It's Not a Toomuh

Although, heck, for all I know it could be.

I get headaches all the time. Have ever since I was a kid. In elementary school, they thought maybe I had a milk allergy, though I don't remember going without dairy, so that, to my knowledge, remains an untested theory. When I was about 12 or 13, I remember going to a hospital and getting some kind of scan (CAT? HORSE?), and I'm pretty sure they didn't find anything but the usual innards. I had a week-long headache when I was about 15, and a doctor prescribed me some mega-strengh ibuprofen that didn't work. And then, a few years ago, my primary care physician recommended Excedrin Migraine, which usually works but leaves me very jittery (and usually pretty happy).

Folks have suggested that I might be under- or over-hydrated. And that I get my eyes checked. These aren't bad ideas, and I might look into that eye thing. It might not kill me to see a specialist, either; there have got to be a hundred reasons why I should get my head examined. If there's something genuinely wrong, by all means, let's figure it out.

But heck if I can find a pattern. Apart from this and the inconvenient-but-not-life-threatening issue I sometimes get surgery for, I'm obnoxiously healthy. Headaches just appear to be my body's response to anything that's even slighty off, physically or emotionally. Tension, cold, hunger, tiredness, stress, oversleep, wrong food, wrong drink, tight turtleneck, heavy backpack, bad-shaped pillow -- here comes a headache.

My dad had headaches as a kid, too. I don't know if he still gets them. I should ask. Dad, do you still get them? Did anyone ever figure out what was wrong with you ;-)? Is this part of that melancholy-perfectionist thing you and I share? Can we send it back? Do your model trains help?

Maybe I need toy trains. Or a Spirograph. Remember Spirograph? That was neat.