The Headache Pebble

One day a man was walking along a road, and he got a pebble in his shoe. Boy, did it hurt! But the man was in a hurry and did not have time to remove his shoe and take out the rock. He found that if he limped, his foot stopped hurting. He worked hard that day, and soon he forgot about the pebble in his show. A few friends commented on his new limp. The man said it was “Nothing.”

After work he was tired, and all he could think about was getting home, eating dinner, and going to bed.

The next morning, he had forgotten about the pebble. His foot was red and swollen, and his knee and hip ached from the limping. He took some aspirin and headed off to work.

A week later he visited the doctor. He had a terrible headache! Aspirin, Tylenol, and Advil… combined! …were offering him no relief. He wanted something that would “Take the pain away!” The doctor prescribed a potent painkiller, and recommended that the man stay off his feet for a week. “Yeah, sure,” he thought.

The new pills helped. Although they made him groggy and sick to his stomach, at least his head didn’t hurt so much. He took a whole 3 hours off work, including the doctor’s visit. He made up for the “lost hours” that night. The next morning, he was limping his way back to work.

This cycle continued for months—until his body finally gave up. The headaches, backaches, and overall pain could no longer be masked by even the most powerful drugs.

The pebble, of course, was still in his shoe, long forgotten. And who could blame him for not realizing it. After all, it’s impossible to think with such a terrible headache!