A NON-ALCOHOLIC HANGOVER

I have had the best summer of my life. I am grateful for trips in the RV that my parents were able to take our family on and I am grateful that they let my friends tag along too.

I got back from a full week at Lake Havasu on Saturday evening. I started a new semester (yay, CSUDH!) today.

With all of this gratitude in my heart, it's frustrating to feel anything but joy these days. But my chronic illness doesn't care. It doesn't care that I am blessed with a family that has provided the world (& then some) for me. It doesn't care that some people dream of taking a trip out to the lake and I've been going since before I was even born. Last year on our Havasu trip I was M I S E R A B L E. My pain level was through the roof all week, I didn't enjoy most of the trip and all I wanted to do was be back home. Thankfully, I soldiered through this year's trip. I'm not sure if I'm just managing the whole debilitating pain thing better, if it was the amazing company I had to distract me, or if my meds are working.

But sure enough, Sunday morning I woke up hungover.

Not the, "I-had-a-few-too-many" type of hangover. A chronic illness hangover. I was able to power through the week without any major suffering, but migraine definitely wanted me to know that I'm not off the hook. Today: Monday morning. The pain is like taking a hammer to my skull over and over. Do I live my life and face the icky consequences of a shitty neurological disease? Or do I avoid anything potentially triggering and then still face the icky consequences of a shitty neurological disease, but hope that this time it's less severe?

This is the trade-off that many people like me have to choose between. Heck, even perfectly healthy people have some give and take in their lives. I'm just saying those with chronic illnesses are way more sensitive to the consequences of their actions. There's option 1: play it safe. Stick to mild weathered, close by, short trips that aren't taxing. And then moderately pay for it with several days of worse-than-usual pain. Then there's option 2: CARPE the heck out of your DIEM. Go to your favorite place in the whole world (Lake Havasu, where it's 6 hours away and 116 degrees), stay for a week and love every minute of it. And then severely pay for it for idk how long- I can keep you guys posted for when the flare up dies down? Because it hasn't yet.

NO RAGRETS, y'all. Seize your day. Safely road trip to Arizona if that's where you want to go. Make your amazing days worth the bad ones that might come after it. YOLO! Let's see how many cheesy lines I can throw in this conclusion! If my chronic illness wants to rear its ugly head in my business every time I really live, then good luck to me! I guess I'm in for a world of pain. (As the picture on the right clearly shows, lol ugh).