ouch ouch fuck ouch

I hurt my neck really badly over Christmas, I'm not quite sure how - I think I slept in a funny position and somehow fucked it up. So I've had a week or so of really bad headaches morning and evening, and plenty of painkillers; the pain itself is extremely powerful, quite unlike anything I've had before. It starts a few minutes after I wake up and is at first a strong, throbbing grip at the back of my head, as if I've been hit there with some improbably heavy instrument; in these few minutes after waking it's impossible to notice anything except the pain; just a big, heavy lunking ache which locks everything else out.

After a few minutes more, it narrows out and calms down, not pulsing constantly but sitting waiting for me to move to my head right or left or - worse - take a deep breath in; this stretch or contraction of muscles in my neck flares into a sudden, sharp shock of pain. I don't exaggerate. That said, about this time I've normally woken up enough to have started to stretch my neck a little (gruesomely) and turned on the light to find my painkillers. Once administered they are like placebos - the half-sleeping panic abates and, if I lie still, I calm back down.

Half an hour later the brunt of it is gone and my head is befuddled, bruised feeling, but basically OK. The cycle repeats itself to a lesser or greater extent over the course of the day, but never so bad as it is with waking - presumably it's the stillness of the head while I sleep which causes the greatest problem. As a consequence, I did very little over the break, including updating my blog. I'm back at work today and - actually - not in too much pain. I sit and wait for the painkillers to wear off, and for it to pass.