This work was done with markers on paper. I think it has a nice flow.
A headache cluster seems to have officially started yesterday. Last night I got a mild cluster headache. Then another one started this afternoon, but I was thankfully able to abort this one by breathing pure oxygen from my tank. The season change and dramatic shifts in weather may be partly to blame. Same goes for the bad sleep I've had the last couple of nights.
It's been over a year since my last headache cluster. Hopefully this new one will be mild. It's possible it won't amount to more than a couple of bad days. But it's also possible that it'll drag on for weeks or months, a prospect I find super stressful.
The headache prevention protocol I adopted a few years ago has so far been extremely effective. And without it, my recent cluster headaches would likely have been severe instead of very mild. But I can't control the weather or convince the world to stay quiet while I need to sleep.
Everything else in my life is good these days. But that goodness is contingent on me remaining happy and productive. That's hard to do when I'm in serious physical pain. And I'm not in a position to take any time off, even if the headaches get bad.
Since my headaches have been in remission for so long, I was starting to entertain the idea that they may not come back at all. But this was just wishful thinking. The truth is that I'm never very far from a life-destroying horror show. There's no cure for cluster headaches and the science suggests that they'll continue to be a part of my life for decades to come.
The worst part of cluster headaches isn't that they're physically torturous. Nor is it that they mess up interpersonal relationships in a million subtle ways. Instead, the worst part of cluster headaches is that they consume time in big, unpredictable chunks. And time is the only resource any of us really has.
Over the years, thousands of hours of my time have eaten by this illness. No matter how much I accomplish, in the back of my mind I'm always considering how much more I could've done if cluster headaches weren't in the picture. This has the potential to lead to toxic thinking. Unfortunately, so does everything else about cluster headaches. The best way I've found to prevent this is simply to be in the moment, whatever that may consist of. So that's what I try to do. And it's hard.
Read my novels:
- One Man Embassy is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Flying Saucer Shenanigans is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Rainbow Lullaby is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- The Ostermann Method is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
- Blue Dragon Mississippi is available in print via Blurb and for Kindle on Amazon.
Check out the comic I wrote:
- Finney Vol 1 Immutable Journey is available as a free e-comic.