E woke up Sunday morning with a nasty 24-hour stomach flu, but was well enough by noon that he could watch Nolie so that Addie and I could attend the Boulder Dinner Theater's production of Annie.
We'd had tickets for a few months, after Addie saw the movie Annie and proceeded to traipse around the house singing Tomorrow at the top of her lungs for days on end. We went with two other moms (who coordinate the whole thing, bless their hearts) and their daughters. We sat together at a two-top, had a full-course meal (including mud-pie for dessert, yum!) and watched a live production of Addie's favorite musical. She clasped her hands at all the right places, sang along, and squirmed about like a monkey. It was pretty much her idea of heaven.
I had a good time, too, though I started to feel a little funny after the intermission. Nothing really strange, but just a little bit of trouble tracking things and a general fatigue.
About ten minutes after we got home, though, I got that aura that indicates I'm about to get a migraine. The auras are getting worse over time, so that I'm almost totally losing my sight to the static, except for on the periphery. I've come into migraines late in my life--they started once we moved to Denver, and get them rarely, maybe twice a year.
Except this is the second one in a month.
Anyway, this was a worst case scenario--both Eric and I sick, sick, sick, and the kids bouncing off the walls with too-tired Sunday-night sugar-high energy. Auntie TT saved us--not a small mercy--by coming over and playing with them outside for an hour or two and getting them to bed, while I cowered in my bed, icing the shit out of my neck and wrists and praying for dark.
I haven't done much research on migraines, but I've heard what you've heard about them, so I have hints. Here is my guess:
For me, I think they're brought on by not getting enough sleep, coupled with too much caffeine. I recently stopped taking Zyrtec for allergies, because it functions as a sleeping pill for me, and made it virtually impossible for me to wake up in the morning. Because of Eric's new work schedule, I need to be able to wake up in the morning and work. So, I switched to Claritin. So, I had a few sleepless nights while my body adjusted to life off of Zyrtec. So, I drank to much caffeine. The day of Annie, I had two cups of coffee, a diet pepsi, and mud pie. That's a lot of caffeine. So, I got a migraine.
That's my theory, anyway.
As I've reflected on this and thought about how things are going, I've made a few changes. First, I need to relax more during the day. This means meditating or doing yoga everyday (how many times have I written THAT on this blog!?!). It's just not very negotiable if I want to stay healthy and happy.
Second, I need to sleep better. That means one cup of caffeine everyday (oh, those afternoon sleepies!) and, weirdly, staying up a little later so that I fall asleep easily. It means I bought myself a new memory-form pillow. It means lots of deep breaths before bed.
It worked last night. I had a really good night's sleep, woke up fully rested at 6:30, and feel like my brains are resituating themselves in my head. I hope it works tonight, too.
Now if I could only REMEMBER all this for once: meditate, stretch, take care of yourself. Such a broken record.
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