*whimper*

I've got a headache.

The sheer pain isn't so bad, but it's a weird-featured headache. I just had to take the fluorescent yellow and pink post-it notes off the edge of my monitor, because they were hurting my eyes so badly. I'm dizzy and nauseated. And the floor in the hallway, which is special non-skid stuff with a pattern of raised circles, made it impossible for me to focus my eyes.

If I were a person who got migraines, I would think this was a migraine... except that the pain qua pain is bearable, and I've been led to understand that migraine pain is more along the lines of being stabbed with an icepick.

I want to go home, but I don't think I'm up for taking the bus. I left messages for Michael about a half hour ago, asking him to come get me... oh, good. I just called again and he was home. He's on his way.

Then I'm going to crawl into bed and never come out again.

Update.

I feel much better. The pain is gone, and while I feel a bit woozy, it's not out of line with how I would normally feel waking up from a three-hour afternoon nap like the one I just had. I can focus my eyes. I could eat something. I'm not going to try out my eyes on fluorescent sticky notes, just yet, but the very thought of them doesn't turn my stomach anymore.

Thank you all for the diagnostic help and recommendations. I know very little about migraines. What was throwing me was that the pain was so similar to an ordinary tension headache. I tried the normal things I do - I ate lunch, I drank something caffeinated - but the non-pain symptoms just kept getting worse. The correct thing does indeed seem to have been the painkiller of my choice, followed by several hours in a dark room.

curiousangel does quiet unobtrusive solicitousness extremely well.

I had curious brief snatches of dreams. Most prominently, I dreamed that truepenny made a pilgrimage to Antarctica. Her subsequent LJ post was so evocative that I could see the blue of the glaciers.

Okay, definitely still woozy.