Wednesday, January 14, 2009

I AM Stupid

You know those T-shirts with "I'm With Stupid!" on them? Guess who I am.

Okay, here's what happened. I'm forty years old and already I have osteoarthritis in my back and knee. (I also have an undiagnosed problem with my left hand, but we're working on that.) And I don't bother trying to hide it. If you're going to the RT convention I'll be the short redhead in the black and blue scooter zooming around, because no way will I be able to walk a convention for more than, oh, six hours before being laid up for two days.

Anyway, Saturday here in sunny DE we had some freezing rain. In fact, it's rained a lot more than usual around here (and Dusty is very happy it hasn't been cold enough for it to be snow), which means I'm taking more Aleve than usual. Except Saturday, with the freezing rain, where nothing I did alleviated the pain in my knee. I tried heat. I tried putting my leg up. I tried putting my leg down. I lay down on the sofa and propped my knee with a pillow. And I took twice the dosage of Aleve you're supposed to take in a 24 hour period. Eventually the hands got thrown in the air and I told Dusty I was going to bed to try to sleep.

Sunday morning, I woke up queasy. Not really surprised, considering I'd abused my stomach, and it went away fairly quickly so I didn't think anything of it. Luckily the rain had stopped and so had most of the pain.

Cut to Monday, where I'm queasy again. Only this time, I'm queasy all day. I funneled Spiced Chai tea through my system in an effort to get it to calm down. It worked, barely. Tuesday, however? Tuesday I've got a headache. One that gets worse as the day progresses. And one that throbs in time to my heartbeat. Oh, and I notice little things, like I'm constantly shading my eyes and wishing people would talk in soft mumbles.

Queasy? Check.
Heartbeat headache? Check.
Moving headache (where it goes from front to back or side to side)? Check.
Sensitivity to light? Check.
Sensitivity to sound? Check.

And here I thought I'd merely overdosed on Aleve. Nope, we're talking full-bore migraine. Thank you, Ms. Bell, we hope you had a fun time on Name That Moron. Enjoy your consonlation prize.

Gah.

So I took two Imitrex last night, hoping to slow it down. And while it worked last night, this morning I'm wishing that the sun wasn't quite so bright.

I'm goint to try to get some work done. As long as I use the blue background/white text option in Word I should be fine. But I won't go near any white websites/chat rooms for at least another day, possibly not until Friday. The migraine won't let me.

Now I'm going to go lay down and put a cloth over my eyes. Blogger makes me write on a white background and it kinda feels like Gollum is stabbing my eyes with a toothpick. If I'm not back before Friday, have a great week!

Thus ends the tale of why I AM Stupid.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're actually lucky that you get warning signs, I don't. I go from zero to full migraine in about 30 minutes. Imitrex doesn't work because it won't stay down, I have to get a shot to break the migraine once it starts, so for me I try to prevent them with regular meds.

Dana Marie Bell said...

Does the pain actually stop? All the Imitrex does for me is keep me from vomiting and going into that full-blown, someone trying to jackhammer out of my head migraine followed by that weird floaty feeling and sleeping for hours. It makes it tolerable, but either way I'm still sitting in dim rooms for days, only able to handle the computer in roughly fifteen to twenty minute increments and thanking God I bought heavy curtains. And also thanking God for Excedrin Migraine, which dulls it down a bit after the Imitrex fades off.

I've only been diagnosed for a year, so I'm still trying to figure out what triggers them. Stress seems to be my main trigger, possibly the weather. Does anyone else out there suffer from migraines, and if so how do you handle them?

Anonymous said...

If the Imitrex isn't breaking the migraine, which means relieving the inflammation that causes it, you should go back to your doctor and ask for it to be increased or if you are at the max dose ask them to switch you to another Migraine med. I've been diagnosed for about 10 years and if I catch it really early when the "visual ghosts"- the spots floating around the edges of your vision, have just started, sometimes the meds work. Otherrwise it's off to the ER for a shot.

Anonymous said...

Some Migraines are triggered by food like chocolate, aged cheese or red wine. When mine start I have to get the meds in fast because If I don't stop them I've had a migraine last as long as two weeks. I don't know what dose of Imitrex your on, but Anonymous is right, If it isn't breaking the migraine you should see about a higher dose or a different med. I had to try three before my doctor found one that worked for me. I also use cool clothes on my head, although I've heard some people prefer warm. Keep trying, you'll find what work eventually, everyone is different.

Dana Marie Bell said...

Mostly it stops me from vomiting, for which I am grateful since if I hit THAT stage I'm a LOT worse off. They tend to last four to six days, until the light sensitivity is gone. If I try to leave the house before then, I wind up retriggering the whole thing.

I'll definitely talk to my doc about the meds next time I see her. If I can flat out stop it rather than keep it tolerable that would be a lot better, but I know medication doesn't always work like that with migraines.

Red wine and chocolate are things I eat often (hence my lovely waist line, lol!) so I'm not sure if they are triggers or not. I know if I stress out it's more likely to occur. Hmmm. Nitrates can cause them, and I HAVE had a lot of lunch meat recently. Maybe that's a trigger for me. Something to add to my diary until I have all my triggers mapped out. =)

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