It’s Friday, but unfortunately, it’s not quite the end of my work week. I have to work at the museum tomorrow. Thankfully, we’re no longer regularly open on Saturdays, so I usually only have to work one or two Saturdays a year for special events. Tomorrow just happens to be one of them.
There really isn’t much more to say today. I had a migraine last night and ended up going to bed early. I’m still feeling some mild effects from it this morning, but thankfully, I’m feeling far better than I was last night. Hopefully, those lingering effects will fade as the day goes on.
I did have a really lovely dream last night, though. I woke up in the middle of it and really wished it had continued when I fell back asleep. Maybe it did, but if so, I don’t remember it. I do remember enough to know that it was a very nice dream—and that the man in it was pretty wonderful. Too bad he wasn’t real.
So, this is going to be a short post because I really can’t think of anything else to write. Sometimes, there just isn’t much to say—and that’s okay.
Yesterday was kind of a strange day. Usually, when I have a migraine, it either comes on suddenly or is already there when I wake up. Sometimes the pain is mild enough that I can go about my day. Those are the migraines I have almost every day, and if I stay busy, I can usually push the pain to the back of my mind.
Other days, the pain is so intense that every smell, bright light, or noise makes it worse. Those are the migraines that hurt so much that even resting my head on a pillow is painful, and all I can do is hope I fall asleep quickly. I’ve had headaches intense enough to wake me in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the medications I take mostly prevent those severe migraines unless there is precipitation in the forecast, and even then, the medicine usually moderates them. Then there are migraines when the pain falls somewhere between those two extremes.
Yesterday’s migraine was different.
I saw an aura around lunchtime, and the migraine initially seemed like one of the milder ones—but it felt different in a way I can’t fully explain. At first, the worst part wasn’t the pain but the secondary symptoms. Noise was the least troublesome, but my sense of smell became incredibly intense. I had to stop by the grocery store on my way home, and the smells of the store and the people in it made it difficult not to vomit. The bakery, the seafood department, people wearing too much perfume, and those not wearing enough deodorant—what I call the “Vermont funk”—were all overwhelming. Light became almost as troublesome, so I spent most of last night in the dark.
As I said, my migraines usually come on suddenly and either remain at their original pain level or become much worse fairly quickly. This one began slowly and continued intensifying over several hours until the entire right side of my head was screaming in pain. Literally, the tinnitus became so loud that it felt as though my head were screaming. My right eye felt as if an ice pick had been driven through it and was coming out at the base of my skull. The pain covered the whole right side of my head, but it was most intense in those two places.
Another symptom was what is often called migraine brain fog or cognitive dysfunction. I struggled to concentrate, follow a conversation, or formulate a response. Even the simplest thoughts required more effort than they should have.
I was relieved when I finally managed to fall asleep, and I woke up feeling much better. I still have a shadow headache this morning, but I can handle that. I have too much work to do as I prepare for classes and meetings, so perhaps staying busy will help keep it in the background. I’m just praying that this shadow migraine remains a shadow and doesn’t decide to return in full force.
Today is one of those days when I wish I could stay in bed all day. I went to bed early last night because I had a migraine that was steadily getting worse. I still have a dull headache this morning, along with the foggy-headed feeling neurologists call the postdrome phase—sometimes referred to as a “migraine hangover.”
If Isabella hadn’t demanded breakfast and nature hadn’t called, I would probably still be in bed instead of writing this. Unless the headache and fogginess get worse, though, I’ll go to work today. It usually improves once I’ve been awake and moving for a while. I still have plenty to do at work, so staying busy should help push the headache to the back of my mind—and hopefully make the day pass a little faster.
Last night was a strange night. I’d had a migraine for most of the afternoon and evening, and it was bad enough that I took a late-afternoon nap. The nap didn’t help the migraine, but eventually it eased enough that I could read. I got really into my book and finally had to make myself put it down around 10:30 and turn out the lights. Unfortunately, turning out the lights did not mean falling asleep. So, I resorted to a time-honored tradition that many guys have used to help themselves fall asleep. It worked, and sometime after 11, I finally drifted off to sleep.
Isabella had been trying to get me to go to bed since around 9 pm. Apparently, she knew perfectly well that regardless of how late I stayed up, she wasn’t changing her schedule. Sure enough, at 4 am, she woke me up to feed her.
