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Being sick when you’re a mother is an impossible task. Those of us who are moms know that no matter how rumbly the tummy, how sore the throat or how high the fever, we carry on. We bathe the kids, help with homework, make the dinner, drive the kids to school, do the laundry and take care of all daily chores. Out in public we ignore the expressions from strangers as they stare at our sweaty faces, hair that hasn’t seen a comb or brush in days, and perhaps even the hint of a pajama top peeking through our jackets. It doesn’t matter – we trudge on because if we put hubby in charge of things then the kids would flunk out of school, eat suspicious food from the fridge that nature didn’t intend to turn green, and everyone would be sporting the same matted hairstyle as mom.
As a mom, I can stumble my way through a stomach bug, a cold, a sore throat, the flu, heck, I even managed to barely miss a beat when I broke my foot… but a migraine? That, dear readers, will knock me flat on my backside.
When I have a migraine, my husband and kids know that my bedroom becomes a very dangerous place to enter. The woman in my bed is someone they no longer recognize. Enter into her darkened dungeon and you may be greeted with a strange, low growl. You can try speaking to her but the words that emerge from her mouth will make no sense whatsoever. If you’re foolish enough to step close to the bed, her claw-like hand may reach out and grab your shirt collar in order to pull you close enough to see her eyes throbbing in her head. Of course, this woman, being in the extreme pain that she’s in, still realizes that the one and only reason you would dare to disturb her would be to ask her a life and death question… unless you are this woman’s nine-year-old son. That son, the brave soul that he is, will risk life and limb to ask the one question that simply can’t wait until the migraine has stopped stabbing sharp knives into the poor woman’s brain. That boy, that sweet, innocent boy will lean close to the tortured woman’s ear and whisper “Mom, we’re out of cookies. When are you going to the store to get more?”
