A REALLY BAD Day

Guess I got too optimistic for my own good yesterday. The single Excedrin tablet that I took yesterday at 1 PM seemed to clear my head pain quite nicely and I was fine when I went to bed at around 11:30 PM Tuesday.

This morning I awoke at 4:15 AM with a skull cracking full cranial headache, extremely painful neck pain, and sharp pains in my lower back. I sat at my desk and tried to read for distraction and realized that I'm now supposed to forego Excedrin and should be starting my week of Prednisone at breakfast. I only lasted about half an hour and decided to try sleeping again. It was a fitful attempt and at 6 AM I got up, grabbed my Prednisone vial and headed for the kitchen. I drank a full glass of water, ate a chunk of French bread and washed down 3 pills with more water. I went back to my office desk and waited...
...and waited, but the head pain worsened, nausea moved in, and from about 7:45 AM until almost 8 PM I alternated between sitting on a footstool in the bathroom (nausea standby) while rubbing and bouncing my head against the wall and lying in bed and rubbing and squeezing my head with both hands. I'm not sure if the neck and lower back pain lessened or just seemed insignificant compared to the head pain. I did try the tennis ball therapy on both my neck and along my spine, but could not sense any effect one way or another,

This was the first time in many months that I had this kind of pain. It is the type of attack that had allowed me to rationalize that taking excessive Excedrin was worth the rebound risk back in March. I'm not sure if this was already rebound or withdrawal pain, but it certainly was much sharper and constant than any recent bouts of headache have been.

I'll remind myself again that this pain started "before" I took the Prednisone. The Prednisone didn't seem to have any effect, unless I suppose - it could have been much worse without it. Who knows?

This long duration of pain was pretty much evenly spread through the upper front part of my skull. And the rubbing, banging, and other physical contact with my head seemed to only distract me as I was making contact. In other words, it didn't appear to lessen the pain, just kept from noticing it as much. My skin would get a bit red and raw from all the beating and it is actually a bit sore to the touch now as the headache itself has dissipated.

I tried a few times during the day to drink water, but would gag and the nausea kept me from drinking or eating until about 8 PM. At that time I took three (3) more Prednisone and my daily two (2) Verapamil with a glass of water and a handful of pretzels. Around 11 PM I had some bread, cheese, and sliced turkey breast with a can of Diet-Rite Cola and am now writing this entry.

There were random bouts of runny nose and one of sneezing. The one time when I almost vomited, I felt such intensely sharp head pain at the first "retch" that it overpowered the nausea for a moment or two. In retrospect, the pain was so intense that I would have preferred vomiting.

I feel much better now. Extremely weak and tired, but so relieved that the pain has stopped.

I am also filled with DREAD at the thought of going to sleep again, wondering in what pain state I will find myself in the morning. I've pondered just staying awake for the rest of my life, but get tired just thinking about it. :-)

Tomorrow I have another appointment with the Physical Therapist. I am trying to look forward to that, but all of this pain gets rather depressing.

Good Night for now and Have a PAINFREE Life,

- Frank