicine and good grief, I thought I was going to crash. BAD idea.

Staring at a computer screen doesn't feel so good, so whew, relief that I'm halfway decent at typing without looking at the keyboard! I hope this headache is on its way out...and gosh, now I'm worried about what I'm going to do if it comes back.


photo via Flickr user Sharkey