You may be thinking: Does Mary really need another vanity project? The answer is decidedly no. Actually, what you’re reading now is an old one.
Almost exactly three years ago I started the enrollment process to become part of a clinical study evaluating the effectiveness of occipital nerve stimulation for migraines. At the time, I knew that I definitely wanted to document the process but I was sure I wouldn’t reliably keep a journal of the experience for my own purposes. I also knew that my writing would be better if I thought someone besides me would be reading it (enter the vanity in vanity project)
I started the blog in February of 2006 and called it “That Headache Girl.” I didn’t want to write exclusively about headaches and the surgery then, so there were plenty of filler, unrelated posts. Not long after I had the surgery I was finally able to move out of my parents’ house and up to Evanston to start a new job. Pretty soon self-consciousness and new job jitters set in and I pre-emptively deleted the blog, but saved all the posts in a Word doc where I wrote the rough drafts for each post.
For the first time since I deleted the blog (in August of 2006), I started re-reading the old posts today and deemed them fit for public consumption again. Except for some details here and there that I edited out today, I just re-posted the old posts as they were in the Word doc. When I originally wrote them, I often made changes and edits when I published them, but I didn’t feel like hunting for old typos, expired hyperlinks, etc. I also neglected to date any of my posts in the Word doc, so I’m not sure on any of the dates unless otherwise specified. And as you can see from how these posts are dated, I re-posted them all in one day. Just pretend that it’s 2006!
