Don’t Run With Pencils
If you think your headaches are bad, you can take comfort in knowing that somebody actually has it worse than you do. Warning: you might want to take your medicine before you read this.
Nearly 60 years ago in Germany, then 4 year old Margaret Wegner was running while carrying a 3.15 inch pencil. Perhaps the scissors were missing. Unfortuntely, the pencil torpedoed through her cheek and up into her brain. At the time, medical surgery was not advanced enough to attempt removing the pencil and so the pencil was left in in order to keep Margaret alive. As she grew, the pencil didn’t shrink any. Surgery was still thought too dangerous.
And so Margaret Wegner suffered headaches and nosebleeds for the next 55 years. Part of the pencil was finally removed on Aug 7, 2007. A peice four-fifths of an inch long had to be left inside, as that would not come out. Her doctors think the remaining piece “does not pose a danger”. (Famous last words). They did not say whether the pencil still writes. More detail on the story can be found here.
The moral of the story seems to be that, in the right hands, pencils can be deadly weapons.
But seriously, having headaches a lot is not the way people are suppossed to live. If you have headaches a lot, even if you know why you do, KEEP going to the doctor. Go to several. Make yourself a pain in the butt. Help will eventually come.
The odds are that you won’t have to wait 55 years to get some relief from your headaches, but be persistant. Take the strange test. Try a new medicine. Test that wacky theory. Keep up your headache journal. Never write yourself off as a lost cause. Maybe something can’t be done today, but you never know tomorrow will bring.
And don’t obsess over the fact that you get headaches. Even poor Margaret found time to get on with life and even get married.
And in the meantime, be glad for the little things in life we normally take for granted … like not having a pencil rammed up your head.
August 8th, 2007 at 1:07 am
Unbelievable story!
August 17th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
[...] Never run with pencils [...]
November 20th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
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