Chocolate and Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache That Wouldn't Go Away

In this lively memoir, Indianapolis resident Fulda (Half-Assed) explains how a health crisis took over her life for a year. At age 27, a chronic headache sent her to countless medical professionals, from neurologists to acupuncturists, only to be given diagnoses as varied as venous angioma, depression, a heart murmur, and scoliosis. Yet no treatment alleviated her pain, not even a slew of drugs. Fulda began blogging about her condition and received some well-meaning advice from her readers, from the way-out to the entirely reasonable (e.g., one writer suggested the headache was due to the halo caused by a supernatural spirit; another recommended eliminating from her diet sodas and artificial sweeteners). Mostly, however, Fulda just felt lousy and listless, trying to stay at her job as a Web designer and not overeat—the only course of action that gave her some relief. Was the electromagnetic field from the computer to blame, or the lack of a boyfriend? She would never know, even as she spends a good $10,000 on medical care. In the end, her story is entertaining if anticlimactic, as the headaches vanished as mysteriously as they'd appeared. (Feb.)