I had plans for entertaining our youngest today, but then our youngest got sick. And then I decided to join her.

It is a tradition I have that I start feeling sick the night before the start of a long holiday. This time, though, I put that off a couple days because I was actually working one day during the holiday. As soon as that was over, though, things started to change.

I’m not sure what causes it. Some of it is disruption of routine. I usually don’t sleep late on weekends so it’s not a change in sleep patterns, but I’m also not doing my usual walk to the station and back. Also, all the stress of work builds up and then gets released which increases blood flow to the brain which triggers a migraine, which is exactly what I got today.

Oliver Sacks, in his book Migraine, referred to migraines as “nerve storms” (or he quoted someone as calling them that, I don’t remember) and that’s as good a description as any.  They start suddenly and can disappear just as quickly but they always leave a small bit of mess that clears away over time. Even today’s, although it was reasonably mild, has left me with random flashes of pain and nausea to remind me that it’s still here.

Throw in the changing weather and autumn pollen and that’s a big mess of nerve storms waiting to happen. Our youngest seems to have a mix of autumn allergies and a cold which had her napping most of the day. I’ll be watching her again tomorrow and I hope she’s feeling better so we can go out and get some sunlight.

Luckily, it appears as if tomorrow will be bright and sunny. However, if I have a migraine, that’s the worse possible thing it could be.