Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: migraine (Page 1 of 2)

Migraines and Laundry, Which One is Worse? Part 3

Ok back to migraines and laundry, I was talking migraines first.  Speaking of which, I am working on 3 days in a row now.  I haven’t figured out my triggers but whatever it is, it is happening!

See Part 1 Here

and Part 2 Here

Onto some more technical stuff, visual aura’s I haven’t explained yet so here goes.  Imagine getting your picture taken with a particularly bright flash.  The after flash you have is close to the visual aura.  It is bright, and obscures whatever you see right in front of your eyes but there is still some peripheral vision.  Or it could be the other way, no peripheral but a tunnel.  I get that type a bunch.

The aura is not only bright though, it flashes.  somewhat like the sun reflecting off of a gently moving lake.  Mostly mine are white but the good ones are all colors.

In sort Migraines suck.  Most places around the net tell you that you don’t get a migraine, you have migraine disease and have attacks.  I don’t really like to think about it like that.  I want to be completely normal as I sit here to write this with a migraine starting.  I will see how much I can do and then come back to the rest.

Hmm almost 2 hours later, even with medication sometimes the stupid things put me to sleep and there is nothing I can do about it.  Hopefully this cycle can be done now, it has been 3 days in a row and I am almost out of pills!

So back to my point from post number 1, which is worse, migraine or laundry?  I would have to say migraine but laundry is close behind.  I would like to actually be “caught up” with laundry for more than about 20 minutes.  But there are 3 kids and 2 adults that refuse to run around naked so there are clothes to wash.   If anyone wants a job doing laundry…..  Doesn’t pay anything.  Now I have to go clean, as soon as I get my Maxalt refilled.

Until the muse strikes next,

Justin

Migraines and Laundry, Which is Worse? part 2

As I started yesterday, This is part 2 of my migraine journey and latest stay at home dad info.  And Journey just came on the radio, Any Way You Want It is AWESOME!  part 1 is Here

Admittedly, laundry sucks and it is not my favorite thing but if I don’t do it, there are no clean clothes.  No, the wife can’t do it, she works and now she is pregnant with number 4 so her energy is gone.  I am not complaining about doing laundry I just don’t like to.  But I went to fold the 3 loads I had washed.  About that time I got what I call the “numb bubble” again.

The numb bubble is one of my migraine clues.  It is not the scientific term but it is my term.  It is a strange feeling, complete numbness in a “sphere” roughly the size of a baseball that moves.  It usually starts in my fingers and “travels” through my hand, up my arm, and through my face.  That is the worst part, it is like being on lots of novacaine but it moves.  And it sucks.

If you just think that a migraine is a really bad headache, there is much more to it, usually.  I have read about migraines lately and there are different types but most have some sort of “aura” associated with them.  That is the type I have.

Since I was about 12 I have had migraines but didn’t have them diagnosed until something like 14 years ago when my girlfriend (now wife of 13 years) the nursing student (now Nurse) told me what my “sickness” actually was.  I used to wake up in the middle of the night with the “numb bubble” in full swing and the visual aura happening.  I would think, “Oh great I am sick again.”  I didn’t know all of what was happening but I knew that I would be throwing up a few times with a bad headache to go with it.  And then I would be fine later.  I believe to this day that my parents thought I was faking because I was better later.

I got medication at the hospital thanks to my girlfriend and from there it has helped to alleviate the symptoms before they led to the vomiting stage.  I still have the numb bubble but much less now, mostly just the visual aura that tells me the migraine is coming.  I have tried to explain that visual aura to people and I think I will try to do it in the next post.

Later

Justin

Continue to part 3 Here

Migraines and inadequacy

You ever get a migraine?  I am talking about a real migraine with auras and light disturbance, nausea as well as pain, not just a really bad headache.  I ususally get a couple of them a month.

