Sunday, July 18, 2010

The Joys of Hormones............

Ah.  Today I feel like I'm coming out of a coma.  Most of yesterday was just a blur.  I had a migraine--- a real one... this first time I have had one in 27 years... I got them regularly when I was a child.  Horrible migraines that would last 2 or 3 days... My Mom would finally take me to the hospital where they would inject me with a drug and keep me overnight until it was completely gone.  I once spent a week in the hospital when I was 10 having all sorts of tests performed on my brain--- my main memory of it was all the presents that I got.  I remember some of the children there too-- a boy with a badly burned face, a girl that my Mom said was dying-- she had been there a very long time... there were cards plastered all over her hospital room walls.  There was also a child in an oxygen tent--- my Mom told me that was what my brother had lived in in the hospital.  I know I shared a room with someone, but I don't remember that child at all.   In the end they found no brain lesions-- they decided my triggers were Red dye, MSG, Bright lights, and stress...  From then on I had to wear sunglasses in the snow--- in the Tennessee mountains it snows a lot.  The last migraine I got was when I was 12 years old and my Uncle Glen died on the beach at a family reunion in front of us all.  My cousin Kim had a seizure that night, and I got a migraine.  All the other children just cried and had bad dreams...  That was also the last beach family reunion we ever had...  Pawley's Island, SC.

MSG still gives me a whopping headache... but nothing like yesterday's.  I think I knew it was coming--- a few days before, I had a couple of episodes where I completely lost the vision in my left eye for a few seconds.   Must have been an aura.  When I was a child, I would get sparkles in my eye.  The headache is still lurking--- my eye feels tender and tired and if I move my head too fast I feel pain.   But I don't feel like I am dying and my nausea has gone away.  I am not happy that they have come back... I think the triggers were stress and hormones.  For the last few years I have been getting bad PMS headaches, but nothing like this.  First thing next week I am going to get some health insurance and get some medicine to keep on hand in case this happens again.  At one point I thought I was dying--- I wanted my Mommy.. I wanted someone to come take care of me....  but there was no one.  Oh well, I survived.  It was just a migraine-- I forgot how bad they hurt!!!  Many people suffer from them regularly, I feel so sorry for them.  At least the drugs available for them are better now--- the pills I took as a kid would literally knock me out for a couple of days.  I wonder what they were...

God was with me I guess, because during the worst of it Kate called and invited Big A to go swimming with them... here husband took them to the pool, the park, fed Big A and kept her over for a movie.  My other two just sat in the living room watching TV all day while I slept.  I was so proud of them, because they got out some toys to play in the living room, and when I got back up, they had put them away in the EXACT right spots.  The playroom was spotless.  The living room was spotless.  And I didn't even ask them to do it--- they did it all one their own!!!  I DO have good kids!!!  Little A came in periodically to check on me-- I could feel her breath on me and touch me... maybe to see if I was alive.  I couldn't open my eyes or talk to her.  She just touched me and walked out of the room.  I had made bagel bites and left them on the stove... they had to feed themselves lunch...  I never heard a sound from them.  Maybe God was with me.

Last night, I put on a movie for us all to watch--- I finally caved in and bought a new DVD player the other day... our third one in a year!!!  We watched "9" in the dark--- Little A was so proud of herself because  "I didn't have to hide my eyes one time!"  And the movie was a bit scary! :)   At bedtime D told me he was scared and asked me to sleep with him--- so I did.  He feel asleep with his head on my chest.  He feels and smells like a little baby when he sleeps.  His hot little head smells so good when it is clean.  When I finally got up and went to bed, I played with our little kitten for a while... He sleeps right next to my head every night--- after he spends about an hour pouncing on me!  Sometime during the night he scratched me under my eye... oh well, kittens will be kittens...

I intended to try to go to Greenville today, but it is already 10:30, and I'm still not feeling the best, so I don't think it is gonna happen.  Too bad, I really wanted to go--- I still may.  I'm gonna lay back down and nurse my head for a few minutes... then we'll see.

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