Just when it seems like things are getting better.....

Wham! a couple of days where I begin feeling horrible again! It all started yesterday. As a whole the day time was O.K. Still no excruciating pain, only mild discomfort. Then Joe came home and we went to play tennis. I was feeling pretty good, and our "game" was going well(I think I may actually be improving. A tiny bit.) All of a sudden my vision got blurry. I couldn't see the ball. It took me a minute to realize that it was an aura, the beginning of a migraine. I used to get these all the time, but since I haven't had one in quite awhile(years actually), I didn't know right away what it was. For those of you that have never experienced a migraine, it sometimes starts with a visual dusturbance called an aura. For me, it starts with flashing lights that I see at the peripheral of my vision. At first it seems like I am looking directly into bright sunlight. The flashing lights grow larger and I am unable to see out of that portion of my eyes. It is quite debilitating. I have been stuck at work with them before because I have been unable to drive. The good news is that the aura only lasts about 30-45 minutes. The bad news is that's when the blinding pain starts. Usually I have my pain in the fromt of my head(forehead, behind my eyes) but last night the pain was at the back of my head. It felt as though someone was hittting me in the back of the head with a hammer. We immediatly went home so I could take my medicine, and I laid down and put ice on my head. The medicine did little to help with the pain, so I had to go to bed early. All was well while I was sleeping, until 4:00 a.m. this morning when I was awakened by severe cramping in my lower abdomen. My head was still pounding from the migraine, so I was in too much pain already to get into the bathtub. I just tried to stick it out in bed until my alarm went off, at which point I draaaaagggged myself out of bed to get ready for work. Now I know I do a lot of complaining on this blog, but hey that's why I started it. To get things out of my head and onto "paper" My doctors are always after me to keep a pain journal. Well this is it. This is my pain journal. Anyway, I was going to say that even though I do a lot of complaining, I think I am a pretty good trooper about all of this. No matter how much pain I am in, I still get up every single day and go into work. I still put on a smile every morning when the kids and parents come in. I very rarely call in sick(last year I called in sick a total of 3 times). I don't know many people that could take this kind of pain on a daily basis and still function properly. I really don't. So even though sometimes people get exasperated with me because I am not feeling well(again!), or tell me that I must have a very low tolerance for pain(I have had friends say this to me) I think I deserve some credit. To make a long story short, I have been feeling rotten for the last 2 days, and now I am in my pajamas, after already being in the tub, and I am about to go lay on the couch with ice on my head and a heating pad on my stomach. I am hoping to feel better tomorrow. Is it me, or does it seem like I am always feeling rotten when Joe is teaching his night class? Of course that could be because I feel rotten for half of the month!