Sleepless Night

The Headache From Hell

I'm very tired this evening. I slept some of the day, but The Headache is still bouncing around my brain. I'm trying to wait it out. If I can just get the pain under control I think I will be able to sleep.

The lidocaine patches aren't making The Headache pain worse. I am much relieved. When you have multiple pain regions they seem to echo off each other, increasing pain with each echo. The lidocaine patch stops one major echo point so the shoulder blade pain is no longer feeding back into The Headache pain. Thank heavens!

I have had the stimulator set on my new stimulator setting since this afternoon, and it seems to be helping. Can't be sure since The Headache is still roaring along. If its psychosomatic relief that's OK because I'll take any relief I can get! If its actual relief, I am grateful.

My brothers did the weekly grocery shopping for me today. I didn't even have to ask, they volunteered. I have not been able to do much except take a shower and get dressed, and work with my computer a bit. It was very sweet of them to offer, and was a bright point in my day. They even brought the groceries in and put them up. What troopers!

I have had some really weird dreams today. Most of them were about being cold and trying to find the perfect coat or blanket to get warm. My body does the weirdest thing when the pain starts getting bad - my body temperature drops, sometimes to the point I am shivering. I wonder if anyone else has this problem? Sometimes my blood pressure will drop at the same time instead of increasing with the pain. Weird, eh? I got so cold in Cleveland waiting for my plane I bought two t-shirts and a shawl to put on as layers over my clothes and I still was cold.

The hypothalamus which is part of the mechanism of hemicrania continua, as it is in cluster headaches, controls body temperature, blood pressure, and shivering. I think that the hypothalamus involvement must increase as the pain increases, and somehow is dropping my body temperature and inducing shivering. The same area that controls shivering also controls memory, so maybe that's why I can't seem to remember things when The Headache gets bad.

Hoping for a better tommorrow! I have been wishing that the stimulator will keep me from being disabled by The Headache. I guess I should just be grateful if I get some pain relief, even if I still have significant disablity.