The Exploding Head Scare

A couple of days ago, I started getting a little cold....and then severe pain on the left side of my face and head. Not like a headache, but my skin was burning and it felt like someone was stabbing me with a knife. This sensation used to happen to me when I would get shingles on my face....and subsequently, because I've had them so many times, I have post neuralgia pain there. If I get sick with a cold or my body is burdened in a similar instance, the pain can return like a bad dream.

This time, it was horrendous though and along with it, came a killer headache (left side only as well). If I didn't know better, I'd think the whole left side of my head was going to explode. Nothing I tried was working.....Tylenol, hot, cold, etc.

In a desperate attempt to get rid of the pain, I took a couple of high doses of Valtrex (my shingles medication) and viola....today....I am so much better.

But this morning as I was getting dressed, I started to giggle at the absurdity of what going through what I have these past years, has done to me.

"If this happened to anyone else...." I thought. But me? What did I do?

I didn't go to the doctor.

I didn't freak out.

I still went out shopping half the day and to dinner at night...

I walked around with stabbing pain consuming almost my entire face, too painful to even blowdry my hair properly on that side of my head.....

And I didn't even think twice about if it was something serious. Like, since this was different and more painful....what if my head really was going to explode?

I know all of you reading this with Lyme Disease are laughing. Almost nothing scares us. We've been through the worst of seizures and pain attacks and lab tests that gave doctors nightmares making them wonder how we were still walking around this earth.

But what I'm thinking about now, although it sounds funny, is if the time will come where I'll be shaken out of my post chronic illness head completely? Are my body's pain signals no longer useful to my brain, for what they were originally intented? To warn me of danger. Did my pain receptors cry wolf too many times when there was nothing urgent going on....besides living 24 hours a day in agony? Could it be that I became accustomed to pain for so many years, that everything has to be re-set in a sense?

Just in the last few months, I've really realized how much a mind has to be re-programmed with a new, well body. I'm working on it, and through talking to other patients, I've realized that it's almost more amazing and empowering than getting my body back. I have finally successfully overcome thinking every little ache and pain is that yucky disease coming back. At last, I feel like I have control over my wellness....like nothing can take it from me, ever.

I continue to try to "normalize" myself and my life in so many ways I didn't expect to have to cognizantly do. But, I know, it's all part of this crazy journey. I still have a lot to learn.

I'm just so glad my head didn't really explode in the meantime. I can't wait to see what's next.

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About amybscher

With a passion for the little things in life, a former 'career' as a pioneering patient, and a sassy spirit with just enough sweetness to get me by, I live by my self-created motto: when life kicks your ass, kick back.amybscher's profile amybscher's blog