Tag: migraine headache

Off to an Exciting Start

Well, the four day weekend is off to a fun and exciting start, he said sarcastically.

I’m having myself a minor migraine. Isn’t that a treat? It’s not too bad but it is wiping me out a bit. I still need to clean out the car a bit, and I still need to put the clothes I put out for the weekend into a suitcase. Other than that and maybe putting my laptop and some various Apple product chargers into a backpack I think I am all set.

Hopefully I will be able to get some quality sleep tonight. Fingers crossed.

Happy four day weekend, everyone!

Migraine Fun

It’s only been six days since my last migraine. I went upstairs to start making my lunch today and out of nowhere I got spanked with another one. Shit. Migraines during the work day are the worst of all. My vision was effected for about 50 minutes but it’s more or less recovered now. I don’t have much in the way of pain yet. I took some Tylenol just as things were starting to go wrong and that sometimes stops the pain. Fingers crossed it works today.

I took a candle pic for today’s photo a day. Mostly because I was afraid my defective head would get in the way so I took a picture of whatever was right in front of me when my eyes started coming back to normal.

338/365
338/365

Screwy Day

Let’s recap all of the things that have been weird today…

  • Crappy night’s sleep (less than six hours total)
  • Difficult exercise routine that legitimately kicked my ass
  • Super thirsty all morning, finished 75% (48 of 64 ounces) of my water goal before I even left for work
  • Migraine while driving. Boy did that ever suck
  • Lingering foggy brain to start the work day. Didn’t cause any issues but was very unpleasant.
  • Upset stomach while driving between office buildings. It had been three hours since I’d eaten anything so I had a snack. I probably had too much of a snack. I brought this up to the doctor yesterday (not being able to tell if I am hungry or sick). Her response was (paraphrasing), it’s been three hours since you ate so it makes sense that you’re just hungry
  • Destroyed my water goal before lunch and nearly hit my protein goal as well but felt uncomfortably full before I could actually finish eating and therefore still slightly under the goal
  • Unhappy stomach after lunch including really bad gas, which is especially rough given that I am in the office surrounded by other people
  • Still super thirsty. Water goal is 64 ounces. I have had 72 and will probably be close to 100 by the time I leave work two hours from now. This happened two days ago after a morning run as well. I mentioned it to my doctor yesterday and her response was (paraphrasing), yeah that makes sense. So not something to worry about, just something new

All in all, none of this is bad. None of it is even all that unusual, it’s just that all of them hitting at about the same time… Yeah, what a day, right? Right.

Fun With Migraines

Was the headache I had yesterday a migraine? I thought it might have been, but I wasn’t 100% sure. It usually starts with my vision going blurry and a blank spot in my field of view. The actual headache either comes half an hour later or doesn’t really come at all. Yesterday they headache came first followed by a little bit of blurry vision, but not too much.

Today there was no doubt. At 1:30, shortly after sitting down to eat my lunch, my vision went bad in the exact manner it normally does. I took some Tylenol right away. The vision started clearing about 20-25 minutes later. There hasn’t been much headache pain, though I do feel a little foggy headed.

Now it’s almost 3:00 and I feel well enough that I am able to work without issues. I just wish it had skipped me today. Two days with headaches in a row is pretty crappy.

Fear the Walking Migraine

Last night at about quarter to 11:00 I decided it was time to go to bed. At that very moment, I noticed my eyes were off. I was just starting to have the first symptom of a migraine. It wasn’t bad, but it was there. I turned off the lights, buried my head in the pillow, squeezed my eyes shut, and within five minutes was asleep.

When I woke up I had a mild headache, but nothing too bad. I got up (after hitting snooze six times) and got dressed and started my day. I added some Extra Strength Tylenol to my morning vitamins for what remained of the headache and went down cellar to do my day’s exercise.

That’s when things went bad. What happened, you ask? I put on last night’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead. What else could cause such a disaster?

Spoilers ahead, but it’s probably okay because you’re not dumb enough to watch this idiotic show, are you? I’m the only one left watching, I am positive of that.

Anyway, you’ve been warned… spoilers for what passes as a plot for season nine episode five… I think.

