h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

He's back. I think he's gone away again, but it was a rough couple of days.

Today I was able to sleep and eat for the first time in about 36 hours or something. Sleeping just was not happening. Eating - well, it brought on nausea, but it was also that the physical action of eating was blindingly painful.

I had to turn all the lights down, including covering little LEDs with blue tac to block the light. And any noise at all was unbearable. Had to skip the Public Enemy concert.

That's the worst it's been for years. I hope it's gone, not just regrouping for another wave. If I eat enough and sleep enough, I think I might be fit for work tomorrow. I'm meant to be going out tomorrow night with someone, which I'd rather not cancel, but I'm not sure yet if it's a good idea.

Balls to all of it.

Sorry to hear you aren't doing well, KB. Gute Besserung as the Germans say.

Cheers Elektra. I think I'm out of the woods now. I was waiting for a new wave, but it's been all clear for five or six hours now, so I think it's run its course. I haven't had a wave of the demon headache like that for a couple of years now!

Gosh, I'll keep my fingers crossed that it is over then. Try to get a good night's sleep.

I don't miss the headaches I used to get.

how are you feeling now KB?

Pretty good actually!

(Which means I'm back to work. But I don't even mind that, this time. )

Have you any idea what causes them and can anything be done about it?

Not really. People talk about triggers, and this and that, but I've never really noticed anything in particular. They also recommend keeping a log of when it happens to try and identify anything. I've tried this, but when it comes on bad, and afterwards, I'm usually frankly too buggered to analyse the circumstances properly.

I did get awesomely, magically effective pills to take for it a couple of years back. But it transpires that despite being so effective, one of the side effects is to bring on occurances more often, and more severely. So I nipped that in the bud! But pretty strong painkillers take the edge off it.

(Sorry, I know I'm going on and onnnn about it now. There could be worse things after all!)

I just assumed I had migraines until one weekend about 7 years ago I got a bad three day headache. A couple of days later my eyes crossed. I had an MRI the next day and found out I had a tumor at the base of my skull.

It might be worth asking your doctor about having an MRI to rule out something similar.

Cheers. I don't think it's anything like that - a few years ago when they were really frequent, it seemed like I was never out of MRI scanners. I think I will pay a visit to the though. It can't do any harm.

I hate having headaches and I rarely get them, thankfully, because I hate them so much. It's even modified my drinking habits in recent years because the hangovers get worse as I get older.

But I have, just once in my life, had a three-day headache. It was not long after I came to Austin. I think my body must have done that thing where it stops you getting ill when you're working like stink and just can't afford to be ill, but then lets it all out when you ease up, like going on holiday or taking any time off, because I had a few health problems in those first five or six months of enforced unemployment while waiting for my work permit, and yet I'd somehow managed to work through a chest infection a few months earlier.

It wasn't a severe headache, no flashing lights, nausea, only a mild aversion to light, but it was painful and persistent. Aspirin alleviated it a little but wore off too quickly. The former Mrs Gosho's mother was a nurse and often got samples of various medicines so Mrs Gosho had a little stash of all kinds of things in the bathroom cabinet, and there were some more powerful painkillers which worked a little better.

I remember little about it other than staying in bed for three days, not sleeping much and wishing it would just go away.

I remember one or two schoolfriends who got the occasional migraine. I feel for anyone who gets anything like that on a regular or semi-regular basis.

I'm not sure keeping a diary would be any help for a bloke. There must be some connection with the monthly cycle in women, but I'm not sure about men. Do they have some kind of a cycle?

Anyway, why keep a diary, when you write it in your hootoo journal anyway.

And BG - so sorry to hear about your condition. What exactly is it, what are they predicting and what are they doing about it?

" I'm not sure about men."

Neither am I.

" Do they have some kind of a cycle?"

Yes, we do. I'm going to tell you a secret. It's bigger than the da Vinci code and the freemasons.

We menstruate on every seventh day, but we don't like to talk about it.

TC, the tumor was surgically removed and two years later I followed up with two months of proton therapy. Everything has been pretty good up to this year. In January I had another bad headache and double vision again. I suspect it was brought on by a sinus infection. Next January I'll have another MRI but we're not expecting to find any further growth.