Finals Week

Every now and then Finals week and/or midterms come around.  About once a semester each.  And sometimes they don't  quite as planned.  Blog posts like "How to Study for Finals" or "How to write a paper in 45 simple steps" or this one about midterms get written. And then there are those really terribly awful midterm/final times like last spring when I ended up in the hospital for brain stuff.  Every time I have a bad bought of it, I assure myself that it can't get worse.  Except, it can.  And it does.
I write this because I know many of you are praying people and I covet your prayers (not only for me but for everyone in this finals season).
Sometime between (American) Thanksgiving and  the beginning of December I got a migraine.  I didn't think much about it since I get migraines every now and then.  Typically I ignore them and they got away.  If they refuse, a good dose of Tylenol and some extra sleep sends them packing.  This one didn't like those ideas.  I tried everything I knew to do.  It would let up a little every now and then, but then flare right back up.  The pain was keeping me from class and making me cry (something I don't do often in response to physical pain).  On the 8th I finally gave in and went to Urgent Care.  They gave me drugs for the nausea and a shot for the pain.  They told me to go home and sleep it off.  They were wrong.  I took more drugs at home (really strong stuff) and they didn't help either.  I ended up cancelling my babysitting job for the evening (which made me feel even worse).  By early evening I had tears running down my face again.  The drugs weren't working.  A tearful call to my neurologist landed me in the emergency room for some IV drugs, a CT and other tests.  The IV drugs succeeding in knocking me out (the 50mg of IV Benadryl may have had an effect on that).  I slept that night, but woke up in just as much pain as before.  
Monday was another call to the neurologist and Thursday morning found me sitting in his office.  There was no more playing around with normal drugs.  It was time for the big guns.   He hit me with everything he could think of and was successful.  The headache was gone by Wednesday.  But, so was my consciousness and wakefulness.
I slept from Wednesday through Saturday, pretty much nonstop.  A friend was over to help me out with something on Friday or so and while I was eating my dinner I fell asleep more times than we care to count...
Things haven't equalized yet and won't for awhile.  There will be another med change later this week.
Also, one of the meds that I was on to wipe out the migraine also wiped out my immune system and I've got a good case of the crud (which makes it harder to tell if I'm reacting to my new meds or not...just for fun)
It's also Advent; the second busiest season in the church year.
And it's finals week.

Prayers are much coveted.  Prayers for strength and for healing, for coherence and focus, for wakefulness at appropriate times and rest at appropriate times.   Praise for understanding professors and friends who help out with the little things and the big things.  Praise that our G-d is good.  All the time.