Again i have been woken up by a nasty attack in the early hours this morning. A strong attack that has left me with pain in my neck and down my back. Also when i try and walk i get sharp pain shooting up the front of my legs witch i find very strange. I can understand why the neck and the back get pains after an attack especially if it is the nerve that is damaged then it would explain why the pain travels down the back. But there is no explanation why the legs should get shooting pains and also why they feel like lead weights when i walk. I don’t get it all the time but every now and again i start to walk and its like i am doing weight training in the gym. My legs become so heavy to lift it actually takes my breath away.
The weather is about to change and the temperature will drop to almost freezing over the next week so i am in for a bit of a painful ride. When ever we get snow or ice or the temperature falls to almost freezing i always end up going through 2 or 3 weeks of non stop attacks. I wouldn’t mind it so much but it takes my strength away from me and makes me feel so week i can hardly get out of bed let alone do normal daily tasks. When ever i get a couple of weeks of non stop attacks i always end up ill at the end of it either by catching a cold or injuring myself during one of the attacks. I am hoping that this will not be the case this time around and the tablets i am taking are actually working to put this beast to sleep. Last year was a horrible experience during the winter and one that i don't want to repeat. With the help of my injections, oxygen and tablets i am taking i am praying that this year will be easier to cope with, this is the real test.
I have been dreading the time that the real winter weather would appear and the ice and snow turns up and reminds us just how cold it can get during the winter months. All i can think about is the time i went through last winter and cant shake the images of me in pain from my head. So far so good as the medication seems to have worked by reducing the amount of attacks i get in a 24 hour period but we are yet to see if it changes the ones that are set off by the extreme cold winter weather. All i can do for the time being is stay warm and try and stay out of the weather if i can help it. Try and deal with each attack as it happens and just pray they won’t be as bad as last year.
It is horrible actually waiting for attacks to happen. You can feel them building in the head and neck and know it won’t be long before you are in agony again and have to go trough yet another attack. The strong feeling of pressure on the side of the head, what we call the shadow, starts to build and become so strong you think your head is going to explode. You begin to panic and try anything to stop the pain from coming but no matter what you try you just can’t seem to ease the pain. I have found that drinking coffee seems to help ease the shadow feeling and also energy drinks that contain caffeine. I read this on the “cluster buster” web site but didn’t believe it at first. “How can a drink stop the pressure? or ease the pain?” i thought. I was wrong! it does work to ease the pressure.
