a sudden cloudy feeling; relief

When I awoke this morning, I heard rain outside my window. Great. This is the day each week I do my traveling-and-loading-and-carrying-indoors-and-out job, and doing all that in the rain didn't sound like the most amazing situation. Rainy days have been triggering fewer migraines for me of late, and I was happy to notice that this pattern seemed to be continuing: upon waking and hearing the rain, my first thought was, "Oh no! Headache day?" Sitting up and having a sip of water or three with my morning Petadolex rid me of my fear--no headache, not even the dull, stubborn, moderate pain that was affecting my neck and head as I tried to sleep.

The ever-helpful beau traveled with me today to deliver food boxes. (One of my gigs involves delivering food to kids in need every Friday, food that will allow them enough snacks and meals to last them all weekend until the school week begins again.) The migraine didn't attack until we were all done and sitting in a Peruvian restaurant having chips, salsa, black bean soup, and tacos. Unlike the majority of episodes I've had in the last several months, this one escalated rapidly--I was unable to tolerate the noise of the kids two tables away all of a sudden, when just twenty minutes before I hadn't much noticed their babbling and yelping.

"I have to get out of here," I must have said five separate times. The waiter seemed to be moving in slow motion. Would it be better to go outside to the car for my meds or just wait until we'd paid the check? Should I cover my ears to block out those whining kids or should I lean back and rub that space between my thumb and forefinger that seems to dull my head pain?

I placed a dissolving Maxalt tablet on my tongue, expecting quick relief.
Two hours later, I lay in my bed and had a Naprosyn sodium tablet and another Maxalt.
Fifty minutes later, I decided to grab my laptop and see if I'd missed any important emails while working or lying down. I put the laptop on the bed, half-lay next to it, and suddenly felt this refreshing cool, cloudy feeling rise from my chest all the way to the space behind my eyes. Waves of this cool fog came through my body over and over, even more intensely as I bothered to take note of them.

It's been a while since I last was awake and fully conscious during the sudden relief of a headache. My trusty Relpax slowly began to be less and less effective, so I usually ended up falling asleep until a couple hours later, waking to find I was no longer in pain.

This time I was aware. Awake. Grateful.

That doesn't mean I'm not going to sneak in a nap for an hour or so. Goodnight.