Brain Worms

I have that brain-worms feeling. Brain snakes? It's when the migraine meds have kicked in so the pain is gone but the other sensations of the migraine are still there--a tingling that moves around that parts that were hurting. Tingling is a normal side effect of the meds, but I may be weird in that my head is what usually tingles.

I fucking hate migraines. My colleagues are all amazed when I tell them I'm on day whatever of a migraine and still teaching and coming to class. When I have a migraine, I don't cancel class unless I can't teach--can't focus enough to form sentences or otherwise physically can't do it. And I try to explain that if I cancel class every time I have a BAD migraine, I would cancel class twice a week, which isn't acceptable (although apparently I do have other colleagues who do that). So it is time to try a new daily med, I think, as the current dosage increase doesn't seem to be working. Sigh.

I was trying to sleep today after taking the pain med. It kicked in, but I was still in pain--just less--and I couldn't fall asleep. Too much tension. I tried all of the biofeedback I learned as a teen to help me relax and it did help, but not a great deal. When I finally did fall asleep, I dreamed that I was trying to take a bubble bath but I kept being interrupted with other people's problems and they kept screwing up my hot water. I was boiling a pot of water on the stove (which I actually do to take a hot bath in real life because the hot water is really slow to heat up and very little hot comes out of the tap because of low pressure--old house, old plumbing), and they were making tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches (I don't know who they were, two boys--10-12 years old?) and turned my water off. They were making the soup and sandwiches wrong (cheese was getting on the burner because they weren't using a pan). I helped and fixed the mess while my water was re-boiling. When it was done, I told them to save me some while I checked on the bath, which was still filling up and was ready for the pot of hot water. But when I got back they had eaten it all. And then a girl had a problem in the bathroom, but I don't remember what it was. Anyway, I couldn't take a bubble bath. And apparently didn't get my soup and sandwich either. Sometimes I think my brain is like, "I'm going make this as obvious as possible" and I get a really obviously symbolic dream.

Once, when I was overwhelmed with grading, I dreamed that I was drowning because I couldn't let go of cards from my students, so my hands were full with paper that was weighing me down in the ocean and I couldn't grab the flotation device (I don't remember what it was). Husband was telling me to let go and I was telling him "I can't." See, slap-in-the-face obvious. I told a friend who teaches fiction that one. She told me if a student ever turned in a story with that dream in it she would have told them to cut it as it was unrealistic--too contrived.

Don't google "brain worms." Here's a safe result from xkcd.

Today is part of Spring Break and tomorrow is my birthday, so yay! I'll be 33.