Like all good sequels, Headaches have come back with a vengeance, making sure to be bigger and better than before.
Having thought myself a chronic hypochondriac before the weekend, three straight mornings of horrible, horrible headaches have convinced me that it’s not just a little something to make me paranoid, but that there’s definitely something up.
Unfortunately, I have no idea what it is.
The headaches would appear to be CO2 related (as with last time), which would suggest that Neve isn’t doing enough work, or isn’t working efficiently enough to clear it off while I sleep. However, the headaches are also coinciding with an uncomfortable amount of neck and back pain, too, which may mean that it’s not anything to do with my O2/CO2/Neve settings at all.
I spoke to my physio at Oxford today, who suggested adjusting my NIV settings for the night and seeing if it made a difference (it didn’t last night, but she recommended trying it again tonight) and then said she’d arrange for the docs to see me tomorrow. I was supposed to be joining her for an exercise sesh tomorrow, but that feels a little way off at the moment, so we figured we should use the appointment to get myself checked over by the team rather than wait for my clinic appointment on Thursday – if I am coming down with something, we need to make sure we nip it in the bud ASAP.
It’s a little demoralising looking at the prospect of another 2 weeks of IV’s less than 3 weeks after I finished the last course, but I’ve got so little room to play with now that it’s no longer an option to just “wait and see how things pan out”.
The worst part of it at the moment, really, is not knowing what they are or what’s causing them. If I was sure of their origin, it’d be easier to gear myself up for a fight to get rid of them, but until I know where they come from, it’s just a case of sticking them out. They are usually gone by the early afternoon and then I don’t feel too bad.
Whatever is causing them, it’s a pretty safe bet that it’s all been kicked off by the seeds of an infection knocking around down there, so antibiotics would appear inevitable. We can only hope that something obvious presents itself in the next 24 hours or that once the antibiotics take care of the bugs, everything settles back down to normal. Fingers crossed, anyway.