I generally think I have a high tolerance for pain. Kick me, and while I most certainly will grimace, I won’t cry, and then I’ll kick you back. You could pull my hair, but as it used to be my sister’s favorite pastime, I’m fairly accustomed to that type of unpleasant snugness around the cranial area.

My sophomore year in high school I spent the better part of a Saturday afternoon in the Newport emergency room, sitting on a table with legs outstretched and both feet utterly numb, while a doctor carefully removed over thirty slivers embedded in the bottoms of both of my feet. Before I slipped on the dock and invited a plank of wood into my heel, I hadn’t a clue I had any other slivers.

A few years back I thought a bursting ovarian cyst was just severe indigestion from dinner the previous night.

When I was seventeen, I sliced my left middle finger open with scissors and received nine stitches. The next day I proceeded to place a large percent of my body weight onto this same finger, both of my hands mashed strategically up against the brittle red of the track, as I started in blocks for two races, and took a baton in my left hand for two others.

The point of my seemingly shameless horn tooting? I’m tough, but as I realized today, only to a point.

Headache pain completely debilitates me, and while I do not understand why this is, I do fully understand that it remains fact. Every ounce of strength oozes quickly from my limbs when the evil banshee residing in my head begins his stentorian war cry. What typically starts as an irritating whisper rapidly escalates to a deafening shriek within a few short hours. And while I used to pride myself on my ability to effectively ignore the havoc-wreaking, attention-seeking banshee, as of late I find him far more adept in his powers of disruption.

Or maybe, deep down, I’m just a big wimp.

Could be.

Either way, after days like today, I can’t help but think I would willingly donate exorbitant amounts of time, energy and wads of cash (if at some point I possess said wads of cash) to help aid in the research responsible for permanently banishing my irksome little banshee.