Migraines by the number

One of the tricky things about getting sick for me is the fact that it often goes hand in hand with migraine symptoms.  So if I’m sick already, on any given day I may be very sick.  If Shari’s sick too – well, then we could be in trouble. 🙂

This has been a rather…challenging week as far as that goes.  And now, you can see what that means in real numbers!  This little graph is from a “headache diary” that I developed a while ago.  The chart here gives you a week at a glance.  The higher the number, the worse the discomfort.  Migraine of course does not always involve pain, so I use the word discomfort.  For me there’s usually (but not always) a headache involved, though not always.   10 is at the top – it’s kind of a theoretical number, I’m not sure I’ve ever put a 10.  9 would be pretty nasty.  It’s rare, but it happens.  Anything 2 or less is rare but great.  Anyway, here’s last week:

So that’s really two bad migraines on Wednesday and Friday, a little guy Sunday evening, and one sneaking up on me on Saturday.  Here’s a slightly more typical, or perhaps a good week – the week before:

Yes, Monday was not good, but the rest of the week was not bad at all.  Of course, I was still sick with some virus or another, but better that.  Actually, it’s really pretty good, since migraines seem to be worse with colds and flus.  However, you’ll notice there was very little under 4 – that’s unusual.  So I guess it wasn’t that great after all.

Anyway, I can praise the Lord, and can do so specifically because I was able to make it through a solo in church this morning.  I sang and played the piano, which, just for the record, is unheard of for me.  I’m not sure I’ve ever done that in church.  But I decided to stretch myself, and I played a song I wrote probably 10 or 15 years ago.  Here’s the first verse and chorus – it seems somehow appropriate: