Triggers

Wild Goose Chase

Too much sun? A bad pillow? A sore neck? Broccoli? I thought I’d stopped obsessing over this. My first level 6 headache after a three week* respite came this afternoon and I’ve been trying like mad to pinpoint the trigger(s).

Usually I have fluctuations in pain throughout a day. Every day will have at least a level 3 and most days it’s higher than that. I can rarely identify a trigger, so I don’t bother. I just know that this is my version of normal.

The last few weeks the pain hasn’t been above a 3, with the majority of the time at a level 1 or 2. A new normal was established — not one that I thought would last, but I was eager to hang on to it nonetheless.

Now that the calm has been broken, I have to know why. My rational side knows that my brain has funky wiring; the desperate side of me wants to hunt down the evil offender and eradicate it.

Well, when I started writing this post that’s what I wanted to do. Now I’ll gladly call of the dogs if I can just go back to how I felt yesterday.

*Except for the days it was snowing in Seattle; if I began counting after those days I’d still be a two weeks of low head pain. While Sunday night’s pain was stabbing and throbbing, I don’t think it was worse than a 3. Or maybe it was and I’m just telling myself that recent weeks have been better than they actually were. . . .