When Your Body Starts Screaming at You

It's been about ten years that I have suffered from headaches. The first migraine I ever remember having was at the end of my bridal shower (and it was not indicative of how I felt about the shower - it was great, thank you again Jodi!). However, towards the end, there was no escaping that something was wrong. On the way home, I threw up all over the car (Michele was driving), and my poor sister was forced to clean it all up as I was completely incapacitated. I had to go straight to bed. It was a very frightening experience as it COMPLETELY stopped me cold - there was no "trying to fake it or function" - it scared me that if that were to happen on the day of my wedding, I would not have been able to make it down the aisle.

Since then, the headaches got worse, especially after Brayden was born and his massive weight in his car seat really messed with my allignment. Blessedly, it was around that time that Mom began coming to the rescue - using me as her homework as she trained and certified to become a Licensed Massage Therapist. This became even more huge after the car accident in 2004 as the headaches increased about 4 fold after that. Medicines were also prescribed at that point, so it's all been kept at a pretty manageable point.

Through all this, and probably in large part due to learning from Mom, I've really started to become attune to my body. When it becomes stressed, certain physical things begin to happen. When I'm about to get sick, other "non-sick" sorts of things kick in. And, of course, when a run of the mill headache starts to evolve into something hideous - that will eventually "stop my in my tracks" - there are some very clear repetitive signals.

Today, I awoke with a mild headache. Not altogether surprising as I got worked on by Mom yesterday and sometimes that will happen. I also spend a LOT of time on the Wii Fit. I used it to exercise in the morning, played on it all afternoon with Kara, and then, was in hysterics in the evening, as we introduced it to Michele and watched Travis try to compete against us. Seriously, I have not laughed as hard as I laughed last night in years....

Around noon today, I started to feel like my eyes were sleepy/aggravated. It began to make more sense around 2:00, on the drive to Michele's when I felt that pressure around the bridge of my nose and felt the need to get off the cell phone so I could press on that point in order to alleviate the pressure. I had already taken medicine, so the pain wasn't so much the issue -

We were planning on taking both vehicles to do returns at the outlet and then return to Michele's house. (John is gone at a leadership retreat this weekend). But, just at the point that we were nearly passing the last exit to her house, I called and suggested we go straight there - I wasn't going to make it.

At that point, it became a race against time and sheer willpower to make it to Michele's. I was quite tempted to call Michele to see if somehow she'd drive the 40 minutes to her house, bring Michael in the car with her and come to drive my car. All I wanted to do was crawl in the backseat and lay down. Being upright was killing me. I was nauseous, my body temperature was going all over the place (I was constantly trying to warm up while keeping the air blowing cold), my palms were sweating, my leg was shaking everytime I exerted it to use the break - my body was pretty much screaming at me! We were driving back roads so if I felt like I couldn't maintain consciousness, I would have been able to pull over - and Michele was right in front of me as well, so it was safe enough. But, it really was one of the more scary road trips I've had in a long time.

I can't even tell you how happy I was to crawl into Michael and Michele's bed. I short nap helped wonders - though I'm currently back to NEEDING to lay down again. None of this may mean much to you all - but if you can take the pain out of the equation, it is kind of fascinating just how crazy it can get when your body is trying to get your attention!