Taking Care of Me???

I do not know what in the world is going on with me lately, but my health appears to be less than stellar. It appears I'm taking care of my family, but perhaps neglecting myself in the midst of those daily efforts.

I was enjoying coffee & conversation with a pal last Wednesday, and suddenly I had tightness in my chest along with excruciating pain. It was so random and embarrassing! My sweet friend Cayla was soooo nice about it, but even her kind attentiveness couldn't erase how mortified I felt. It's happened before, and could either have been a pulled muscle (I'd hurt my back that same day by rearranging/lifting furniture with Chris), or a panic attack due to stress. Now, I wasn't feeling particularly stressed that exact day, but I've been extremely stressed in life in general this Summer, and panic attacks can set in even weeks after said stress enters and exits a person's life. Who knows what it caused it, but it was so bad that my coffee cohort had to call my husband and put him on speaker phone to talk me through the pain. Then, the pain subsided and we resumed our chatting as though nothing had happened...I think because neither of us really knew what to say about my sprawling out on the floor of a bookstore's coffee shop floor while crying from chest pain and ultimately laughing at the embarrassment!

Then today I was foiled again, betrayed by my own body. I'd cooked in anticipation of my husband's rare dinnertime at home, ready to eat with him so we could then use our evening to resume organization of all our stuff in this little house. Just after I'd finished cooking and just minutes before Husband's arrival home, I lost peripheral vision in my right eye. This has happened before...and it wasn't good. Last time it was followed by the slow onset of a migraine, which hurt my body so bad I'd actually vomited. Tonight, though, I was spared from the full onslaught of torture. The migraine came, and I struggled to function. Lights were turned off, children were quieted (as much as possible for two toddlers--their Daddy distracted them in another room), and I lay still on the sofa, praying not to vomit. My pal Kelli came to the rescue with some kinda migraine drug. I guess that kinda makes her my "dealer"? Hahaha! My angel for sure! I didn't even look at her...Chris let her in, they woke me on the sofa, I sat up, she spoke to me, gave me some medicine, I went right back down and she left. I suppose that was not my finest moment as a hostess, but the fact that she had possession of migraine medicine tells me my pal has had a migraine of her own before and perhaps had some clue what I was feeling at that moment! How gracious of her to stop by and assist with my healing!

I'm fine. I am not posting this to worry anyone. In fact, in a recent checkup I was told my weight was ideal, my blood pressure dandy, and my iron levels perfect (my whole life I've stayed borderline anemic {that's low iron}, so that's pretty impressive). And it was just in March that I saw an optometrist and my vision is 20/20, so that doesn't seem to be the cause of my headaches. Hmmmm...what could it be? I don't know. But apparently I need to do something to take better care of myself. I think I'll start by going to bed now.