In the last three weeks I’ve had a migraine that has ranged from extremely painful to just bothersome. I sort of knew migraines could last longer than a few days but I wasn’t sure it was recognized by the medical community. It’s also possible to have a migraine that is tolerable enough to go to work and about normal activities, although not happily. Mine started out very painful with an aura and ended yesterday (thankfully!) with just mild pain. My mom had a famously horrible migraine that lasted nearly six weeks one summer. During my nearly three weeks of migraine pain I managed to go for one run averaging 10:30/minute miles (very fast for me!), two relatively hard hikes, and a couple of swims. I regretted each workout because I felt so much worse afterward. I am also dealing with plantar fasciitis and my foot has been very painful (I’m giving up running for 3 months or more after my next race!). Inside all I wanted to do was rest, lie low, recover, be lazy. I am so terrible at listening to what my body wants. My body, my head, my feet were screaming for a break. I am afraid that if I give in, I’ll never get back up again.
Of course, the minute I gave in and started resting, I started getting better. I also went to the doctor and got some help. I asked for help at home. I spent about two days really taking it easy, saw the doctor and the chiropractor and today? whaaddaya know? I feel BETTER! I am working on better listening to what my body wants. Believe it or not this last episode shows progress for me. All it took was two days of taking care of myself. Two. Days.
Mentally it was really hard for me to feel “off my game” for three weeks. I am no serious or competitive athlete, but inside my head I certainly am. Especially with myself. My attitude was poor because I felt poorly. After two weeks of headache pain I was starting to lose hope and get this sense of failure. I know it’s small peanuts in terms of life/world/human problems but I’m glad I kept going and got to the other side of it.
In the last few weeks I discovered Alex Clare. I’m sure you and everybody else has heard Too Close but the rest of his album is very good too. My favorite song is Tightrope. Tightrope is all about not giving up.
“The only thing I’m sure of is, to have no fear at all,
Just go, keep on going on.
And the only thing that’s certain is that sometimes your bound to fall,
Just go, keep on going on.”
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