Headaches

 

The Headache, by George Cruickshank, 1819

This week’s blog post is a short one. I’ve been suffering from persistent, low-grade headaches for some time now. They’re making it tough for me to concentrate (and write a blog post), and pain relievers (acetaminophen, aspirin, ibuprofen) have not helped. Sleeping has not provided relief either, as pulsating pain greets me each morning when I wake up. It was bad enough yesterday (Friday) that I could not focus on my work at all, so I called it quits early and spent much of the day in bed.

I coincidentally had an appointment on Thursday with my doctor for my annual wellness exam. Generally good news all around, but we did discuss my headaches. His diagnosis was tension headaches, most likely attributable to stress, which is what I figured. Another possible cause: dehydration. I do need to remind myself to drink more water every day. While experts say coffee is unlikely to dehydrate you, my experience tells me my love of coffee is dehydrating because of the frequent bathroom visits even a single cup will prompt.

So, I'll work on managing my stress and drinking more water. Hopefully, my headaches will diminish soon.