The never ending headache!

So for those of you that have been following my page you may have thought, its gone a wee bit quiet. Well there is a reason for that. I have been out of action and not able to get out on the bike.

Two weeks ago I developed which can only be described as the most painful headache that I have ever experienced. I was coming home from a rather happy Planning committee meeting at the civic offices in Swindon (the story of why I was there is one for another day) and my head suddenly got very sore. It came on so suddenly and it was so bad I thought I might have to pull over and either wait for it to clear or get the rescue service to come along and collect myself and leave the car.

Well being the 'stubborn' person apparently I decided to just carry on and take a couple of tablets. So it was some migraine strength painkillers to clear the headache and carry on. This managed to work for the best part of a week. I have to admit to not being up to much that weekend and it passing without any bike riding of any description.

The pain was severe enough to put up with a visit to the local walk in clinic to get checked out. They went through the symptoms and took all readings of various things and finally prescribed some stronger painkillers.

Then the Monday morning blues had a whole new meaning that week as I was still in quite a bit of pain. even with the stronger pain medication. I felt like someone was trying to decapitate me by ripping out my spinal chord through the left side of the back of my neck. So the decision was made to get in to the GP and get things checked out.

So I managed to get in to see them at 15:45, well that was the appointment time. As usual it took a while before I actually got seen. Once I got in to see the doctor she went through the symptoms and took my blood pressure which was rather high. At this point due to a couple of red flags being raised she suggested that I go straight to Accident and Emergency. They would be able to perform a CT scan and confirm if there was anything sinister. She was very surprised that I had not been referred to A&E on Sunday. And this started the adventure which would see me spend an exciting 14 hours in A&E and then get admitted to hospital.

The stay in hospital lasted until Thursday evening and upon discharged I was advised to rest. This would allow my blood pressure to return to a normal level and the medication to do the job they are meant to do.

So it is going to be the new year before I get to venture back out on the bike and start clocking up the miles. I am still very determined to complete this challenge if anything even more so as I do not like to be beaten by anything and being one of the many people in the world who have to manage their lifestyles to few the risks that having high blood pressure can mean is not going to stop me completing this challenge.

So with 2019 just around the corner lets smash the target I have been set and get some vitally important support for Marie Curie.