Relief

I keep looking at that fantastic photograph in my previous post (below) and hate to make a new post which will push it further down the page. What a great shot. The artist says he took it whilst aiming his lens into a mirror in a shop window across the street from the brasserie. Brilliant! I wish I had the streets of Paris to inspire my photography.

But post I must, for I am a blogger. And there is some good news to share, some surprisingly good news. After almost 2 years of chronic daily headache (every single day), and 9 years of plain-old chronic headache (more than 15 days a month) I've recently had some relief. Praise the Lord...things seem to be improving in my head. At least for now. I will take the gift as it comes...one day at a time, and dream of a headache-free week...

For the past 10 days or so, my headaches have "let up". This didn't seem possible, still doesn't seem possible. Headache has been my full-time, 24/7 "normal" for the past 18-24 months. I've had a headache, of some degree or another, all the time. In fact, lately they seemed to be worsening.

So I don't know what to make of this magical state. Why all of a sudden have the headaches lifted? For days in a row, I've felt much, much better. The shadow of headache hasn't fully lifted. They get into your bones, and I realize now it's taking a while for the fog of pain to disappear, for my spirits to lift and find home in this new pain-less place. It isn't entirely pain free, but it's a dramatic shift in the right direction.

Since the mother's day weekend, my headache journal indicates that I have had rather low-level headaches compared to usual. Looking back, I see several days of 2's or 2's and 3's. I've had a few mornings where I woke up with a 6, which then dissolved into a 2 or a 3. Or evenings that have been down-graded from a kindly 2 to an evil 6 or 7. There are even a few zero's and one's! But for the past 10 days, the headaches, the daily 3pm-grind kind of headaches, have subsided. I've been on the low side of the "mild-to-moderate" instead of high side of "moderate-to-severe" as I usually am.

What's the secret? Nothing terribly exciting, I'm afraid. I'd like to say I've found the One True Remedy that has resolved my headaches, so I could share it with you all. But I haven't. I've worked harder and tried more things in the past and been more driven to heal myself and got no relief. So now that I feel I've done so little, here comes relief. What's changed?

My formula for success: 50mg of Elavil and lots of sleep.

Sleep is an issue for me. I'm a night owl. I have trouble getting to bed before 11pm. But since mother's day weekend, I've been going to bed earlier, or at least trying to get 8-9h of sleep, regardless of when I go to sleep. This works on weekends, but during the week I've been trying to get a bit more sleep, just a little earlier to bed. Some nights have been later than 11pm, but I guess I've done enough compensation the following nights. And it seems to be working.

So I will keep this post short and get my chores done and get to sleep. Maybe I should just thank the Elavil, and not count my lucky stars just yet. But at least I'm getting a taste of normal, a taste of the life I once lived, a life where 3pm feels good, not like torture. It is such a joy to have a clear head, yesterday and today. And tomorrow?