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It is extremely hard to deal with emotionally sometimes, particularly when the headache is bad, or when the ammount of things that need doing seem overwhelming compared to the ammount of energy I have to give them. At the moment things are better for me than they were (fingers crossed that they don't get worse again). As far as practical advice for how to cope with it, one thing I didn't do, but looking back that I should have, was to get a counselor when things were at their most difficult. I didn't get one cause I had to quit my job very quickly after the headache started and I was sort of hoarding money. As far as working a job goes, it was a relief in some ways when I quit mine because I knew I could not do the work, but I also missed the job. I liked the work (most days at least) and got a lot of my sense of purpose from the job so things were rough when it was gone because of the headache. I don't know if you will have as much trouble letting go of your job as I did since you have been doing yours while in pain a lot longer than I managed to do mine and it has already gotten old for you. As far as pain making a person grouchy...yup it tends to do that. Especially if you are in a situation where you can't complain about the pain itself. I find I tend to take the headache out on my family (generally the people who are around the most) a lot less if I just go ahead and complain a little when I hurt particularly badly. I don't know if it makes me less grumpy or gives them a "heads up" to be especially nice, but either way it works. I expect it is both. The days when I have a lot of pain but I am trying not to complain about it, I find every little thing gets on my nerves. If I think I am talking about my pain too much to my family sometimes I will write complaining e-mails to my sis-in-law cause she doesn't mind and it makes me feel a bit better to get it out of my system. Or I will come on here and complain a bit...everyone here understands it. I hope things get better for you soon, whether you decide to quit your job or stick with it. Mary
NDPH support group leader
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