One Heck of a Headache

I have a headache.
I know, I'm a mother, so that's not really news. But this one is really something.
It started last Sunday evening, which means I've had it for a week (!) Only it wasn't really so bad, probably related to getting my period.

So I took a painkiller, drank plenty of water and took it easy. Until... On Tuesday I went with Littletree for a swim in the pool, and coming down the stairs, which were, of course, slippery from all the rain, I slipped and landed flat on my back on the stairs :(

It was very painful. At first, I couldn't move, but at least Littletree went running to get Purple, who came with Arnica, and helped me hobble to the bench to sit on.

I got some really fancy bruises come up pretty quickly, and my headache got terrible.
(here's a shot of my lower back)

I just stayed in bed most of the time, feeling awful, and having this awful headache that didn't respond to pain killers. Not even the really strong ones with codeine.

Thursday, I started feeling nauseous and getting dizzy spells :( It seemed like going to the doctor was probably the wise thing to do. So, Friday morning, we went down to town to see the doc.

I couldn't get an appointment in the doctor's office, and they recommended that in my state, I should just go to the hospital.

I hate hospitals.

Well, the emergency room of our little village's little hospital was, as usual, pretty much empty. I waited 2 minutes for the nurse to see me and put me on a bed. She took a quick history, looked at my bruises and got the Dr. who came after about 5 minutes.

The Dr's opinion is that I have tension in my neck from having so much heavy hair (for those who didn't know, I have knee-length dread locks). And when I fell down the stairs, it knocked one of the vertebrae in my neck out of place, which was compressing an artery that supplies my brain, in turn causing another artery to compensate. Hence the terrible headaches, nausea and dizziness.

He manipulated my spine; cracked every bone in my body, and gave me a shot of morphine for the pain (!) I guess it was pretty bad for him to do that. He recommended I lighten the load on my head, and sent me home to bed.

I spent the rest of the day vomiting constantly, despite anti-nausea meds Dr gave me with the morphine. poor miserable me! Yesterday and today, I feel much better, but I still have a headache :/

I guess I'll have to do something about my hair... but that might take a bit of working up to.