Friday afternoon I sat on an exam table at my pain management doctor's office as he gave me 31 Botox injections in key spots in my head (including between my eyes which was fun), my neck and my shoulders. It was the latest step to combat chronic headaches that I have now been battling for fifteen months. I should know later today or tomorrow if the shots are helpful for me. The Botox shots follow a rule of three - three days to take effect, three weeks for full efficacy, and the effect typically lasts three months. For some reason I am more anxious about the results of the Botox shots than other steps we have taken to try to combat these headaches. I say we because my wife, Kim, is right beside me in this whole trial. She is affected as I have had a headache on average more than two out of every three days for the last year and a quarter. Often those headaches are severe enough that I need to take rescue meds and sleep a few hours. When I was at thirteen months I calculated that I
Today marks exactly thirteen months since an episode I still do not fully understand landed me in the ER. Since then, I have suffered nearly daily headaches. More accurately, I have battled a headache severe enough to require me to take some sort of abortive action somewhere around 60% of the days over the last thirteen months. The majority of the time that means taking a rescue medication often accompanied by an anti-nausea medication, putting an ice pack on my neck, another ice pack over my eyes and head, and sleeping for 2-3 hours in a dark room. Some days I go back to sleep again later the same day. By my rough approximation, I have slept the equivalent of nearly a full month of days of extra time over the last year trying to fight off these headaches. This journey has already taken me places I had never been and places I did not know existed. Of course there is a complicated physical aspect to these headaches. I have worked with my primary care provider, a neurologist, pain manage