Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Day 4: Not Tonight, I Have a Headache

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When I was wondering if I could blog every day, I worried about days like this.  
"Mama told me there'd be days like this."
And this blog post almost didn't happen.

-@-@-@-@-@-@-

I woke up today with my back and neck out of whack.  I called a new chiropractor and asked if I could come right over. Points for her, she said yes.

Nice chiropractor asked, "So what brings you in today?"

I replied, "My back -- upper and lower -- are locked up. I have a headache. It feels like a sword is stabbing me, from this fleshy left side of my neck to this lower left quadrant of the back of my skull. Then, it feels like the tip is coming out of this northwest quadrant up here at the front ... and then the sword u-turns to finish the job and stabs me straight down into my left shoulder.  It bypassed my heart today out of pity." 

I looked up after stretching and distorting my body for effect. Greeted by blank stare.

Undeterred, she ventured on, detailing her treatment protocols and what might help. She was able to make spinal adjustments to unlock things to get my back moving again -- goodbye slab of concrete -- but my headache has remained. My body is aching.

I did try to find a fun headache photo, but 99% were of people holding the foreheads or temples in pain. Nope, not accurate for me. My pain shoots upwards along the neck muscles into the occipital bone, which forms the base of the skull. Mine feels like there is so much upwards pressure on this bone that I want to pull my own head off and throw it across the room. 

So this is me with Cushing's, swords and all.

-@-@-@-@-@-@-

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The root of my headaches seem to be muscle contractions.

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See where those lines come together behind his ear? That's the sword's entry point.

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This is how I feel. Wish I could pull it together for a better blog post, but hey folks, this is Cushing's.  Have fun with it: Say it like James Earl Jones says "This is CNN."