I've been afraid to post that I'm feeling better because I don't want to "jinx" it!
I did go to the doctor, on headache day 15. He was very thorough, asked lots of questions, but ultimately could not give a definite diagnosis. One of the most gratifying aspects of the visit was the lack of focus on stress as a possible cause of the condition. I guess I feared it was really all my fault, and that if I could just relax enough I would be fine. But all he asked was "Has your level of stressed changed recently?" Great question! Because I would say that my level of stress is regularly moderate to high, but it never gave me a 15 day headache before!!
So the doc gave me two samples of a migrane pill called imitrin(although he agreed it was not technically a migrane), with instructions to take one, followed by the second if the headache wan't gone two hours later. If that didn't do it, he would refer me to a neurologist for further testing. The pill worked (but was nothing to mess with...side effects include heart attack and death, and the insert says not to take more than four per month). I felt great all day. Then, 10 hours later, I got a whopping headache...in a different part of my head. I think it was a "rebound headache" from the medication, something I've been reading about on the internet. The next morning my origial headache was gone, but I still felt twinges of pain now and then from this other headache. By the end of the day, I was achy and congested. I had a cold.
We went to the cabin for the weekend, and I curled up in a corner with my tissues and read 250 pages of The Historian, a great read, by the way. I'll take a little head cold any day over a mild but never ending headache. In comparison to the last two weeks, I felt great! Then, yesterday, I woke up with a headache. I was so depressed I could hardly function. The thought of the headache coming back is just unbearable. I decided to take some sinus medication for it. After all, I'm still at the tail end of this cold. It took care of it right away, and this morning I woke up feeling great.
I've always found people who talk about nothing but their health condition so irritating. Don't they realize that at some point it becomes old news, and they are hard to be around because of their inability to focus on anything else? And now look what I've become. I've also never understood that very irritating comment that comes after you finish sharing the ups and downs of your life "Well, at least you have your health". To me this comment seems to say "As long as you're healthy, your life's ups and downs are trivial, so quit complaining."
I may still have a hard time being patient around someone who talks of nothing but their health, but at least I'll understand it a little bit better. I guess there's something to be said for walking a mile in someone's shoes.
We took the ferry on our recent trip to visit Clint's dad. We had such a great time! The weather was brisk, but not unpleasant, although no one could stay out on deck for long. The ferry moves along at a fast clip, creating a strong, chilly wind. The force of the wind makes walking on deck an effort. At first it was a little frightening, so we explored the rest of the ferry, bought cocoa and coffee from their cafeteria-style snack bar, and watched our passage from the safety of a booth. But eventually, curiosity and a sense of adventure won out; there was nothing left to do but brave the elements. The views were breathtaking, the trip relaxing.
