Chronic Migraine, Coping, Friends & Family

My Niece, My Caregiver

My niece and I are having a terrific week, but, as predicted, I’m worn out and getting a migraine each afternoon. Instead of letting me push through, my niece has reminded me each day that I need to rest. She’s subtle about it, making it seem like she’s an excessively tired 12-year-old. (She’s not.)

I’m getting more tired as the week wears on — and she sees it. Yesterday she actually told me to lie down. This morning I told her I was too tired for the aquarium and she intuited that I wouldn’t be up for it tomorrow either. If she hadn’t, I would have said that we could probably go tomorrow even though I’m not sure we could.

Even with my afternoon naps, we’re having tons of fun. We’ve been out to eat four times already and are getting fondue tomorrow night. Doughnuts have been traded for cupcakes, the chocolate cafe and homemade cinnamon rolls. Not sure if we’ll make it to The Simpsons, but we have seen Harry Potter. We have movies to watch at home too. She’s not too into video games, so we’ve played board games (which Hart and I love) instead. We even made soap yesterday.

It’s a relief to write out all our activities. My niece isn’t acting bored, but I worried she was. Now that I’ve seen the list, I see she’s probably worn out too!