Here's another one of those "This helped me so it might help you" stories. For the last few months, I'd been plagued with a series of odd headaches in the rear of my skull. It often throbbed back there and I sometimes felt a slight "clicking" sensation within, like something had come loose and was rubbing up against some other part. At times, the pain was pretty gruesome…so much so that I actually took two Advil, which is serious medication for someone like me who doesn't like "taking" anything. The Advil didn't help. My new doctor (I have a new doctor) wasn't sure what it was but felt it wasn't serious. He prescribed Celebrex…and with that same aversion to taking drugs, I took one and when it didn't work, didn't take another. I have a whole medicine chest full of prescriptions I've only taken one or two of.
It was last weekend that a thought suddenly occurred to me: I wonder if this is due to the position of my neck while sleeping. I don't know what made me think of that but the minute I did, it felt valid. I went to a nearby Bed, Bath and Beyond and bought the only size Tempur-Pedic contour neck pillow they carried, which was not that big, and placed it under my cranium that night. When I woke up the next morn, I could tell that about 60% of the problem was gone. Two more nights and all but about 10% had disappeared. I then tried a couple of different contour pillows, including a softer one which I bought at Costco and (last night), a wider Tempur-Pedic that I procured at my local Relax Your Back, which is a big chain in many states. I still have a trace of the problem but it's nothing like it used to be.
As I understand it, a contour pillow puts support where you need it under your neck and stops your spine from bending in ways that nature did not intend. However it works, it works for me…so far, at least. I'm 58 years old and don't understand why this has suddenly become an issue now but hey, at least I think I've solved it…and there's a certain joy in solving it so easily. I was imagining I might be looking at months of therapy and tests and maybe even surgery, to say nothing of the costs not covered by my insurance. Instead, I pretty much cured myself in one night with an $80 pillow.
Speaking of my sleep: I've mentioned here, though not lately, that I suffer from Sleep Apnea. For many years now — since about the time I briefly dozed off while driving on the freeway — I've slept with a thing called a CPAP machine by my bedside and a connected mask strapped to my kisser. Here's a very old article that I wrote about it.
If you use such a device, you owe it to yourself to investigate the new "auto" CPAP units which monitor your breathing throughout the night and can sense when to change the pressure. I recently got one and it too has made a colossal difference — wholly for the better — in how I sleep. To those of you who live in or around Los Angeles, I highly recommend my supplier (these folks) and the ResMed Autoset II.
And by the way: I have no idea who that lady is in the photo above. I just thought you'd rather look at a picture of her clutching a contour pillow than a picture of me clutching a contour pillow.