-Ok….Normally I’m a pretty private person per say. One of those “you know me, but don’t really know me” types. I’ve mostly used the blog area for stuff like surveys and jokes and other things that are probably violating ZADOC’S CODE OF MY SPACE -j/k dude (see post in his Blog)……But every once in awhile I’ll post something that’s a little more serious. And I’m posting about this cause maybe someone has an idea/suggestion on this that I haven’t looked into yet…..

-For quite a long time, I’ve been having what I call “headaches”. Basically, they started somewhere between ages 18-21 and have hit me almost every year. They seem to be akin to migraines-specifically CLUSTER HEADACHES IMHO. I get them on the right side near the temple. They last from 20 minutes to about an hour-and a lot of times the pain kinda lingers around for awhile after that. The blood vein above the right temple is enlarged and pulsing faster than normal. The pain is like a razor on a nerve-like a stabbing pain actually. One way to picture it is like someone with a soldering rod jabbing it into the right side of my temple.. At times it spreads to areas like behind my ears,around the eyes. my teeth/jaws and even my throat every once in awhile. The pain intensity has been from irritating to being so bad that I have withered in pain on the ground. They do seem to hit a little after 10 AM as of late, but many times there’s no pattern.They can hit basically at any time. They have hit me even when I’ve been on stage performing. I have tried to trace a pattern but I’ve been out of luck as of yet. The only one that seems to be like a pattern is they lately seem to hit between the transition of winter-spring and fall-winter.

-I have gone to see a doctor 3 times and each time they said it was different things. Everything from a common migraine to a problem with my sinus’ to a problem with my teeth among others. I’ve had a cat scan but they didn’t find anything. Initially I though it was teeth related cause my teeth were in really bad shape a few years ago and I had to have 3 of them yanked last year. The pain seemed to go away after that-it seems there was a small infection underneath one of the rotting teeth. I thought that must of been it. Recently I had a bridge put there. Things were OK-until basically this crazy weather (going from 60 to 20 degrees in 1 day for example) has played havok with me. Yesterday in the afternoon the pain started up and , suddenly, blood was coming out of the right side of my nose! It was suggested that this was dehydration……

-As of late, I’ve been leaning towards the theory that this might be sinus related. To compound things, I’ve also been having dizzy spells-but only rarely. I got hit with one last night in fact. It feels like my energy is being sucked right out of me. Maybe that’s low blood sugar? It’s been suggested that if it’s sinus, then this dizziness might be from my “inner ear”.

-Recently this has been more on my mind because the wife of one of my best friends just had a brain aneurysm and she had just started taking migraine medication a month earlier. Sometimes it feels like the blood vessels over my temple is gonna explode. A good friend of mine had a stroke last year and I know at the time he was under tremendous stress. I do have a slight concern that someday I’ll just being doing my normal thing and then BAM-all will go black. If it happens it happens so I’m not overtly worried-but I am a little concerned about the possibility……

-In addition, as of late, I’ve been bogged down by pressures at work, stress, dealing with problems in the band, and not sleeping well. Been having nightmares as of late actually. I know-the 1st thing people will suggest is for me to relax. I do know what my limits are and the value of rest. I do take breaks and sometimes I’ll even nap a little in between stuff. The weekend is usually a good time for me to “recharge my batteries” but as of late it hasn’t been as effective as it should be. Even when I don’t have to do anything the next day and I can sleep as long as I want, I’ll wake up early and stay awake. I don’t want to just sit around doing nothing so I might as well get some work done.

-One suggestion of the source of the “headaches” was caffeine, but I’ve eliminated quite a lot of it from my intake. I don’t even drink Diet Pepsi anymore (unless there’s nothing else). It’s mostly Diet 7Up (which has no caffeine or even aspartame), water, or Diet Lipton Green Tea-which I don’t drink much of. And I do have a small cup of Green Tea in the morning. But I still get hit with them….. Admittedly, I haven’t been watching my diet/working out anywhere near like I should as of late-don’t know if that’s a factor or not. I would surmise that it’s probably a couple things together interrelated that are causing the problem.

-I will say that one good that happened as a result of these “headaches”.On 9/6/2004 I had one of them during work and-in about 5 minutes-I wrote a song about what I was feeling. The music followed shortly afterwards. That song is called “PAIN” which is currently in the CAROLINE BLUE set list and is one of our more popular songs. So this isn’t all bad

-I was given medication awhile ago, but the 1st time I took it, the side effects made me feel like my head was swelling AND it triggered a very intense “headache”. The 2nd improved version was better, but it still did no good if the attack was already going. The best time to take a pain pill is right when you seen it’s coming. It takes awhile for the pills to dissolve.

-If it’s a migraine, there is no cure for it. I have a feeling I’m just gonna have to deal with it cause it’s not going away. I don’t know….one of the reasons I decided to write about this here-maybe someone might have a suggestion that I haven’t explored. There’s some more to add but I’m tired & I’m going to bed. Thanks for listening to me rant and have a great week everyone!

*Update-3/17-I just want to thank everyone for your comments & I’ll be responding to them here either when I get home tonight or tomorrow. And now, my wonderful (sarcastic mode off) job awaits!(HA!)*