Migraines...

Migraines... it's like a hangover but without the benefit of getting drunk. You are sick as a dog, sweats, can't move, light is too bright, you can smell EVERYTHING, your brain feels like a muscle that has a charlie horse.. you just want it to be massaged. You need a brain massage.. but the wrong move, or smell... well, it makes you vomit. You need to sleep but you are hurt. You are so nauseous that you pray for yourself to throw up. Penelope is an expert at making herself throw up. I am not, however I'm getting better. Because I can smell EVERYTHING, I have learned that I become somewhat of a germaphobe when I get a migraine. No matter how clean my bathroom is, I can still smell stinky smells. The water is metallic smelling. The shower curtain has a mildewy wet smell. I bet that toilet seat has germs on it. That's usually enough to do it for me. But psyching myself into it is usually my last resort - I hate it.. hate it hate it. But it also means I've had worse migraines. This one lasted about 10 hours.
But I got it.. totally disabled me. Besides the one I had less than a week ago, I haven't had a migraine in months. I know it's stress induced. I hate that! You would think with all the crap I've dealt with, I'd be dead by now from my head exploding. But it's really when I'm not coping well when it happens. If I can have my feelings out, have my emotional breakdown or whatever I need, I've processed it fine. It's when I've bottled it up or pretended it didn't exist, that the pressure builds. So I've had my second one.
I know in my heart it is about the therapy session with George on Monday. I'm really starting to dread it. I woke up around 5:30 - a storm was rolling through. I was fine. Around 6:30 I fell back asleep and woke up around 8:30 with a raging migraine. Thank goodness Penelope was doing well or I don't know what I would have done. Thank goodness it was Saturday. I knew my parents had a golf tournement but with the rain, I tried them anyway. No luck. Then I called my twin brother - in the slight chance he could help me with Penelope today. No answer.
Penelope was great help while I was trying to figure out what to do about my migraine. She figured out breakfast for herself, took her meds. Didn't try to take advantage of me in anyway. When I asked for help, she didn't moan about it. I asked her to make me a slice of toast, plain and a glass of water. She did it and was great about it. She did get accusatory when she found the slice of toast, minus a small bite mark, in the middle of the hallway. I told her I took the bite but it made my stomach turn, but I put it on the nightstand. One of the cats decided to try to run off with it I guess. lol. She accepted that - cats are funny when they are bad, mommies are not I guess.
Uncle B called around 11am and after talking it over with his wife, he actually agreed to take Penelope off my hands! I didn't want her to have to take care of me, and I wasn't going to relax and get better knowing that I couldn't keep an eye on her. I swear, my migraine eased up markably the moment she went out the house. Felt a little guilt for that one.
I ended up going to pick her up at his house around 6pm. He invited us for dinner, which was good since I hadn't eaten in 24 hours. Felt good enough to drive there, I was sure I should be able to eat. Hung out for a couple of hours and she seemed content there. No mopeyness that I noticed. I think her cousins got on her nerves a little bit, but they love her unconditionally and want to include her in everything.
I asked how things went to both Uncle B and Auntie - separately. Not on purpose, just worked out that way. Auntie said that she was perfectly fine. No problems except for when the kids were playing outside, Penelope kept wanting to turn the outside faucet on. Auntie could hear it turn on from the kitchen where she was watching them. Penelope said she was filling up the dog bowl, but then when Auntie checked after the next time it went on and noticed the patio was all wet, totally busted her. Auntie said "No more turning on the faucet. You lied to me about filling the dogs bowl so no more." She said Penelope said "Okay.." Then a few minutes later, came in and sat down at the kitchen table and just did nothing for a while - looking sad. She was concerned about the way she handled her. I said that she was fine. Penelope is scared of Auntie a little bit. She has a very strong persona about her. Hard to read, so I can totally get how she is intimidated. When I asked Uncle B the first time, he said "She was okay" but I could hear something behind what he was saying. So I asked again... same answer. I said "Good, because I told her not to beg for things when you took her with you to the store. She has a problem with that, but I really thought she could handle it with you." He said "Oh, that rule didn't stick.. we ended up buying her a calendar.." Okay, he said it cost $3 so no big deal. But it sounded like a bigger deal for him. But I apologized and said I thought she would have done better. He said, it was okay... like she hadn't. Later, I thanked him again and asked him if he notices her improvements. He said "Yeah, sorta. She was just really annoying today." Okay.. how? "She is a know-it-all. Knows everything." I jokingly said "She is her father's daughter.." but confirmed what he meant is something she has done for years with me until I squashed it. If you say that something took 4 minutes to do, she would say "No, more like 3 1/2 minutes." Any type of measurement - time, level of fun/tastiness/severe of injury.. she will do this. Sometimes she will tell you how something is made or some totally made up fact about something. When you tell her that's not true or ask her where she learned it, she just continues to lie. Her all encompassing "evidence" of her truth is that "Daddy said so." Daddy knows everything... So, for lunch, Uncle B took the fam to Chic-fil-a or whatever it's called. Never been there. Penelope didn't like their fries. Told Uncle B that Burger King's fries are much better. He said "I personally like these better but everyone has their tastes." She said "No. It's a lot healthier for you. Less calories." . She tried that one on me a couple of days ago out of the blue while watching a McDonald commercial. I just said "Never heard that but okay." See, Daddy told her that.
I told him she was baiting him. Not to get caught up in it. It goes away. But it must have drove him crazy. She won that little control battle. But I think if that is all that happened, all is okay.
My concern is that I felt very grateful, even allowed myself hopeful that maybe Uncle B could be someone I can put on the support list. Maybe he has seen that there is no need to be scared of her. Heck, they let their little almost 3 year old around their other cousin who I swear is RAD in a much worse way and she got her neck pinched hard enough it left a dark purple bruise by the older cousin. But, I am not sure that will be the case.. maybe she was too annoying. But then maybe he is too easily annoyed to be effective with her.