I always bitch about how the plot for this show is constantly driven by people talking on magic walkie talkies that have unlimited range, unlimited battery life, and there is only one channel available so everyone in the former United States of America can hear every word, yet they still constantly give away all of their plans and positions while knowing the baddies are listening in. It’s the dumbest plot device imaginable.

Anyway, this episode kicked it up a very large notch. I have to believe that the writers and show runners wrote this episode to troll us. You see, the entire episode was people sitting around talking on walkie talkies. Seriously, pretty much the entire episode was just people talking on walkie talkies. There was one other plot device in play. Yeah, it was the seven year old kid making all of the decisions. The seven year old kid traveled all over Georgia with a dying adult who was going to turn into a zombie at any moment and everyone was okay with that. The seven year old kid performed radiation therapy on a patient. The seven year old kid was able to run a railroad hand cart without help. As if those things do not require any strength at all to operate. The seven year old kid decided where to go and what to do. All of which was done over a walkie talkie, of course.

Fuck this show

The worst part is that much of Reddit is on blackout today to protest the company charging enormous fees to access their API, thus putting a number of third party apps out of business, and r/fearthewalkingdead is down so I can’t bitch to like minded masochists.

This sucks.

The Headache’s Revenge

I have a Google calendar I use to keep track of some health related stuff. I have been logging all of my migraine headaches on it. The idea being I can track the frequency and see if there are any patterns developing. There aren’t. Yesterday, near the end of the work day, I opened up that calendar to see when the last migraine happened. It was April 22nd. It had been 25 days since the last occurrence and that is one of the longest gaps since all of this started. If I didn’t know any better I would say things were clearing up.

Five minutes later… can you guess what happened?

Yup. Migraine. Damn it. I was hoping I could make it to a month without any headaches. No such luck. I punched out of work and sat in the car with my eyes closed until my vision cleared up enough for me to not be afraid to drive. Jen and Harry both offered to come to the office and drive me home. I was very much appreciative of that offer. Thank you to both of them.

As my primary care doctor suggested, I took some Tylenol when the symptoms started and the result was probably the most minor headache yet. That was the good news. The bad news of course was that my migraine-free streak is over. Here’s hoping for another good run.

More Imaging to Come

The spot in my brain MRI is probably just a cluster of blood cells. It doesn’t look like a cancerous tumor but we will need more imaging to know for sure. I’m going to have an MRI with contrast and a CT scan at some point in the near future. I’m just waiting for my health insurance to approve the orders. I’ll also need to do follow ups in the future to make sure the spot isn’t growing.

The diagnosis also includes that this likely has nothing to do with the migraines. That means I have to meet with the neurologist at some point in the near future too. The whole point of this was figuring out the migraines after all.

So now you all can look forward to more boring, obnoxious posts about my teeny tiny little brain. Fun fun fun, kiddies.

Tough Morning

My stomach is being an ass this morning (heh, biology puns… love ’em!). I took my pills and had a few ounces of water and that set off the nausea. It was mostly spitting up foam, but there was a little bit more included in the mess. Gross, with a capital Gross, right?

I waited about half an hour and then had a protein bar. It’s left me with some real gas and a little more foam. Here’s hoping this wraps up soon so that I can have a less annoying day.

Let’s also keep our fingers crossed that we remain migraine free for another day. I may have a little news on that front but there will be a couple more doctors appointments before we know for sure. It is likely nothing but let’s find out so that we can move on, okay?

Hooray for health!

Better Today… So Far

As expected, after a migraine on Tuesday and a bad gastric bypass stomach on Wednesday, I feel pretty good today. A little warn out but mostly okay. I drank a nice chunk of water while getting in my exercise this morning, and then had a protein bar breakfast afterwards. No issues so far. I overslept a little and I am still tired but I think that’s to be expected.

