Two nights ago I pulled an all-nighter, but not for lack of trying to sleep. It was a new and weird experience. To back up for context… I haven’t had any cluster headaches in two years (thanks to medication), but one trigger for a cluster to start is high altitude. I have been lucky that usually plane flights aren’t a problem. Unfortunately, I think Denver is off my list for any future travel. I think it was being at the conference near Denver that triggered the cluster to start. Once started, it doesn’t go back in the cage easily. I bought a can of oxygen for hikers and that helped some. As soon as I got home I contacted my doctor to schedule injections into my head and get prednisone, which has worked in the past to tame the cluster headache beast. In all of my past years, though, I would wait longer to ask for help. I would always think I had figured out some new way I could manage the situation and resolve it on my own. The last time I did that, two years ago, I was in a desperate place by the time I sought relief, and an even more desperate place by the time I got it due to the ridiculousness of some medical practices. Anywho, I’m glad I switched to a different practice so I know they will get me in within a day or two of my call and I can see any provider to get the injections. I’m hopeful that once I taper off the prednisone I will stay headache-free and not have even tipped into the worst of the headaches. I finally admit defeat, that this is not a beast I can take care of on my own in any way and trying to do so just leads to nights of excruciating pain, keeping Carl and me up for hours. So now I will always seek help right away. Which brings us back to being up all night… I think it was because of starting the high dose of prednisone at 5pm instead of waiting until the next day (lesson learned). I could not fall asleep for the life of me. I read a novel start to finish. By mid-day yesterday I was able to nap and last night I slept normally. It helps to be able to spread the prednisone dose throughout the day.
Otherwise the week has been a good one. I didn’t have much scheduled and yet somehow the week was still full of laundry, groceries, dishes, other errands, cuddles . . . and a day at Sandcastle that ended with a huge rainstorm. Good thing we had put on regular clothes again that we wanted to keep dry!
While traveling is wonderful and fun, it is also great to be home and eat more regular food with more fruits and vegetables. Sarah’s system definitely needs some recalibration so I’m glad to have open, flexible days so she can nap a lot. We are attempting to nudge Amy’s sleep schedule back towards something resembling a school schedule since she starts back to school on August 20th.
Amy has been creating varied and elaborate makeup looks to be characters from The Hunger Games or Inside Out. I love how her art carries to her face, so I’ve been getting her more eye shadow palettes, figuring this is akin to getting her colored pencils and paints.
If you haven’t yet watched the animated Frog and Toad series on apple plus tv, I highly recommend it. We recently discovered several new episodes and have thoroughly enjoyed them. I have always thought Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad books have life lessons for all ages, and the animated versions do a beautiful job of expanding the stories. In Tomorrow Toad doesn’t want to do any of the things he should do. He wants to put everything off until tomorrow, but then he feels blah because he knows his tomorrow will be a very hard day. Frog helps him take care of each thing today so that his tomorrow no longer feels overwhelming. The one thing Toad forgets to do is get changed out of his pajamas - he will do that tomorrow! Sarah pulled a Toad yesterday and weeded while wearing her pajamas. I weeded too, but not in my pajamas. Sarah and I commiserated about our glasses migrating down our noses as we weeded.
May your glasses stay up and your tomorrows not bring on the blahs.
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