I woke up on January first with a headache. The strange thing was it wasn't like a normal headache, it felt like I had bumped my head into something. Also, I didn't drink much the night before, so I wasn't hung over. Eventually, the pain subsided for the most part and I didn't think more about it.
The next morning, I had the same headache. I took some Advil, two first thing in the morning and two more a few hours later. The Advil didn't do anything. Like the day before, it eventually faded into the background but didn't totally go away.
This went on every day for the next week and a half before I broke down and went to a doctor. She gave me the once over, took some blood, and stated she had no idea what was wrong. She gave me a referral to a neurologist and a prescription for a CT scan.
Last Friday, I went to Northwestern for the CT scan. The CT scan itself was very easy, I just had to lie on a table for 10 minutes or so. The annoying part was getting an IV for an iodine dye injection. The dye injection process felt really odd. When the injection started I got this funny taste in my mouth and my entire chest felt warmer. Less than five minutes after finishing the scan, I was out of the hospital looking for a cab.
Monday I went and saw the neurologist. I talked with one of his interns first & told her I had the CT scan. He spent most of the time having me do simple tasks to see if I had a stroke. He also tested my reflexes, which I don't think anyone had ever done to me before. He briefly mentioned the CT scan and quickly said something I didn't pick up at first. When I asked again about the CT scan, he said all he saw were "normal age-related changes".
The doctor couldn't find anything obviously wrong, so he gave me a prescription for a pain killer and told me to get more sleep and exercise more. The drugs don't seem to be very powerful, either.
The "normal age-related changes" phrase was a real kick in the gut. Turning 40 wasn't a big deal. Being told that some part of my brain is aging (even if it is "normal") is kind of depressing. Mortality is a bitch.
So, yeah, this is what it takes to get me off my lazy ass and post something here.
