It's The BIG ONE, Elizabeth. I'm Coming to Join You.

Ok, does anyone remember Sanford and Son, and how Redd Foxx's character would always clutch his chest and say the above phrase? Whenever he got in trouble with his son, he'd fake the BIG ONE to create a diversion. I loved that show...I'm just sayin'...

Anyhoo, hopefully that will all make sense eventually, but the chef at my work and I have been having migraine headache discussions of late. His are related to food preservative sensitivities and he has to be very careful about what he eats. Mine are more hormonally driven and I can count on at least one doozy a month.

Some time ago my doctor gave me a prescription for Imitrex, the migraine headache miracle drug. Hurrah! I was so excited to get it filled! Off I went to the pharmacy, but when they told me the total cost was two hundred somethin' dollars for a few lousy pills I got very discouraged, and told the nice lady that there was no way I could pay for it. So I've done without.

Well, Chef gets his Imitrex from Canada for about a quarter of what it costs in the US. He gave me the website information and I got another prescription from my doctor. Chef said before I got the prescription filled that I should try it first, so he was generous enough to give me one of his pills.

I've had the precious medication in my purse for a few weeks now. I didn't want to waste it on any old headache, so like Fred Sanford, I was waiting for the BIG ONE. I've had a couple headaches, but I could tell they weren't going to be THAT bad, not laying down in a dark room with a pillow over my head bad, or throwing up bad, or "Please God, put me out of my misery" bad, so I didn't use the pill. But last night one started coming on that had promise. I waited just to make sure, and by the time I decided to take the pill I knew it was definitely a worthwhile headache to experiment with.

Of course with any medication, Imitrex comes with a list of warnings and possible side effects that will scare a person to death, and Chef has experienced nausea with it so I didn't want to try it at work where I might inconveniently succumb to heart attack, stroke or just throwing up all over the place. I was really thankful that the BIG ONE happened on my day off!

I was surprised that it took over an hour for the medication to fully kick in. I experience a little tightness in my throat, but nothing too concerning, and it soon went away. Slowly I felt the throbbing and tenseness lessening, and before I knew it MY HEADACHE WAS COMPLETELY GONE. Wow! I felt normal. I could function. I wasn't out of commission for the day. WOOOO! I even felt energetic. I took the pill at about 7pm, and at 11 I went to bed and experienced the best night's sleep I've had in a long time. I woke up so incredibly rested. I never felt like the medication was making me drowsy, but it definitely really helped me sleep.

So, with my headache experiment complete, I will now contact the friendly Canadians and get my prescription filled. I'm really excited to know that I won't have to suffer anymore. Yay!