I have three hours of sick time this morning. I’m going to see my primary care doctor to talk about migraines and see what I need to do to try and get it all under control. I had one on the drive down to Florida just after New Year. I had another one, a minor one, on our last night on that trip. I think I had one in February, but was it two? I had one on the first night of the kids’ spring break. That was March 10th. Then the last one on March 21st. I don’t think this qualifies as chronic, or regular, or whatever the correct medical term for “lots and lots” might be. It’s enough to scare the shit out of me though. I mean, to quote Woody Allen, my brain? That’s my second favorite organ!*

Okay. Time to go start my morning. Shower, shave, dress, go see the doctor, go to work, listen to a lot of Peter Garbriel and Steve Hackett and try to talk myself either into or out of going to see them both in concert in the fall.**

*Quoting Woody Allen bothers me. It was bad enough when he cheated on the mother of his kids with her adopted daughter, but at least they are still together so we can argue that as gross as the relationship is it was apparently something along the lines of real, or if not real then lasting? I don’t know. I can’t get past the child molestation allegations though. I haven’t watched one of this movies since hearing about that, even though there have been a couple that I really wanted to, and some of his early 70’s movies are among my favorites ever (including the movie the above quote comes from). I try not to quote him the way I did back in the 90’s when I couldn’t go a full sentence without dropping something of his. They still slip through now and then when they fit too perfectly to ignore. I feel disgusting every time though, in case you were wondering.

**Peter Garbriel at the TD Garden in Boston on September 14, 2023. Steve Hackett at the Wilbur Theater in Boston on October 12, 2023. Like… how can a 70’s Genesis fanatic say no? Both of them within one month? I’ve seen Steve Hackett once, in one of the last shows I went to before the pandemic, back in September 2019. I’ve never seen Peter Gabriel. I’ve never even investigated the possibility before. I’ll never see Genesis in any of it’s forms as Phil Collins is physically unable now and there’s no way they’ll tour without him. My chance to see all five of them evaporated in 2007 when Gabriel backed out of the proposed Lamb Lies Down on Broadway reunion tour, which really never seemed like something he would have done anyway. Still… I’ve only seen one of the five of them live, and the chance to see two of them within a short space of time just seems like destiny in a weird sort of nerd way.

Week 46 Weigh In

Things are getting weird now.

I posted about my bonus weigh in on Sunday, three days ago. I was down 2.8 pounds after having been up at least a pound each of the previous two Wednesdays. Yeah, I am cheating on my weigh in schedule. Wanna make something of it? I didn’t weigh myself on Monday, but I did on Tuesday and I was down a lot. From Sunday to Tuesday I was down a massive 2.2 pounds. Wow! I didn’t record it on the spreadsheet or on my iPhone. I left it officially unofficial. When I weighed myself this morning for my regular Wednesday weigh in I was up 0.4 pounds since Sunday. That’s half a pound since Sunday, which means I was up 2.6 since yesterday.

Oh boy. I am at 216 even, which matches where I was on March 4th at the 10 month check in, which is also where I was hoping to get back to after last week. What a world, right?

BMI is 26.3 again. Total since surgery is 215.4 again. Total since first check in is at 236 even again.

Yesterday turned out to be a tough day with yet another migraine. I did what I meant to do the last time I had one, which was a week ago last Friday, and made an appointment with my primary care. It was tough to do through the partial blindness and the crushing headache, but I managed. I have an appointment for tomorrow morning. We’ll see how it goes. I expect it to just be a check in that sets up referrals to other doctors, but we’ll see. Let’s hope there is a placebo thing where now that I’ve taken the first baby step toward dealing with this it just goes away. Wouldn’t that be nice?

I had another issue last night as well. I tried to stay up through the headache but I fell asleep on the comfy chair in the living room. After about 45 minutes I got up and went to bed. I slept there for about an hour and then got up and went back to the living room. My head was much better, though still far from all better, and I wanted to spend some time with Jen. We ended up going to bed around 9:30, and I packed it in around 10:00. I woke up about three hours later and couldn’t get back to sleep. The headache was gone and in it’s place was a stomach ache. Shit. I was in and out of sleep until about 5:30 when I finally got up. I drank a water bottle while getting my jogging (yogging) in, and the stomach ache lessened but didn’t go away. I had two protein bars on the drive in to work and that mostly cleared things up. I expect it will come back again as time and digestion do their things.

Yesterday turned into a shitty day. Today is better, but still shaping up to be shitty in it’s own way. Yippee.

At least I still weigh less than I did in my last two weekly check ins. I’ll take that as a win.