She also woke me from a rather odd dream. I didn’t appear to be in the dream at all, and all I’ll say about the subject matter is that it had the plot of some fairly kinky porn. I seemed to be watching everything from above, almost as if I were watching a movie rather than participating in the dream. After Isabella roused me and I fed her, I went back to bed.
That’s when something even more unusual happened: I went back to dreaming, and the new dream seemed to continue the previous one. Somewhere along the way, though, the kinky porn plot began turning into a love story that appeared to be heading toward a throuple. Eventually, that dream ended and another began. This time I was actually in the dream, but it was much more romantic than erotic.
I’ve mentioned before that remembering dreams has never happened very often for me. You might remember Saturday’s “Moment of Zen: Sweet Dreams,” and I’m guessing some of you figured out that it was inspired by waking from an erotic dream. Strangely enough, I wasn’t in that dream either. Again, it was more like watching a movie. Judging by the state of certain parts of my anatomy when I woke up, however, apparently I’d found the movie pretty sexy.
I didn’t remember that dream nearly as clearly as I remember this morning’s dreams. Then, another morning last week, I woke remembering a dream that wasn’t erotic at all but much more mundane. So, for whatever reason, I seem to be going through a period of unusually vivid and memorable dreams. I’m not sure why. If I’d started a new medication, I might blame that, but nothing has really changed.
Sadly, all those dreams did nothing for my migraine. I still have it this morning, but I’m going to work. If I called out sick today, it would mean I’d missed three of the last four Mondays because of a migraine. They’ve all been legitimate migraines, but I also know how people can gossip when someone seems to miss work on a regular schedule. I don’t want it to start looking like I’ve developed a convenient case of the Mondays.
If the migraine gets worse—or simply doesn’t get any better as the day goes on—I may come back home. For now, though, I’m going to give Monday a try.
Needless to say, between too little sleep, bizarre dreams, and a lingering migraine, I’m looking forward to this Monday even less than usual.
It’s Thursday, and there really isn’t much to say this morning. I’m drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead—which reminds me, I need to stop and get more coffee on the way home. Running out of coffee is not a situation I want to find myself in tomorrow morning.
The only thing on my agenda today is an appointment with my podiatrist this afternoon, so I’m only working half a day. I certainly won’t complain about a short workday, especially this close to the weekend.
Otherwise, it should be a fairly quiet Thursday. Sometimes, there just isn’t much going on, and that’s perfectly fine.
Have a great day, everyone! The weekend is almost here.
“‘But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the Lord.”
—Jeremiah 30:17
Yesterday, I took a bad tumble while hiking, leaving me scraped, bruised, and aching all over this morning. It brought to mind the comfort Scripture offers whenever we are hurting, whether those wounds are physical or emotional.
Some days, we simply do not feel well. Our bodies ache, illness drains our strength, or an injury reminds us that we are more fragile than we would like to admit. At other times, the wounds are hidden—grief, loneliness, disappointment, or the quiet exhaustion of carrying too much for too long.
God cares about all these wounds. Jeremiah’s promise of restoration was originally given to a people who had suffered physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Their healing would not happen all at once, but God had not forgotten them. He was still at work restoring what hardship had broken.
James also reminds us that we do not have to endure suffering entirely alone: “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them… And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up” (James 5:14–15). Prayer does not always bring the immediate healing we hope for, but it places us—and those we love—within the compassionate care of God and the supportive embrace of our community.
Whether our pain is physical or emotional, we can turn to God when we feel weak. Healing may come through medicine, rest, time, the kindness of others, or strength enough to face another day. Whatever form it takes, we can trust that God sees every wound, remains beside us in our suffering, and continues the patient work of making us whole.
It’s Monday again, and I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I slept fine, or at least I seemed to have slept well. Isabella still got me up at her usual 4 a.m., but after I fed her, I went back to bed—and, surprisingly, back to sleep. I slept for another hour and a half, which is very unusual for me.
Even after that extra sleep, I still did not want to get out of bed. Part of it, I know, is the beginning of a migraine. I have a meeting this morning that I really don’t want to put off, so I’m going to get through that and reassess how I’m feeling afterward. Hopefully, the migraine won’t amount to much and the extra sleep this morning helped rather than simply delayed the inevitable.
