It was an incredible feat making it to the library, let alone up the stairs and then finding an open table by the windows in the quiet section was another miracle. I didn’t really process how incredible the moment was due to the headache and exhaustion. All I remember was collapsing into a chair, throwing my back on the floor, shrugging off my sweater, bundling it up into a ball and promptly laying my head down on it and closing my eyes. Setting an alarm for the 10 o’clock class was an afterthought.
I dozed for a little bit, fitfully, waking at every sound, the soft shuffling of feet on the carpet, the squeaking wheels of a cart holding books, the birds chirping outside the window or the heater kicking on below my feet. I had one more class to go until I had a three hour break when I would take my regularly scheduled nap after lunch. There were much more comfortable spots to sleep on campus, on one of the couches in the lounge, or even in my bed across campus.
Forty minutes later, fifteen before my next class, my alarm goes off in my ears. I wake up, stretch out and crack my back. The stiff wooden chair was not made for sleeping, even a quick cat nap like this. I pulled my sweater back on and my bag after that, gave my neck a roll and I was off to class. A few steps forward, I give a quick look around the desk, double checking to make sure I got everything, a habit really, and I find myself chuckling to myself.
I napped in the library. And surprisingly, I felt a little bit better after my nap.
I’m sure this would have happened at some point in my college career, but I doubted it as a wide eyed first semester freshman. Just another place migraines have taken me.
More Than a Headache 
Reblogged this on mariajay76.
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This past week between family coming in from out of state and volunteering at my son’s VBS I have had to catch sleep in plenty of unusual places. I did way too much and I will be close to bedridden for the weekend at least, however, looking back over what I got done I wouldn’t choose not to do these things even I had the week to do over. It just sucks that chronic illness and pain give us such a high toll for living our lives as we choose to live them.
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A good kind of exhausted, if there even is one.
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There is, I guess. I just wish the fatigue didn’t come with such intractable pain. Your post just really resonates with me. By yesterday, after the intensity of this past week, every time I needed to change locations getting from a to b was a miracle in and of itself.
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Yeah, I know what you mean. Fatigue triggers and then intensifies any pain I am experiencing. I’m glad to hear that. I thought this post was kind of lame – it’s been in the queue for a couple days now but I kept pushing it back and added other posts. Yeah, after being exhausted with a level 10+ migraine, getting to a safe and private place to ride it out seems like a miracle. While stranded on campus, the library is that place. I amaze myself by getting to these places when I feel like collapsing at point a.
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Wait do you actually have a line of posts waiting to be published? You are so far ahead of me.
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Yeah. Right now, I have four posts in the queue. Three are for this week and the last one is for two weeks from now. I like scheduling posts because I can spend one night a week writing posts and then queue them up. It helps lessen my anxiety knowing I have the blog all sorted out so I can deal with everything else. Plus if a migraine knocks me off my feet, the blog is sorted. The only thing I don’t like about scheduling has mostly to do with my writing style. Since I write in the present tense a lot of people think that all these things are happening presently. while I’m drawing from seven years of experience. Today’s post might be from six years ago while tomorrow’s post might be from last week or today.
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Wow. I admire that even though it would never work for my commitment at the moment. I need to be writing on a daily basis but I never really manage to get more than that day’s post and responses done in one sitting. Your idea of storing up posts and drawing on them as needed does have its appeal though. I have heard of authors banking manuscripts in the same type of way. Maybe at some point things will calm down enough in my life or I’ll become prolific enough that I’ll be able to write more than what’s needed that day. For now it’s just a happy thought.
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Thank you. It works really well for me but I also have a lot of down time to write as well. Indeed, we can only hope.
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