Resting Days

I've been in my robe going on two days.

I'm under the heating pad this morning, it doesn't seem cold enough to fire up the wood stove, but my feet are still chilly. I'm always colder when I'm migraining, though.

I woke with foreboding head pain this morning, and the nausea started as soon as I got up. At least it let me sleep well enough, I can migraine hard for days and maintain my calm pretty well as long as I get sleep, so I'm still optimistic for today.

It's been a year since we moved into the mountains, and I still marvel at the freedom I have in being able to walk outside my house on bad days. The quiet, the shelter of the trees, the clean air, and the solitude are shaping my life quite differently than it was last year, and I find it difficult to complain, even when I'm migraining so hard I can't talk. It used to be so much worse, the struggle was my whole existence.

I had a busy several days last week, which is likely the cause of this dramatic downturn in my health. A few trips to town, and not one, but TWO social outings have tapped my reserves completely. I expected to be knocked down afterwards, but not this hard or for this long. I've gotten cocky, in my happy bubble of quiet, and I nearly forgot how sick I am.

Of course, I experience daily pain and neurological disorder, but I've gotten so used to them and the routines I've built for myself to cope, that I don't notice many symptoms anymore unless they actively impede me. Since I've adapted my life so much to accommodate my migraines, that doesn't happen much at home.

I mean sure, doing dishes is still a daily battle, but there's rarely an insurmountable pile anymore, since we've gotten the dishwasher. And the laundry does pile up, but once I sort it, I can have my ever-helpful honey take it down to the machines for me. They're just under the house, anyway, I can usually handle that haul on all but my worst days.

So today, I'll consider it a great accomplishment if I clean the kitchen, and the day will be a rousing success if I manage the pot pie recipe that's been taunting me from my blogroll for the past hour. Sans chicken, of course. And my boyfriend will have to roll out the dough, my head can't take the manual labor. So maybe we'll make two so he can have a meaty one.

Or maybe I'll just stay curled up under the heating pad and watch some episodes of Downton Abbey.