It’s time to update, yes.
The past month was another trying time for me. While it was a highly anticipated month for various reasons, such as NaNoWriMo, and several birthdays (Tatay on the 4th, me - 23; Theresa – 26; and finally, Lilia on the 30th), something else happened (again). *Sigh.*
The birthdays went fine, except mine. But that’s okay. What’s breaking my heart now is missing NaNoWriMo (again) this year. I had a great start, with 17k words already on the 5th, making me swell with pride and confidence that this year could be my NaNoWriMo year. But, no. After three attempts, I realized that the odds are still against me. Don’t get me wrong, please. I’m not making excuses for not finishing my novel this year. I tried. God knows how hard I tried to finish it. I’ve even went to as far as 23,500 words, but something came up that made me stop.
It was on the 16th that something alarming happened. It was a Friday, the end of an unusually stressful week. I was, unfortunately, alone at our office room when an extremely painful headache attack came. It started as a dull pain coming from the lower back of my head, then progressed very fast to the upper part, affecting my vision and making me nauseous. I thought I was only hungry and tried to eat, but the pain became so terrible that I had to ask officemates from a nearby room to rush me to the clinic which is quite far from our building. At the clinic, I was immediately given oxygen support and was told to lie down to rest for a while. They gave me cold and hot compresses to reduce the pain, but to no avail. I had the shock of my life when I learned that my blood pressure rose to a high 160/110! At that time, my hands and feet were numb and very, very cold. And all the time my blood pressure stayed at that reading: 150-160/110. Later on, I was given a very strong painkiller and another drug to lower my BP. Perhaps the combination relaxed me a bit and I dozed off. Half an hour later, I felt woozy when I woke up, but definitely a lot better without the throbbing pain and nausea. Still, my BP was on a high, and to my surprise, what I thought would be a simple consultation lasted three hours!
The following week brought me to three different doctors: an ophthalmologist, a neurologist, and an IM, but all three recommend the same procedures: both MRI and MRA scans. –Gulp.–
My neurologist, Dr. Valencia, suspects that it’s migraine, and so does my IM, Dr. Torres. But Dr. Valencia wants to rule out the possibility that there may be AV malformation, or aneurysms somewhere. *Sigh.* Uh-oh. Aside from the MRI and MRA scans, I was also asked to do a lot of laboratory procedures to check on my cholesterol, sugar, and mineral levels. I will also go through other lab tests to check my thyroid. I had a thyroidectomy three years ago, and Dr. Torres feels it’s about time my thyroid functions get checked again. *Sigh.*
And after all those consultations, and lab tests (I haven’t done the MRI and MRA scans yet), a simple recommendation came from all of them: sleep. Lots of sleep and rest. And sleep I did. Not because it’s recommended, not because I am just a lazy bum finding excuses of not finishing my novel, but because my body commands it. Nowadays, if I am still awake at 11pm, I am lucky. So no more Miami Ink for me now. And no more late night movies too. Aw, crap. Now I can’t wait for the Christmas/New Year break to come so I can fully rest and sort of get a long-needed tune up.
And then hopefully by November next year I will join NaNoWriMo again.
