Plagued by migraines

Those of you who never experience or rarely have migraines I truly hope that you never will. It’s the pits, totally! I had my bouts with one over the weekend. It starts with a mild headache from the back of my head, then eventually pulsates through my head coming out right above my eyes. Well, my attack began Sunday morning as soon as I woke up, dashing my plans to enter a 10K run out on the coast about an hour drive from where we live. It sounded like a fun event to do. According to the course description, part of the course was beach and through cranberry bogs. And the weather was perfect too, clear day…well except for the morning fog. I decided to pop in one of my pills that is suppose to relieve the worst migraines which by far has been ineffective for me since I picked it up from the pharmacy last spring, but I thought I give it another try. You never know why, right?

The kid and I downed a bowl of cereal, banana, and glass of juice, I had three hours until race time. But by the time I made arrangements to meet up with an aunt who lives in that town so she could hang out with the kid(the spouse is out of town on weeklong hunting trip), gathered my gear and stuff, my head was throbbing. I kept imagining this vision like a blood vessel was ready to burst any minute in my head. It’s that kind of pain. Truthfully, I was in denial until I was walking out to the car…there was no way this was letting up anytime soon. So instead, I called it off, gave the aunt the sad news, she said she’d come out instead, but we all met at grandma’s instead. So later in the day it got the best of me, brought me to my knees over the toilet. Applying heat pad to my neck and forehead only brought more nausea.

To this day, I’m not exactly sure what triggers it. I know that I started getting them after I was involved in a bad car accident almost ten year ago. Going to the chiropractor helps sometimes, but they’re hard to get a hold of on weekends. And it’s been awhile since I’ve been to the chiropractor. I always try to get some decent sleep and eat more healthy food. One thing I know for sure is most perfumes are not my friend, plus strong scented lotions too.

Anyhow that’s my sad tale over such a gorgeous weekend here in rain country. Other than that I managed to push out 7.5 miles Sunday evening. It was my revenge against the migraine. The first two miles are bit rough(pounding pain in the head), but eventually it smoothed out. The route took me two miles out of town to this park with a two mile trail loop around the lake. I got out a bit late and so I was pushing for time and distance to make the most of the daylight I had left. So I start doing the loop around the lake, about half mile into it, I pass another female jogger running in the opposite direction dressed in a black running attired(black Capri & black long sleeve top), and ipod gadget, her blond hair tied back. We wave ‘hi’ and go about our business. Well like a half mile later, here she comes again! I was stunned! I looked at my watch and quickly do the math, I’m doing about 7:45 min pace. WTF! I continue my run puzzled because she didn’t have the sprint blazing pace or flying running form. So I wondered how this could be possible. And there is no other way to access this trail. A river borders one side of this lake so there’s a section of boardwalk path. The only other way is to go across the lake…not possible. Half mile later, there she is again! And I pick up my pace substantially and proceed to do the 2nd lap and same thing happens again, again, and again while my lungs are almost screaming. The last time she goes by me, I notice that we have the same shoe. As I was going by the parking lot, I notice that she’s already back at her car stretching. I couldn’t help myself. I stopped and ask her how many laps she’s done and how fast. She tells me four and it took her almost 40 minutes! Just then I look down at her shoes and notice that they’re different. I give her a confused look. She then chuckles and tells me that she’s waiting for her twin sister to finish up. “Aha! Gotcha!”