Perspective

This morning there was another heavy frost.  As the sun came up through the trees they glistened like Christmas ornaments.  It was beautiful.  But the sunlight on my face brought me back to the painful reality of another Chiari headache, now day two.

I'm trying to put everything into perspective.  How much my headaches are affecting my life, how much work or activities I miss, and whether or not the headache was brought on by exertion.  I went through my journals from 2006 through now.  There were 38 months worth of entries.  A good starting point.  So I averaged everything out.

Over the course of 38 months, I average 7.6 days of the month with a headache.  I missed 1.5 days of work or activities per month.  And exertion is a cause of at least 1 - 2 headaches a month....  And those exertion caused headaches may last several of those days.

So, in perspective, I average over a week out of every four in pain over a 3 on the pain scale.  Now, don't get me wrong, that's far better than a lot of people that I've met or read about.  But when I have a headache the pain is bad enough to wish for the surgery.  And when I don't have a headache, I don't want to have the surgery because of the risks involved.

I've faxed a few further questions to Dr. Gentili's office to get a few more answers I need to make my final decision.  I've had some interesting feedback about surgery in Canada vs the US.  I've also e-mailed another doctor to inquire about an assessment in the US.  This is very very very preliminary.  I'm information gathering still.  

I'm still researching and thinking...