This past week has been a good week and a hard week all rolled up into one. As part of my ongoing battle with the migraines, I began seeing a physical therapist last week Friday. He evaluated posture, pressed pretty hard on a bunch of places on my skull, evaluated my dentation, current headache levels, etc. When he was done, I was dizzy, something he said is pretty normal considering everything he did. The dizziness passed after about five minutes and I felt fine the rest of Friday and all-day Saturday, so I figured I was doing ok. But I was wrong, so wrong.
Sunday was when the effects of the PT really kicked in. I woke up dizzy and remained that way until midway through the day on Tuesday. For those unfamiliar with the ravages of migraines, the symptoms are far more numerous than the blinding pain most people are familiar with. Symptoms can include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, flashing lights or visual blind spots (aura), flashes of heat, extreme fatigue, shaky hands, inability to focus, feeling like the world is literally spinning, and the list could go on.
For me, sometimes the dizziness is bad enough that I can’t get out of bed. This time it was milder so I was at least functional, but I was definitely not functioning well. I could manage things if I was upright and as long as I didn’t look up, down, bend over, change my position, etc. All those things increased the dizziness. And it was the week of Thanksgiving, so I had a lot on my to-do list. Luckily, my extreme tendency to prepare in advance meant most of our feast was already prepared and in the freezer. Otherwise, we probably would have ended up eating chicken nuggets for Thanksgiving instead of turkey. I knew going in that things are going to get worse before they get better, but there was no way for me to know exactly what the ramifications of this first appointment would be. If I had, I would have postponed it, but hindsight is 20/20, right?
Having given that preface, this week’s events can be sorted into four basic categories: family, food, fun, and faith.
Family:
This one is obvious. Daniel and Nathan came home on Wednesday. They came by way of pie day at my mom’s house. That was when we got to visit with my parents and sisters and the cousins. My kids don’t get to see their cousins as often as they once did, so that is always a treat for them.
On Thursday, my fabulous foursome spent the day together, playing games, laughing, joking. Matthew and Malia miss their brothers and don’t get to see them as often as they like, so they spent as much time with them as they could over this week. I love that my kids have gotten to the point where not only do they like each other, they spend time together on purpose and stay in touch regularly via the amazing technology to which we have access.
Yesterday was our gathering with Kevin’s family. Again, the kids got to visit with cousins they don’t see as often as they might like due to busy lives all around. But I know that these young ones stay in touch vis digital means as well, so they just might talk more often than I’m aware of, which is great. We had lunch, shared a few family history stories, some highly entertaining ones involving some…colorful ancestors. We listened to some musical numbers presented by my boys and watched a video of one of my niece’s recent ballet performances, one that we unfortunately missed due to conflicting schedules. Daniel and Nathan both had responsibilities in their own ward today, so they headed straight back to Logan after the party with a goodly amount of food in tow.
As always, being able to spend time with family in all its various permutations was one of the highlights of the week. The older my kids get, the more I appreciate the time we have together. It is finite and never quite long enough, but we take advantage of the time we get. I did miss out on most of the fun board and card games due to the fact that I was not feeling my best and that was sad for me, but there will be other days and other weeks and hopefully the PT will end up being helpful over time.
Food:
Let’s face it. Food is an integral part of Thanksgiving. We all look forward to enjoying the traditional turkey dinner with a generous helping of pie by the side. I did manage to get all the expected dishes ready to eat at the appropriate times, but there were some necessary concessions made due to my headache status. The first were the pies.
Tuesday was pie making day for me and while I managed to get them all baked, thankful that all my pie crust was made ahead of time and frozen, the aesthetics of said pies were far below my normal standard. They still tasted delicious, but they looked pretty darn sad. Don’t look for pictures. I’m far too particular to take photos of less than picture perfect food unless it is so bad it is laughable. And this year’s pies were not that far gone. They were just a little…rough around the edges. I managed to haul myself to pie day at my mom’s house on Wednesday, but I was most definitely not running on full steam, and I did not manage to stay as long as usual. I came home before all my kidlets did, and I’m glad most of them are old enough to drive so they could stay and visit with their cousins.
When I woke on Thanksgiving, I had taken another downhill slide headache wise. I wasn’t dizzy, but I felt pretty terrible. Since our inaugural Thanksgiving dinner at home in 2020, it is something we have come to love. One of the big reasons is the fact that everything on the table is safe for Matthew to eat, something that rarely happens elsewhere. There have been years when all he could eat was turkey and the rolls that I baked, and that is pretty sad. The downside to our smaller gathering this year is that cooking the whole dinner alone and with migraine symptoms is hard. But with the help of my fam, I managed the bare necessities foodwise which was roast the turkey and reheat all the previously frozen dishes. Once again, prepping in advance worked very much to my advantage this year. Due to my headache induced malaise, we simplified and ate buffet style rather than pulling out all the serving dishes for a nice, sit-down dinner, but being a little more casual this year was good and did nothing to diminish everyone’s enjoyment of the much-anticipated feast.
Fun:
As previously mentioned, as my kids have gotten older, they have come to value the time we have together more than they did when they were little. That is normal though, as they grow up and move out. At least, it is normal for families in which the siblings get along and actually like each other, and that is exactly what has happened for us. There were card games and video games (although not as many as in years past) and jokes and laughter and enjoyment all around. Sometimes it feels like my house is the location of a giant pun war and/or the residence of every bad dad joke in existence, but yes, that is fun too! Personally, I did not find this week as fun as I normally do, but that was another casualty of the headache. I hate missing out on the board games, but I was really not up to most of it this week. I am glad that the rest of my family still had a good time though. Matthew and Malia miss their brothers when they are away, so I know these times together are precious for them as well.
Faith:
Friday morning was spent at the temple doing baptisms for the dead. That is another thing we have come to love since Malia was able to join us at the temple at the beginning of this year. Being in the temple as a family is always a reminder to me that one of the big purposes of the whole plan is just that: to bind us together as families. And remembering that the work we do in the temple allows other families to be sealed gives me such a sense of purpose as we serve there. I love that my kids love the temple as well. On Saturday morning, my boys spent another morning in the baptistry of another temple. It was a very early appointment and Malia really needed to sleep, so she did not join them, but that is ok too. Sometimes my boys need time with just their brothers.
Our faith is an important part of our lives and being able to spend time together in spiritually focused activities is a blessing. While my older boys were not on hand early in the week when Kevin gave me a blessing related to my abysmal headache status, there have been times in past when we have had all three Melchizedek priesthood holders rotating to give blessings to each other, to me, and to Matthew and Malia. On those occasions, the Spirit is even stronger than normal in our home, and we grow even closer together and stronger as a family.
I suspect I will need to lean on my faith often as I continue down the PT path. I have been told there is help to be found through doing so, but if this week is any indication, it may be a rocky road to get there. I also know that these trying times can strengthen my faith if I allow them to do so, and that is one of the things I hope I can gain from this: increased faith in the Lord as I pray for ways to lessen the headaches and reclaim parts of my life that have become casualties to the migraines.
To sum it all up, this week has been a challenging one for me, but overall, the good eclipses the bad. I have been actively trying to simplify my life as I often make things much more complicated than they need to be. Being forced to simplify due to headache was not a great reason to do so, but the end result was good. It led to a relaxed, calm, enjoyable holiday where we were able to enjoy the company of our family in all its permutations, consume not quite obscene (but fairly close) amounts of food, laugh and joke and have fun with each other, and cap it all off by finding strength to do all things through our faith.
