Catch-alls......

This is a hover fly - and often that's enough to know. In reality however it's one of at least 270 recorded species of hover fly found in the UK. Sometimes there's a need to know exactly what something is, and sometimes, much as it would be good to know, (especially with my male mild level of OCD) it ultimately doesn't matter. A thing is what it is and does what it does. Sadly despite what many a gothic novel would have us  believe, the naming of a thing invests one with no true power over it.
And that is a fairly good analogy for today's visit to the Doctor. We are now even more confident of the many things the BIH is not (not shingles, not migraine, not a tumour) and we've finally given it a suitably exotic, slightly menacing name; Occipital Neuralgia. Sadly grand as this sounds it simply means pain in the occipital nerve. Whilst there are not 270 varieties there are many many causes, and they most often remain unknown, or can (as I suspect in my case) compound upon each other to cause an effect greater than their own impact. Fortunately the Dr took it very seriously and after a thorough examination put me as much at ease as I can be, and has given me a far stronger painkiller. Hopefully the nerve will settle down on its own as none of the next options sounded pleasant.

It was great to be able to sit and ponder this in the garden in glorious sun, and whilst that in itself isn't a cure I'm fairly sure it must help.