I love going on field trips with my kids, and I really don’t get to go on as many anymore, as the boys are getting older. Heck – they will both be in high school next year! That’s a weird thing to say – my sweet baby boys, whom I used to carry simultaneously, in high school? And yet again, I veer off topic – surprising, no? LOL Anyway, I do love going on the field trips with the kids, but, even if they are here in town, I am almost guaranteed a migraine when it is all said and done. Sometimes it doesn’t hit until we get back to the school, but, undoubtedly, it hits.

Well, I went with Sammie last Friday to Montgomery – the capitol of my new state of Alabama. We toured the governor’s mansion, the capitol building, and much more! It was really, really fun! We went on the big, travelling buses, though, as it was a good 2 1/2 hour drive. This gave me much hope that I could possibly avoid the head trauma. And had I been a hair or two smarter, I might have done just that!

I went on this trip a bit ill-prepared, you see. Our buses stayed with us all day, and carted us from place to place within Montgomery. And we went dashing around from here to there all day. It was a lot of walking and a lot of dashing. And stupid me (who seems to have lost my involved-at-school-mom’s touch) brought along with me – my normal, everyday purse. You know the one I’m talking about – you know you do – it has everything but the kitchen sink in it. And walking fast and up and down stairs and this way and that and keeping up with the group and keeping hold of my two girls – there was no possible way I could wear it just on the one shoulder. It falls off too frequently for that. So I wore it on my right shoulder, falling at my left hip – that caticorner-I’ve-got-free-hands trick! Which definitely helped me participate speedier!

And it also insured that I woke up at five o’clock the next morning with the SCREAMINGEST migraine ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of that pressure of the weight of my purse on my right shoulder just about did me in! It was awful! I got up and had breakfast, took my meds, had a cup of joe, and went back to bed, hoping to wake up at a ‘normal’ Saturday hour feeling better. And that does usually work – if I can get food, meds, and coffee in me and then add a little sleep to the mix, I do much better. I woke up later, however – in just as much, if not more, pain!

I was sitting up in bed crying. It was so awful! When it gets really bad like that, I get super scared and start wondering – at what point are you supposed to go to the emergency room for a migraine? I know people do that – and there is some shot they give for it – but, I’ve never done it. Thank goodness, though – Aunt Lisa had given Mark a pain pill that he hadn’t used and he gave it to me. And thank goodness, again – it worked. I’ve often wondered why doctors don’t just prescribe regular pain pills for migraines, like vicodin, or something, instead of those disgustingly expensive migraine meds.

Obviously, there is a fear of a recovering alcoholic and drug addict like myself misusing them, but, not all of the doctors who have treated me for migraines knew I was an alcoholic. And they still haven’t prescribed pain pills. I wonder why that is.

I still had the most wonderful time on the field trip with Sammie and all of her friends, though – and if I had to do it all over again, knowing I could NOT change my purse, knowing what I would endure the next day – I would do it in a heartbeat!