Pain in the Head

I’m happy to say that I’m done with school for this semester and got an A in both of the classes.   The software engineering class was difficult and took a lot of time so I’m glad it was recognized with a good grade.  Next semester I’m taking a project management course and something with IT management over the Internet.  Going to school one night a week will be nice.

The holidays are nearly over and I can’t believe another year is starting.  Next year I’ll be turning 30, will have been together with Tazz for 13 years, had our house for 8 years, been diagnosed with migraines for 7 years.  I have typically established goals for myself in writing on this blog, but never really think about them in such a concrete manner again throughout the year.  To sum up this next year’s goals: be healthy & be happy.  Making a punchlist of dos and don’ts isn’t productive, for me at least.  As long as the choices I make maintain my health and happiness, I’m cool with that.

I’ve had a rash of migraines over the past month that hopefully I can just attribute to stress.  In the past, I would easily have 5-6 episodes a week that would respond to over the counter medication.  However, now I seem to get more frequent spikes of pain that last a few minutes and then go away for most of the day.  Taking any medication doesn’t make sense in these cases as the pain will probably subside before the medication has a chance to be absorbed into my system.  The number of instances of migraines that visibly affect my speech or thought processes are also on the rise.  I don’t normally get overwhelmed with pain to the point where I can’t think straight but at least once in this month I’ve had a migraine that made me feel drunk or like I was stroking out.

Next year my employer’s medical insurance is changing its deductible schedule for physician visits.  My family doctor will increase to $25 a visit and now specialty visits, like to my neurologist, will be increased to $50.  I may see if my family doctor can get my records from my neuro to help with managing the migraines.  I usually only see my neuro once a year but $50 is quite a bit of money to be given the next round of antiseizure medications that help the migraines but put the rest of my body through hell.  I’m sure everybody is going through this same type of change with their benefits, assuming you even have a job during this next year.

Happy New Year everyone.  Lets hope it brings more balance to our lives and a renewed sense of hope.

I’m still alive just haven’t had enough time to update my blog. Been thinking about giving it a rest for a while anyway. I know why I started the blog but over the years I haven’t been able to come up with a simple vision statement. Lacking direction means no meaningful content. And then I realize that I’m starting to make the blog not about my headaches and sharing my experiences but rather more about increasing the hits on the site.

I’m done with semester in two weeks and we’ll see what my attitude is then.

A woman walked past my desk at work today with such strong perfume that it gave me a headache.  Luckily it didn’t last long as the circulation in this office is above par.  I’m still amazed that people take a bath in that shit.  I wear a modest amount of cologne and even then it’s not so overpowering that I made flowers wilt when I walk past.

I understand the desire to smell “pretty” and I’m sure everyone has a bottle or ten of their favorite scent they like to use.  Even us migraineurs can like scented junk but there is a simple thing called MODERATION.  I know there are entire blogs dedicated to scent-free this and scent-free that.  I just like to add my own useless two cents into the electronic ether about it.

Speaking of bad smells, there is no worse place for perfumed-over body odor than at the gym.  Tuesday night Tazz and I went to the gym and happened to pick the two open treadmills next to the smelliest man in the world.  The only thing I can compare it to is a steak house gone rancid.  WOW.  We ended up moving when two other treadmills opened.  It was bad enough that I nearly yarked.  That would have been a scene - my upchuck hitting the belt and spraying over the gym bunnies behind me while simulatenously flying on my ass.  I think I need to bring some Febreeze with me.

Not sure who to give the copyright nod to for the image, I think Warner Brothers.  Meh.

Welcome to the November 2008 edition of Headache and Migraine Disease Blog Carnival.

Generally speaking, a blog carnival is a collection of links to a variety of a blogs on a central topic. The Headache & Migraine Disease Blog Carnival has been created to provide both headache patients and people who blog about headaches with unique opportunities to share ideas on topics of particular interest and importance to us.

For the November 2008 carnival, we solicited submissions on the topic of the complex relationship between migraine disease and depression. Diana also welcomes entries of general interest to headache and migraine sufferers. Please continue reading for this month’s collection of posts.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m glad the election is almost over.  Yippee!

Had a fun headache at work today and realized I had no abortives at work.  I’ve blogged about this before.  I have chronic headaches and yet I don’t make sure I have the right meds on me to fix it.  I think it’s just denial.  I don’t get headaches.  Nope.  Negative.  They don’t exist.

Not.

I saw a person at work that I think was having a migraine as well.  I was in the kitchen making toast and a burnt popcorn set her off.  She was being really shy about it but I could tell one of her eyes was tearing up.  The smell was getting to me too and I got out of there as quickly as I could.  I wanted to tell her I understood but then I’d come off as a stalker.  Is it bad to say it’s good to find people that suffer like me?

Don’t forget that the November Headache Carnival deadline is coming up.  The theme is art inspired by migraines.  If you’ve made something artistic related to your migraines, submit it to the carnival!  I will be reviewing all the submissions and you’ll see the results out on November 10th.

Or am I the only one that wants this election to be over with already. Yeesh.