It’s not the most auspicious start to my work week, but hopefully things will get better as the day goes along. Sometimes Mondays just require a little more effort to get moving.
Yesterday, I had to drive down to Dartmouth for my six-month follow-up appointment with my neurologist. Everything looks good, so that was a relief.
Since I don’t like making the drive all the way down there and then having to go back to work, I took the day off. With a little extra time on my hands, I did a bit of shopping before heading over to Quechee Gorge—the so-called “Little Grand Canyon of Vermont.”
I decided to hike down to the bottom of the gorge. If I heard the gentleman in the visitor center correctly, it’s about a mile down and a mile back up. It was definitely worth the effort. Quechee Gorge is a beautiful place, and standing beside the Ottauquechee River at the bottom gives you a completely different perspective than looking down from above.
After making the climb back to the top, I walked across the bridge that spans the gorge. Looking down to where I had just been, I was amazed at just how deep the gorge really is. My thighs are a little sore this morning, but not nearly as sore as I expected them to be.
I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Looking back toward the bridge from the bottom of Quechee Gorge.The view from the bridge. The arrow points to where I had been just a few minutes earlier.
My appointment with the podiatrist went well. He’s a nice guy, but he always seems like he’s in a hurry. He’s one of those doctors who wants to get patients in and out as quickly as possible. Maybe that’s just the nature of being a specialist. The only downside was his nurse. She may have been having a bad day, but she came across as snappy and impatient. She was asking me a lot of questions, which is perfectly fine, except my primary care doctor had only discussed the two main issues he wanted the podiatrist to address. He also mentioned that there were several things going on, and since I always read my clinical notes afterward, I assumed the referral and my medical records would include the additional details. After a while, I was tempted to say, “All of that should be in the referral.”
On the bright side, the appointment itself went well, and I have a better idea of what’s going on with my foot. Hopefully, we’re headed in the right direction.
We had a thunderstorm roll through last night, and with it came a major migraine. I went to bed early and ended up sleeping late this morning. That often happens after a bad migraine. I was also dealing with a lot of brain fog yesterday, which is one of the more frustrating symptoms I get when they’re at their worst. It makes it hard to think clearly or concentrate on much of anything.
I’m feeling much better today, but I’m still worn out. If I’m being honest, I’d be perfectly happy to crawl right back into bed. At least today is a work-from-home day, so I can take things a little easier than if I had to be at the museum. Hopefully, a quieter day will help me fully recover.
This morning I’m working, but I’m off this afternoon for a podiatrist appointment. That means I should have most of the afternoon free afterward, and that sounds really nice today.
I’ve seen this podiatrist before, and I have to admit he’s young, cute, and looks like he just walked out of a gym. The last time I saw him, he was wearing track pants, a T-shirt, and sneakers. I certainly didn’t mind—it made it pretty obvious that he practices what he preaches when it comes to staying in shape.
Unfortunately, the eye candy is about the only part of this appointment I’m looking forward to. I don’t like feet, and I especially don’t like anyone messing with mine.
When my primary care doctor was treating this foot issue, I actually didn’t mind the visits. While he worked on my foot, we would chat, something we rarely have time to do during a regular appointment. I’ve been seeing him for about ten years now, so our conversations feel natural and comfortable.
This podiatrist is different. He seems like a perfectly nice guy, but I’ve only seen him in person once several years ago and talked to him on the phone once. Some medical professionals have an incredible ability to put you at ease almost immediately, while with others the interaction just feels a little awkward. It really comes down to that reassuring bedside manner that helps you relax when you’re already feeling a bit vulnerable.
My gastroenterologist is a good example. He’s a genuinely nice guy, and I felt comfortable with him almost immediately. The providers I’ve seen at the headache clinic have been much the same way. Nearly all of them have a gift for making patients feel at ease. Of course, when someone is about to stick more than thirty needles into your head, neck, and shoulders for Botox injections, they probably don’t want you panicking!
So, we’ll see how this afternoon goes. Hopefully the appointment is quick, the news is good, and I can enjoy the rest of my day. Wish me luck!
Joe
