So this post isn't about plants... I'll title it...

Cucumber Slumber!!

I've inadvertently discovered something. Well, not inadvertently exactly - I got one of those e-mails "All the great things you can do with cucumbers..." Yadda-yadda-yadda. Until I got to the one about nighttime headaches!! I need to digress and explain...

About 6 weeks go (yes SIX!!), I started having these BLINDING nighttime headaches. They typically would start about 2-3 hours into my night's sleep, and I'd awake to a headache that felt like someone was stabbing me in my right temple. They were sinus pressure headaches - that I knew. My right cheek, above my eye and ear all hurt, and the pounding in my temple was excrutiating. It also would hurt all the way down to the back of my head on the right side. The temple throbbing I could usually (not always) settle down with heat or ice (or both, back and forth), a hot cup of tea (inhaling the steam). But the pressure would persist most of the night. If I was lucky, it would be better by the time I got up in the a.m. Sometimes, it wouldn't get better until I got up. Which made me think it was pressure building during the night, when I wasn't relieving the pressure regularly by blowing... I started to dread going to bed.

I finally went to the doctor in desperation last Monday (a week ago tomorrow) and the doc thinks it's allergies, though I've never experienced anything like this before. She gave me 40 mg. of prednisone for 5 days to settle it down. That day, I came home to the e-mail, and the line that caught my eye was this:

"Want to avoid a hangover or terrible headache? Eat a few cucumber slices before going to bed and wake up refreshed and headache free. Cucumbers contain enough sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes to replenish essential nutrients the body lost, keeping everything in equilibrium, avoiding both a hangover and headache!!"

At this point, I'm so desperate I'll try anything. So I sent Mark to the store to get me a couple of cucumbers. I didn't start on the prednisone that day (because the doc said it would keep me awake if I took it in the afternoon...), but I ate 5 chunky slices of cucumber before I went to bed. I had a BEAUTIFUL night's sleep! The first in 6 weeks! Hm - maybe just coincidence. I did it again Tuesday - I slept like a rock, no headache! Wed., Thurs., Fri., Sat... every morning I felt like a million bucks. They're better than a sleeping pill! I'm in utter awe... I hope I can report back in another month that this is the miracle it seems today!!