Headaches

Well folks, it's official. Headaches suck. It is March 29th and I have had a headache (nonstop) since March 1st. That is WAY too long. I have tried less caffeine, more caffeine, less sugar, more sugar (that was fun), Tylenol, Advil, Alieve, drinking more water, exercising more, exercising less (that was nice too), eating more protein, eating less protein, essential oils, massage, more sleep, less sleep, and anything else I've been able to think of. The only thing that has helped was the Vicodin, and that mostly just made me not care about having a headache.

I had an appointment with a doctor today. The last time I went to the doctor, it was a really bad experience, so I decided to go somewhere new today. He helped Ben with his headaches, so I thought maybe he could help me. Instead, I sat in the waiting room for a full hour and then left. We'll try again tomorrow.

I left after an hour because I had an appointment to donate blood today at my mom's blood drive. She is the East Stake Blood Drive Coordinator and I've been helping her. (All of the scheduling is done online and she doesn't have a computer, so I've been doing that end of it.) I decided to try doing the Double Red Cell donation today instead of whole blood. Basically, they put two needles in your arm and hook you up to a machine. They take out your blood, separate it from the plasma, then put the plasma back in. Then they do it again. So you're donating twice as much, but you get all of your fluids back so you don't feel quite so yucky and woozy. But man, it sure made me cold! The plasma was chilly going back in. My teeth were chattering and my whole body was shivering.

The really interesting part, is that my headache went completely away while I was donating. When the blood was going out, my headache disappeared. When they started putting the plasma back in, it came back. The same thing happened the second time. I should have just asked them to keep the plasma and maybe the headache would have gone away for good.

So, I feel good that I donated blood (and saved up to 3 lives!!), but now I'm more confused than ever about this headache. Let's hope tomorrow brings answers... and a shorter visit to the waiting room.