Hart: How do you feel now?
Kerrie: You know, it’s not too bad. It’s like a hot steel rod is poking through my left temple and out my eyebrow.
Hart: Um, not many people could fathom how that description would constitute “not too bad.”
My entire head wasn’t throbbing and the brain fog and fatigue were slight, so the sensation of a metal poker wasn’t a big deal. As far as migraines go, it was pretty mild.
And that’s another thing Hart has called me out on recently — the idea that any migraine could ever be mild. Compared to the migraines that are strongest in my memory, the ones I’ve had lately are positively benign.
The perspective that allows me to classify a migraine as mild is one I’d prefer to never have gained, though now that I’m through the worst days (for now, at least), I’m glad to have it. It’s the biggest cliché of illness, but I really do appreciate every day that I feel OK in a way a person who has always been healthy never could.
Learning this lesson was excruciating, but reaping the rewards of it is nothing short of amazing. Going though each day aware of how fortunate I am to have it is a wonderful, joyous way to live.