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My least favorite headache
Last night, I had quite probably the worst headache of my life. It's in our nature not to retain clear memories of pain (so I'm told), so it's hard to make the comparison, but I'm pretty sure this is it. I've never had a migraine, so this sort of thing might be old hat for migraine sufferers, but for my part I'd not like to go through it again.
The thing is, it looked to be such a great night! I spent the evening playing a game with Lauren and cousins and an aunt and then Lauren, my cousin Maddy, and I went to a drive-in to catch a double-feature, Terminator Salvation and The Hangover. I was tired going into it, but I was determined to gut it out and figured I'd enjoy the movies enough to keep me awake for both. And it was only $5 per person to see these films! Clearly, we were poised to have an amazing night, right?
Famous last words. As the movie went on, I started to get a headache. Not surprisingly, I didn't enjoy the movie as much as I might have. Lauren and Maddie were ambivalent about staying for the next movie, and though I wanted to, I cast the deciding vote for heading home, figuring that I didn't need to sit through two hours of movie with a headache and then get home at 1 am--which would feel like 2 am since I'm still on Eastern time. Anyway, at $5 for Terminator, I'd already gotten my money's worth.
Sounds like a good decision, right? Probably was, but it just got worse from there. It was hard to drive home with someone pushing knitting needles into my head, and no one staying in our cabin had any kind of pain relieving medication, so I just went to bed. Drinking water made my stomach upset, even though I was pretty sure I needed water, and being cramped into a double bed with Lauren wasn't exactly conducive to feeling good either, so I took the other double bed in the room. For that matter, it hurt like crazy when she spoke and even more when I answered. I spent the next two and a half hours (that's 210 agonizing minutes) unable to sleep, trying to slow down my breathing and relax, trying to get my pillow more comfortable, rolling over in different positions to change where the pillow was inflicting its pain on my head, sitting up to relieve the pressure on my head, massaging my neck and scalp, stretching my back and neck, and when all those things failed, whimpering in pain. It was probably mildly more comfortable for me not to be sharing a bed with Lauren and probably a whole lot more comfortable for her not to be sharing a bed with me.
I finally got to sleep, only to wake up three hours later. My head felt pretty good, but I really had to go to the bathroom. Before I was finished in there, my head was miserable again. Not as bad as it had been, but it took me a while to get back to sleep. When I woke up probably three hours after that--again for the bathroom--much the same sequence played out, though my headache was a little better when I laid back down.
When I got out of bed a little before 10, I felt better still, but definitely not 100%. I had to bow out of the water park trip and resign myself to a day spent sitting around. Even now a few hours later, while I feel okay (and took some tylenol of some sort), I also feel like I'm only a few quick motions of my head away from feeling awful again.
I'm guessing it's partially a hydration issue--we basically sat around yesterday in overly-air-conditioned cabins not drinking enough water (and the water I had was laced with tea!)--and partially a tension issue, as the folding canvas chair we watched the movie from neither promoted good posture nor were comfortable anyway. So I'm drinking as much water as I can stomach and taking it easy today. Tomorrow, I'll be spending most of the day driving in order to get home and get the rest of our stuff packed--not a fun way to spend the day, but necessary.