WELCOME TO MY skull.

          A truck is rolling over the bones of my neck and head. The vertebrae breaks, the brain pop and ooze. A thousand flashlights shine in my eyes. The world tilts.

          I throw up. I black out.

          This happens all the time. It's nothing but an ordinary day. The pain started six weeks after my accident. Nobody was certain wether the two were related, but there was no denying the vomiting and weight loss and general horror.

          Mummy took me for MRIs and CT scans. Needles, machines. More needles, more machines. They tested me for brain tumors, meningitis, you name it. To relieve the pain, they prescribed this drug and that drug and another drug, because the first one didn't work and the second one didn't work, either. They gave me prescription after prescription without even knowing what was wrong. Just trying to quell the pain.

          Jessica, said the doctors, don't take too much.

          Jessica, said the doctors, watch for signs of addiction.

          And still, Jessica, be sure to take your meds.

         There were so many appointments I can't even remember them. Eventually the doctors came through with a diagnosis. Jessica Jung Sooyeon: post-traumatic headaches, also known as PTHA. Migraine headaches caused by traumatic brain injury.

          I'll be fine, they tell me.

          I won't die.

          It'll just hurt a lot.

          But I'm not fine.