Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

Well, I got to come home early from the Mayo Clinic.  Which is great.  I did have to miss seeing my cousin and spending more time with my friend, but I needed to be home.  After three long days of appointments and careful examination, the Mayo Clinic had done all they could for me, so there was no reason to stay.  I missed my family, and they (incredibly) missed me.

So, the sum-up?  Well...

They know what is causing my headaches.  It is the condition that I am genetically pre-disposed to and can do nothing about.  It is the way my brain and my pain sensors work, combined with environmental factors within my body, and the way my condition presents itself.  The condition causing the headaches is migraine.  Which is a condition in and of itself (bet you didn't know that), and has nothing to do with what I eat, wear, do, or say.  It's just there, and it is not going away.  In some ways, I understand it very well, and in others (the scientific-y ways) I don't.

But, what I do know is that they are right.  They know what they are doing.  I am perfectly healthy in every other way;  I just have a chronic illness: Chronicized Migraine.  So, either I will (probably) have a headache every day for the rest of my life, or I will deal with the side effects of medications that may help me.  (Much like someone with diabetes will take insulin and watch their diet, or live with the consequences of not doing so.)  The good news is, if I never find a medication to help me, I'm not going to die or anything, I'll just be in pain.  And, they did give me some ideas of medications that could help me--including some I have tried, but maybe in different doses or at different intervals.  I need to be on a medication for at least six months before deciding if it is effective or not.  So, the trials to find something livable may take a while.  But, we can do it.

So, the basic sum-up, and all you really need to know is this:  the Mayo Clinic is great.  They are so incredibly nice there.  They were very thorough and helpful, and found out what was wrong with me.  There is hope that I can get better, but it will take a year (or a few years) to get there.  And I'll be okay.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. 

It was a good visit.  I could never repay Kristy for her thoughtful care and all of the delicious food she found for me there in Rochester.  The cinnamon French toast we had at our hotel for Easter Breakfast was to die for.  And, as luck would have it, we found the yummiest plum sticky toffee pudding the last day we were there.  Delicious, and so good, if I had stayed longer, I would have come home a fat pig.

The end.

To market, to market, to buy a plum bun, 

Home again, home again, market is done.