I still haven’t identified a trigger, a why these stupid things happen but my best guesses are fatigue and stress.  The worst part about those is that it seems to be a cumulative effect; like today, I was cooking some breakfast.  No stress, I actually slept a bit more than usual and WHAM!  The aura that looks like a too bright camera flash that obsures vision and shimmers like the setting sun off of a lake.  I can’t say why or how but hey just another migraine.  I can only hope my hand and face don’t go numb.

I have been having migraines since I was a teenager.  Good grief that is over 20 years now.  Back then I didn’t know what they were, I just thought it was some sort of food poisoning.  I would wake up with the visual aura that would progress to nausea and vomiting, until it passed.  It was incapacitating back then, many times starting with a numbness “sphere” about the size of a baseball, starting in my left hand and creeping up my arm, through my neck, over my face, (numb lips, tongue, and teeth are incredibly creepy) and finally creeping down my right arm.  It really bothered me and I just thought I was sickly.  Looking back I am sure it was stress from my family and the constant pressure from my Father.

It wasn’t until I was dating my wife who was in Nursing School that I even knew that these were migraines.  I was having a bad one at work one day and then another later at home.  She recognized some of the issues and took me to the emergency room for an injection.  Holy Crap there was medicine for this that all but took away the symptoms!  I never knew.  Later talking with my doctor he said it was all of the classic signs of migraine, and here is a perscription for an overpriced but effective medication against migraines.  Of course my dad says “It takes years to diagnose migraines” I read that as “you are a whiny little baby who is now flawed and one step above worthless”  That is another blog though.

Well with medication it is better.  There was a period of almost 2 years where I only had like 1 episode.  Even with my daughter in kidney failure and on dialysis there were not too many.  I have even began to realize a type of aura 1-2 days ahead of time that I can guess will result in a migraine.  Didn’t today but hey can’t be all knowing.  I hve even began to realize that I have migraines on both sides of my head but not at the same time.  The ones on the right side are more severe and last longer.  They just plain hurt more and even with medication the only real relief is sleep.  Hard to do when you have things to do and people counting on you to make sure your 3 year old isn’t playing with knives or falling down the stairs.  The ones on the right side, like today, are more mild but really make me groggy for a few hours like I am spinning through jello.

all in all migraines just suck.  It is not even the headache that is the worst part, for me it is the uncontrol and the not being able to see.  I would be a terrible blind man.

until the muse strikes again,

Justin

www.carepages.com pagename ameliarosematthews

www.brendasquiltshop.com

Migraines and Laundry, Which One is Worse? Part 1

I have spent the last couple of days reading so much stuff about how be a successful blogger.  I don’t know if I can take any more advice.  But I did get some good tips so not time wasted, just not spent writing.  So here is what I am going to do with this blog, write it! I will write whatever I want every day.  There may be 2 posts per day. There may even be a series like this one is going to be. Here is part one:

So here goes with some focus actually.  It may or may not be known that I am a stay at home dad.  I have been off and on for the past 8 years so that an actual parent can raise our kids.  My wife is a Nurse and can just make more $$ than I can so when it comes down to it, she is more logical to work than me.  Especially this last go around.  I quit working in April of 07 to go back to school and finish the last few credits of my degree.  About a week later, my 11 month old daughter had a seizure and ended up in the hospital for 16 weeks with kidney failure.  My wife carried the insurance so I took care of the little one as well as the 2 other kids.  And the house.  and the laundry.

The next 2 years I spent 3-4 days per week taking the little one to dialysis because she had her kidney’s removed, and it took that long to get a transplant lined up.  She got the transplant in May of 09, so after all of the followup DR. appointments I am here taking care of the house and the kids again, run of the mill stay at home dad.  Funniest thing is how it pisses off my father the ex Navy SEAL type A personality control freak.  But I digress yet again.  I wrote many blog posts to keep family updated on the baby’s progress at www.carepages.com pagename: ameliarosematthews.

I didn’t start this out to talk about stay at home dad stuff, or even migraines but it may be what it was meant for.  I went downstairs yesterday to catch up on the laundry.

Join us tomorrow for part 2 of the migraine and laundry series. See Part 2 Here

And part 3 Here

Justin

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