Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Check Up Time



I went to visit my favorite neurologist today to see what we might do about preventing the baby orangutan that lives inside my head from becoming active again now that the weather’s warming up. I do so love winter when he’s dormant.

There’s nothing new yet but there is something that’s reached the clinical trial stage so perhaps next time. As always, he decided he was in need of drinks long before my visit was over. At 9:30 AM. And, while we were discussing the bad side-effects of the topomax which I had to stop taking, he once again pointed out that I’m already crazy and that the drug really didn’t cause that. Hm, yes, perhaps he’s correct but my normal crazy isn’t the bad kind. Topomax crazy is.

Actually I suspect he likes my appointments. My migraines aren’t life-threatening as some of the troubles his other patients have are. I ask lots of questions and have been for so many years I understand his responses. We also discuss my books which just makes him shake his head at me.

Today, I wanted to know how I can tell whether it’s just another migraine or if I’m having a stroke. The simple answer? I can’t. Sure, with lots of testing he could discern it but when I’m sitting in the living room in pain, I won’t know the difference myself. Gee, isn’t that comforting? Oh, something bizarre and fascinating he told me. As I age I might stop having the pain associated with migraines yet continue to experience the other effects such as numbness and blurred vision. Interesting and definitely something to mention should I ever wind up in an emergency room.

One last thing. There’s been a study done. Highly trained medical professionals have now determined that fluctuations in temperature of as little as five degrees can trigger migraines. No! Really? I wonder how much it time and money it took for them to figure that out. Silly people. If they’d asked me or anyone else who has weather related migraines and we could have confirmed it in an instant.

In happy writer news, Linked is a recommended read over at Dark Angel Reviews. Thank you, Becky! Click the pic to read it.

4 comments:

Regina Carlysle said...

YAY on the review. Excellent.

Anonymous said...

Fabulous review, B. Congrats on that!!
I'm so sorry about your head. My son suffers from the same pain, blind spots and dizzy feeling. No fun at all. When he takes a pill and goes to bed at noon, I know he feels one coming on.
It's terrible how helpless I feel knowing there's nothing I can do to stop it, either.

Good luck keeping that animal caged this summer, B.
Hugs,

Unknown said...

Ok - that he pointed out that you were crazy makes it easier for me to agree...and the review...not suprised.

Molly Daniels said...

Congrats on the review:)