Tough Day

I know each day will be something new to tackle. Today has been no exception. In fact, as I type this I am intermittently closing my eyes because the light hurts them a lot :(

I can't seem to shake this headache. But at least today my nausea is less more often than it's terrible. I took a 2 hour nap a litle bit ago so I am doing a little better. Just feeling very out of it and definitely not myself...

In addition to this irritating tingling feeling I have all over, my balance is unsteady to say the least... Man I'm glad I can type with my eyes closed.

I find it funny that the doctors ask people to rate their headaches on a scale of 1-10... I mean, what does that mean? So I made up my own scale of headache pain:

1 - slight annoyance
2 - slightly more of an annoyance
3 - an annoyance with a little bit of an edge
4 - past annoying, painful
5 - painful and throbbing
6 - painful, throbbing and causing some function issues, makes you sleepy
7 - painful, throbbing, causing function issues that others notice, difficult to fight sleepiness
8 - painful, throbbing, causing function issues that others notice and it's hard to think of anything else, lay down to rest
9 - painful, throbbing, causing function issues that others notice and can't think of anything else, take a nap
10 - Debilitating.

I'm not sure how others with concussions feel, but this is how I tend to feel when I rate my headaches. Napping is a big sign that my headache is worse than I'm acting. I can usually bypass others noticing much except my sleepiness but sometimes I talk really slow or have balance issues or my eyes will close when I'm standing up or just sitting doing nothing.

On another note, Phil said yesterday, "What do you do for someone who has a concussion?". Great question. I had no answer. My first concussions I dealt with on my own. I didn't have any immediate/close support because I was in Miami so I wasn't sure what to say. I guess the best advice I can give is to let me complain, don't get annoyed with me if everyday I say I don't feel well, if I need help I'll ask, I may need to sleep all day but don't count that as lazy just understand I need to heal and, most of all, as frustrating and annoyed as you may get with me, times that by 100 and that's how frustrated/annoyed/irritated I am with the situation.

It's hard to say what others around those with head injuries can do. My one, absolutely for sure, best advice I can give is be patient. I can't control how quickly my head heals and sometimes I can't control my temper. My symptoms are my symptoms and I will try as hard as I can not to let them become a part of me. At times, this is hard. I know things will get better but there are some days when I don't care to hear about it. Support is always appreciated and having a shoulder to cry on means more than anyone can know.

Ok, these words are getting blurry and there are black lines on the screen that I'm 100% sure aren't actually there so I'm going to shut down for the day. Hope everyone is having a great Friday... tomorrow will be better for me... I get to meet my nephew :)