Take two and call me in the morning
November 8th, 2003 byI have a headache and it pounds inside my head, unappreciated friendly knocks of a neighbor who wants your last cup of sugar. It’s a living creature that has taken quarters inside my skull, a lease-less nonpaying tenant. It roams the unchartered, unsee-able, unbelievable terrain of grey cells and hidden organs. It doesn’t devour yet, it simply overtakes, a vulture circling overhead. It’s an organized virus inside me and it leaves breadcrumb trails behind it as to know its way home. It’s not evil though, it’s mere existence is thought evil-nay, it’s but a hungry creature looking for food. Inside me.
I drop to my knees mentally. I squeeze my forehead and whisper prayers to a God I’ve never seen, that I don’t need to see. I arch my head to the right, as the pain grabs a foothold there and pulls itself to a new home. It multiplies itself, it denies my existence partially, it devours endlessly. And I grind my teeth hard, feeling the tension of rocks travel from my jaw to my skull to my brain to my mind to my pain. And I try drowning it. I try forcing it out with will. I stiffen my body, trying to deny the headache a home anywhere, I flex mental muscles to push it out. It slows down, but pain residential is worse then pain mobile. I relax my grip, and let it move. We both breathe a sigh of partial relief, two warriors taking a break in their battles.
I close my eyes and I focus inside, I travel far far inside, I go but a millimeter within and it’s a whole new world. Here I sit silent, breathing slowly, unmoving, expressionless. I clear my mind of debris, I focus on the ’salaam’ in “assalamalaikum wa rahmatullahe wa barakatuhu”, I focus on my surroundings and I remember who I am.
I am muslim. And so I ask Allah for help, I ask Allah for help in submission.
Minutes pass, three clocks in one bedroom all witnesses to the sand slip through. For in the Quran, there is a cure for all diseases but death.
The pain lessened, the pain worn out, it sits now at the lower base of my skull. Alhamdulilah.
November 9th, 2003 at 1:58 am
Oh bro, that sounded bad. I know how that can be. I get migraines and each one is a lesson in patience, gratitude and pain. Funny how incessant a knock on your mental wellbeing a simple headache can be. Can’t get rid of it, can’t ignore it and can’t handle it. The only thing to do is wait.
When I come out of a migraine I always resolve to study that meditation stuff that teaches you to turn off or focus-away pain, but no such luck. I forget until I’m crippled by another.
November 9th, 2003 at 2:20 am
migraines. best way to deal is just be in the dark, no lights no sounds. i usually have to stay there until i throw up but at times i’ve felt better just laying there in the dark.
November 9th, 2003 at 3:36 am
Take two ‘Ya Allah’s and call me in the morning.
(Here, have some aspirin too…)
November 9th, 2003 at 4:22 am
Sounds like horrific pain, but amazing writing you got out of it, masha’Allah. Try prayers, tylenol, and sleep. (I think I got the order right?)
November 9th, 2003 at 5:45 am
Yeah, hehe ever heard of Tylenol?
But seriously, that sounded really awful. One good cure is hot milk and honey. Easy to say now but when your’e actually in pain all you feel like doing is screaming.
and as yas said, awesome writing!
November 9th, 2003 at 7:07 am
While fasting.. if itsnot a dehydration headache, but a tension one– try this (Sudani told me of it,, and it’s worked for me)
Take a strap or one of your relatives hijabs lol, and tie it REALLY FREAKIN tight around your head- at the forehead level. Tight. I mean so tight it feels like your brain will pop out the top. Leave it there for a while.. remove. headache gone
November 9th, 2003 at 8:23 am
Lol@sisterscorp. That reminds me of a cure for pain I saw in a cheap movie once. A soldier gets shot, and he wails to his commanding officer, “My leg, my leg!”
And the officer takes the soldier by the hand and says, “There there son, this will take the pain away from your leg…” And then he breaks four of the soldiers’s fingers.
And the soldier goes, “My hand, my hand!”
November 9th, 2003 at 12:28 pm
Ouch! Sounds bad bro
I don;t think your eating enough, that might be why your head hurt. I get that.
You’ve lost so much weight *sob* :p
When I get migraines I usually end up hurling
–Gross migraine story:–
Many years ago……
After several hours of complete agony I decided to take medication in the form of nurofen (ibuprofen).
So theres me, sweet as can be but weak and agonised. Took my tabs and hurled in my sink. Which in those days was conveniently in my bedroom (bedsit).
My friend, being completely eugh washed the nurofens which I had just brought back up and forced me (in my feeble state) to take them again.
I did
–End of gross migraine story.–
Well, thats probably not something you needed to know
but I just felt the need to share *blushes*
Hope your feeling better now inshAllah
You know whats really good for headaches?
Camomile tea 
Yup 
And if your feeling really up for it, try massaging lavendar oil on your temples inshAllah 
‘Erbal ‘Ealings *sticks thumb up*
What, what? I meant legal ones!
November 9th, 2003 at 12:29 pm
Yikes, that comment looks a lil long.
Tsk@ all the spaces
November 9th, 2003 at 1:33 pm
i thought it was peppermint oil that you’re supposed to rub on your temples? isn’t that what dialates the bloodvessels? maybe i heard wrong.
November 9th, 2003 at 3:46 pm
I am commenting on this entry solely to break up the female comment monopoly that is the status quo–but not any longer! *evil laughter*
November 9th, 2003 at 3:53 pm
Jaza kala khair everyone for the advice. Insha-allah I’ll be sure to keep these options in mind next time. I don’t think I suffer from migraine though, I can still do a lot of activities, I just have a lousy headache. But compared to migraine sufferers, it’s nothing, so I don’t complain. Half the time I don’t even take pain killers, I just try to meditate…
On the topic of tea, you should all try Chinese jasmine tea. Caffeine free, add a little sugar, it’s delicious. Perhaps that will a nice after taste once Abez chops off your hand in the name of love and science and all things insane.
And yes Ibrahim. When I asked him, after laughing, why he posted this, he replied back to me ” i’m an american. i have opinions AND i say them in the most blatant and tactless of ways”.
Oh how Italian Americans make me laugh and laugh and laugh…
November 9th, 2003 at 9:56 pm
This is an automatic (actually its not automatic, i’m typing it myself) message to test whether your comment box has decided to stop blocking my comments.
testing… testing…
*looks hopeful* ok i’m going to post now.. *holds breath & clicks Post*
November 9th, 2003 at 9:57 pm
ah, mystery solved..
November 10th, 2003 at 12:57 am
lol salaam abez, don’t knock it till you’ve tried it- Sudani acupressure woowoo!
Leila
November 10th, 2003 at 2:37 am
lol…ok Sister Scorpion, I won’t. But still man, they kind of no the same thing in Pakistan, you make the mistake of letting someone know you have a head-ache, and they ‘press’ your head, squeeze, mash, tenderize. And that’s supposed to make you feel better.
It feels horrible, actually.
But hey man, to each his own?
November 10th, 2003 at 2:58 am
Yups Chai, Lavendar oil works a treat
Never tried it with peppermint
November 10th, 2003 at 5:58 pm
but im a woman … n i didnt say nuttin …
i mean, headaches are headaches are headaches …
once theyre done i jus pretend they never were