goodbye, blood pressure med, I hardly knew thee. but you suck.

Yup, it’s a big “adios” to that medication.  I had my blood pressure checked again today, and it was still low: 104/60. Eep.  “Let’s stop that bloody drug,” my doc said when he called me just a little bit ago.  I hadn’t even taken it yet today because I was waiting for him to call me back.  A big relief to go off of that junk, because clearly it wasn’t helping out the head at all. Hopefully I will be able to start feeling better and not feel like a limp and heavy doll! My head has been hurting in a slightly different way, but I’m thinking that it’s due to the med changes and whatnot. Oy.

P.S. trying to play around with Twitter… I can see it on the blogroll on the right side, but it’s supposed to have little updates, not just a link. Hmm…

 

Ahh, apartment life… we are in a fight.

Scene: Yesterday.  A long afternoon outside with sun and heat for a friend’s graduation party, followed by my boyfriend D’s dad’s birthday dinner (semi-late) at their house, followed by needing to take a rescue med for pain that was starting to sneak up on me… I then needed to drive back up to our apartment (D and I each had our own cars to drive up, and it was about a 45 min drive).  We finally got into the apartment’s parking garage around 11:30pm, and I trudged with my bags inside.  My head was kinda still bothering me, but I had been alright enough to drive. I’m basically ready to collapse into bed.

I hear an “uh-oh” from D, who is a few steps ahead of me with his stuff.   There is a ring of wetness outside of our apartment.  Every renter/leaser/owner/person who lives anywhere’s worst nightmare.  We open the door, with each step, hear a SQUISH. SQUISH. SQUISHHH. Our sink is filled to the brim with the dirtiest of dirty brown water, the kitchen floor is covered with bits of lettuce-looking stuff, what looks like dirt (?) and a small layer of water, and of COURSE, the majority of the carpet in that room (the little kitchen opens up to the eating area/living room) is soaked.

Of course, seeing as how my head already hurts and I’m frustrated with the pain, it is only natural that my tears would start streaming at this point.  Which they did! I started pacing. And cursing. And pacing. There was also some cursing, if I didn’t mention that.  My printer was on the floor where there it is damp - i’m going to try to turn it on later. My nice Simple clogs (mine are darker) are possibly ruined. We do have apartment insurance and everything, but still. Who expects this to happen?  Apparently, the story is that there’s some sort of “pipe problem” between our apartment and our next-door neighbor.  They were home when the problem happened, so lucky for them, they didn’t have as much damage. Of COURSEEEEEE.  We had to be good children and visit with our mommies and daddies in the state over and be away for a few days.

Welcome back to your apartment, Joanna. Oh, you have a headache? Poor thing. Let me just get things a little wet here for you while you go take some meds, and while you should be going to bed to sleep off the pain, let’s stay up for a while longer and hang out- I mean, call maintenance! Yeah!

Here’s hoping you had a better/easier/pain-free weekend, friends!  I will end my rant now

 

Owww.

I just had the WORST SHARP PAINS that I have had in weeks. Literally.

Just 5 minutes ago, for about 3 minutes straight, I stood against the wall in the kitchen (just because that’s where I was when it hit) and grabbed my head and keeled over.

As fast as it came over me, it went away.  I’m exhausted from it, as if I am a battery that had power zapped from it.

I can’t go to bed yet, however… I still have some pain, and I can just feel that it will be too hard to fall asleep with it… I’ll just have to “wait it out” with the tv/computer and distract myself for a little while until the pain lessens and I can try to slip into bed and to sleep before the pain grows (I could watch tv in bed until I fall asleep, but my boyfriend is already goin to sleep - he has to wake up early for work).

This type of post is the type that i don’t normally expect to be able to post right after the fact…  I’m glad I’m able to share this experience, especially for those who aren’t familiar with NDPH.  I guess tonight’s “quick sharp pain” can be compared to a migraine, but I just didn’t have any of the “extras” that go along with it - no aura, no nausea, no sensitivities to anything, etc.

It just comes whenever.

This is why it can be so hard to make plans, to know when I can really drive a long distance, or how I’ll feel for a whole day walking around our favorite city. I have NO IDEA if I’m going to have a problem, very similar to my migraine friends.

And… yeah. It’s messing with my concentration right now. I think I better wrap this entry up.  Just wanted to share so others could get a feel (at least not literally) of what can happen 1+++ times during my day. Everyday.

 

Time to make the donuts, time to change the dosage…

I’m at about the 1-month mark for the lowering of the Topamax  (200-150mg/day).  At first, I didn’t really notice too much difference in the pain level - the main point of lowering the dose was to help with the memory issues that it causes.  I really haven’t noticed any improvements.  After a little while, however, my headache has become more apparent and now I’m taking rescue meds almost every day (as opposed to barely 1 time/week before).  The doc who called me back from my headache doc practice (who, by the way, I have never heard of before - but he was very nice, luckily) suggested that I move up to 175mg/day until I see my new doc (July 12)… if that doesn’t work though, I will have to just go back to 200 for the time being.

Never a dull moment…

P.S.  I’ve been coming across more and more headache blog friends, and even though it’s unfortunate that we are in this situation, it’s been so helpful to know that there are others out there who are doing their best to share what they can.  So, thank you to all my new friends

 

Article: Periodontists + Jawbones = Migraines?

http://www.courant.com/features/lifestyle/hc-headaches.artjun22,0,2228672.story

This article is from the Hartford Courant, and discusses how it can be the jaw alignment that could be causing migraines (the periodontist first mentioned even thinks that King Tut suffered from a jaw alignment problem, causing him severe headaches!).

It’s an interesting read.  I have already visited a TMJ/myofacial pain specialist and had a night guard made because he said that I grind my teeth at night.  I wore the thing for a year and a half straight with no difference. I still have it, of course, but it would just suck the moisture out of my mouth within the first minute of having it in, and I just haven’t been wearing it because I haven’t felt that it was helping me at all.   BUT, you never know — the answer for some people could be as simple as a visit to the dentist

 

I feel like I wrote this article…

. . . “If you judge these medications on their ability to cure my headache, all failed. If you judge them on their ability to deliver a string of bizarre and unpleasant effects, however, then they were a rousing success! One caused my heart to slow significantly, so that if I exerted myself by, for example, walking several paces, my vision would swim (inconvenient, as walking several paces was a big part of my life back then). Another scrambled my sense of time, giving me the sensation that I was continually shifting several seconds into the future and waiting for the rest of humanity to catch up to me. For the record, imaginary trips several seconds into the future have nothing much to offer, aside from feelings of stark terror.” . . .

This excerpt is from a NY Times article written by a man who has been suffering from chronic headaches for 20 years. The way in which he writes this article makes me feel as if I could have been a contributing writer, or could have even written it myself. It certainly is something that I could even see, as a person suffering from this kind of pain, giving this article to the people I am friends with/work with so that they know what I deal with daily to help them better understand my experience. It’s also a funny article, which helps. When you have any type of chronic health problem, humor is something that everyone needs.