Cranky this morning

I know I should be thankful. And I am. I'm thankful that my atlas has been diagnosed as NOT broken. The headache hasn't been in the top of my head for days now. For that I'm thankful. But the pain still remains like a bad toothache in the base of my skull, running around to my left ear and left cheek bone. What's causing this pain? I'm now sleeping well through most of the night. For that I'm thankful. But I'm still waking up between 5am and 6am feeling the pulsating pain beginning to rev up each morning. By 7am, I just want to rip my head off, and anybody else's who gets in my way or talks too loudly, regardless of which meds I start my day with.

I'm so very tired of treating symptoms. I want to treat the source of the problem! I just wish they could tell me what that is. And once they're able to do that, I just want them to tell me what I need to do to make it stop!

I started a diary about 2 weeks ago, logging what I eat, times the pain is worse or better, weather, sleep patterns, meds, etc. I was reviewing it this morning looking for trends. So far, nothing is popping out at me. I can find nothing remotely close to a trend. In fact, it's quite the opposite. If I try to graph any of this on an excel spreadsheet, the graph is all over the place!
It just doesn't make any sense!

As if all this isn't bad enough, I now have 3 stitches in my right shoulder. When I went in for my regular dermatologist check Thursday afternoon, she found a "nodule" that she said "I don't feel good about that one; let's remove that and get a biopsy." She also "zapped" 5 other places with the "air zapper" as my mother calls it. (It's really a freezing technique, done by spraying liquid nitrogen, to remove or prevent a mole or other skin condition from growing.) Usually, I'm sensitive to the "zapper" and hate the cold, stinging sensation it leaves. All this headache pain must have toughened me up or made me immune to other pain because with 5 places zapped, and one of them requiring 3 pretty long zaps, I never even flinched.

During that last one, (the extra long zaps), I even looked down and thought to myself, "Wow, that one should be hurting by now!" as she apologized with, "I'm sorry. I know this is uncomfortable. Just hang in there a few more minutes." I didn't even feel it! She apologized again during the biopsy, stating she had to cut deeper than anticipated to get it out. I never felt uncomfortable. In fact, I really can't recall feeling anything at all. Maybe she's just a great doctor!?! :)

I was to go back next week to have the stitches removed. But the appointments with her were conflicting with appointments for my head. They started scrambling around to get me in with her partner for the removal of the stitches, and I asked, "Can't I just take these out myself next week and run by for you to check me the following week? I'm really tired of seeing so many different doctors. I swear I'm developing an allergy to anybody with the letters MD or DO in their names." She chuckled and said, "Well, we don't want that. So yes, you may remove them yourself on Thursday or Friday. But drop by the middle of the next week for me to check it."

So that's the plan. And the plan for this morning is to see the Chirpractor and see if he can do something with my neck to get it aligned. Maybe that will help alleviate the pain?

I'll keep y'all posted. Thanks for all the thoughts, prayers and emails. I really do appreciate y'all! :)