Shoot Me in the Head

I had a very brutal experience last night.

I have been fighting a bad headache since Tuesday night. I woke up off and on throughout the night. Headaches usually happen when:

a. I am crazy-stressed
b. the weather turns from hot to cold or cold to hot
c. I am severely dehydrated

Well, Wednesday was bad, but then it seemed to dissipate by the time I got home from work (coincidence?)

Thursday it was off and on.

I went to baseball on Thursday night and found out that I would be catching. I warmed up, felt good and we started the game. I caught the first inning with no problems. When I got to the bench I thought...hmmm, I don''t feel so well. I started catching in the second inning and then...

BAM

I instantaneously got the worst headache I have ever experienced in my lifetime of headaches. I'm not kidding when I say that I was worried that it may be something much worse, like a brain tumour.

Insert ["It's noooot a tumah.."]

Every time I stood up, and crouched down, I thought I was going to D-I-E. It felt like a knife was stabbing into my right eye every 3 seconds. BAM BAM BAM. The pain was unbelievable. My right eye started to stream tears down my face. The pressure in my head was indescribable. When I took my equipment off in the dugout, my clothes were drenched in sweat.

I finished that inning, asked my friend Karen to take over catching for me, managed to go up to bat one more time and played third base for the next inning. We were only playing with 8 girls, so there wasn't the option of me leaving before one of the late players arrived to replace me. When I wasn't playing I was keeled over on the bench with the heel of my hand in my eye socket...I just wanted it to end. Let me add that I have a very high pain tolerance. VERY HIGH. This was pretty high up on my list of most painful experiences.

Finally our last player showed up and replaced me. I left the park, took the bus home, and slept for 2 hours.

I found out later that we won. YAY!

After doing some research online, I found that I experienced the classic symptoms of a cluster headache.

This is really wonderful. Migraines are brutal enough. Now cluster headaches? WTF. Migraines are a cakewalk compared to these puppies.

I really hope none of you reading this have ever or will ever experience this. You'll be asking someone to put you out of your misery.

The good news is that the pain doesn't last long. Thank the good Lord above.