I Hereby Resolve . . .

I hereby resolve for the new year, to remember to take my medicine.  My dosage of Effexor has changed to twice a day.  I take 75mg at night before bed, and another 75mg in the morning before work.  The nurse practitioner at the neurologist suggested this because 150mg at night might cause sleeplessness.  Unfortunately, taking pills in the morning is about as natural to me as C# programming is to an iguana.  Combine that with a few days of travelling and a totally messed up schedule, and you get lots of missed pills. 

 

I assume that this is one of the things that has thrown me even further into the cycle of low- to medium-grade headaches. 

 

Speaking of headaches . . .   Last night's headache was an interesting one.  The headache itself never topped a Richter 2, but the digestive effects were a Richter 5+.  I swear, I was running to the reading room every hour or so.  I took a couple of Midrin before bed, and that cleared up both problems until this morning.  Now, I'm dealing with an annoying little bastard just above and behind my left eye.  I'm seriously thinking about downing a few Ibuprofen to see if that will clear it up, but, given the cycle as of late, I am really starting to get worried about a major medication rebound headache.  I've had one of those before, and it was the worst migraine I have *ever* experienced.

 

Other things of note (not migraine related) . . .

 

This was the first Christmas with our little Ellie.  At four months old, I never expected her to participate in the Christmas holiday, but she delighted in ripping the wrapping paper from her gifts.  She got a mountain of toys, even though we asked our family to limit the number of gifts.  I was actually worried about being able to pack it all in the sport-ute for the trip home, but my wife, expert packer as she is, managed to get everything in (and on the roof carrier) with about a cubic inch of room to spare.

 

It is really interesting watching the neurological development of Ellie.  Every day, so many new neuron pathways are forged, and you can see it happening in her behavior.  This morning, she was having a geat time in her exersaucer, chewing on the "clown-dog" accessory.  When I sat down to talk to her, she immediately offered the accessory to me, practically shoving it in my mouth.  At first, I thought it was an accident, but then she did it four or five more times.  No accident, that.

 

I pray every night that she isn't burdened with my affliction.

 

-Rob

Quick Holiday Update

First off, Happy Holidays! to everyone. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, this is a great time of year, with the new year just about to start, and the promise of better things. I hope each and every one of you gets those "better things" whether it is an Xbox 360, or just a few days of being migraine free.

As for me, I've still been fighting the string of low grade migraines. Lots of short-lived aura, and mild headaches. The headaches themselves are tolerable-- it is the frequency that is getting to me. Getting used to having a headache sometime between 5PM and 7PM every night gets a bit tiring.

Well, with the new year, I resolve to refine my medication, even if it means a lot more trips to the neuro. I also resolve not to try trepanation (Wikipedia definition. May be a little disturbing) this year, no matter how much of a good idea it seems in the throes of a bad headache.

Great good fortune to you in 2006.

-Rob

This one may be a bad one

First off, I'm posting this through the email posting function of Blogger, because the main site seems to be acting wonky.  Second of all, I have a big spot of negative scotoma that is causing me to not see everything I should (though, as I wrote this sentence, the spot has died down to a pinprick).  Thirdly, I've had a mild left side frontal migraine since about noon today.  Given all that, please forgive if this posting seems a little off kilter.

 

Well, 12/5 was a pretty good day, being headache free, and all.  Also, 12/6 was pretty darn good without a headache as well.  I was definitely feeling a little out of sorts this morning at work, so I knew something was up.  I figured I was going to get a visit from the migraine fairy sometime today.  About noon, I had a very short lived auditory aura followed by a mild headache (maybe a Richter 1 at worst).  I had a mandatory happy hour at 3:30, where I consumed 2.5 beers, even as the headache worsened to a two.  I knew I was setting myself up for a problem, since I didn't want to combine the beer and Midrin.

 

I got home and the headache was up to a Richter 3 while I put Ellie (my daughter) to bed.  As I was finished, I sat down at the computer, and before you know it, the negative scotoma was there (it is now gone).  This one was a right-eye blank spot that was about the size of a kalamata olive held at arms length.  It got a bit bigger, then faded out.  I'm sure the headache will follow this one, as the aura stayed around for a few minutes.  I've dosed with Midrin, and need to think about going to bed, however, I have to fill out pre-visit information for an upcoming medical test (routine and unrelated to migraines).  It's pretty much the last thing I want to do tonight, but I did make a promise to my wife.

Today is my Birthday

And I haven't had a headache all day!

-Rob

Blast and Damn - Chronic Pain

Well, the string of headaches continue. This pattern is similar to the one that I was having late last year and early this year, but without the BTM (Basilar Type Migraine) effects that I was having. It's nothing really serious, just a chronic headache that's just behind my left eye, combined with aura that comes and goes throughout the day. Luckily, the headache rarely gets above a level two or three, so a couple of ibuprofen are enough to keep it down. The bad part is that I'm never really sure when the rare occasion of it popping to a 5 or above is going to happen, so I don't usually have much warning to hit the Midrin or Maxalt.

It is interesting to note the effects of chronic daily pain on my general outlook on life. They definitely make you look at the more negative aspects of life, and have a tendency to urge the black cloud of depression up over my head. The one thing that the daily headaches definitely don't detract from is Ellie (my almost-four-month-old daughter). She's still a wonderful joy to deal with, and even if she's screaming in my ear during one of these headaches, it miraculously doesn't make it any worse.

I know that I'm lucky. If I had to deal with a daily level 2 headache for the rest of my life, I know that I could do it, and do it with aplomb. There are other folks out there that have much greater pain to deal with daily. They have my sympathy, and to a small degree, my empathy.

-Rob