Migraines, Meditation, and Marriage

Last night I had my first migraine.  I thought that I had had one or two before, but those were nothing compared to this.  It felt like my head was exploding, and the only way I felt remotely comfortable (in the largest sense of the word) was by pressing my palms on my eyelids and burying myself under my comforter.  I thought I was dying.

When it finally passed around 10:30 PM, I stumbled out of my bedroom to find food and to check on my class discussion boards to make sure I hadn’t missed any deadlines during my cranial breakdown.  My saint of a husband comes to me and says he thinks my stress level has contributed to my migraine/ability to function and he had downloaded some meditation music for me to listen to while I try to sleep.  Now, this is super sweet on two levels.  First, he is trying to take good care of me and second, Chris knows nothing about meditation.  He is more of a beer and Nintendo kind of guy.  So the fact that he would go out of his way to think of something to soothe me was just the sweetest.

I get back in bed and he hooks up the meditation music for me to listen to and try to sleep.  He goes out to work on his thesis and I am laying in bed and both dogs are in their houses next to me, sleeping.

The first meditation song comes on.  Its nice.  Babbling brook, I think.  About two minutes into it, a man’s soothing voice comes on to lead breathing exercises.  Molly literally thought a man was standing next to her house in the pitch black dark.  She went ballistic!  I came out of my migraine-enduced haze and managed to calm her down by turning on the lights to show her that no one was there.  She finally settles down.  I get back in bed.

Song #2 – This one is a tropical rain forest.  It is wonderful.  You can hear light rain on leaves, sounds of the forest, it was perfect.  Lucy, however, was irritated.  I guess the insects woke her up because she started this heavy, dramatic sighing every 2 or 3 minutes.  It is difficult to meditate on the calm of a rain forest with a pouting dog next to you.  So I moved on to the next song.

Song #3 – I’m suddenly at the beach.  The ocean waves are rolling, I’m relaxing again.  And then – sea gulls.  Molly’s up again.  This time, she jumps up, absolutely convinced that there are sea gulls in her house.  She starts running laps her in 3×4 ft. crate.  She’s chasing sea gulls so violently that her crate is bumping against the wall.  Again, this can somewhat disturb a meditation session.  So I get up, turn the lights on, show Molly that there are in fact no sea gulls in her house.  She lays down.  I get in bed.

Song #4 – Thunderstorm.  Need I say more?

Needless to say, I did not fall asleep with my meditation music.  Instead, I fell asleep laughing at my thoughtful husband and my two stupid dogs.  I slept through the night for the first time in weeks.