A Pain in the...

I get migraines. I know it is a very common condition and seems to be even more common in this continental city with its high altitude and dramatic weather shifts. They used to be horrible, occurring every couple of weeks accompanied by vomiting and committing me to at least 10hour of incapacity.

After stopping birth control they went away completely for awhile but came back slowly over time (I suspect 24hr call shifts may have had something to do with that). Despite this I have never been too disabled by them because I can almost always abort them with ibuprofen; 600mg gel caps (no skimping) at the beginning of the aura and nausea is the secret.

Recently, however, I am plagued by a new beast. I have had a headache everyday for more than 3 weeks. It crept up on my slowly, bred from all the usual suspects: lack of sleep, lack of exercise, too much stress, bad posture. Now it has grown to inhabit what feels like a permanent home at the back of my head and is eating my energy. Between the regular burnout and the grinding constant pain, I have very little focus, patience, sympathy, empathy left - not a good combination of deficits for a physician.

Now that it has settled in, it seems to have built a fortress around itself. Ibuprofen, or anything else in my armament, doesn't touch it. Time to start another long day.