the ABC’s !

Grandi, over at Grandi’s Grazings had a fun meme up – i wasn’t tagged, but thought I’d join the fun!

Accent–i don’t know, ohio? midwestern, possibly?
Bible book I like — love love love isaiah.
Chore I don’t care for — cleaning the bathroom
Dog or cat– i don’t have either, but if i could it’d be a cat!
Essential electronics– i’ve gotta say a/c, cell phone, laptop and fridge!
Favorite movie– probably Gone with the Wind
Gold or silver– silver and/or white gold. only.
Handbag I carry most often– in the summer, probably my big pink one.

Insomnia– an unfortunate side effect of migraines.
Job title– hm. homemaker?
Kids– none.
Living arrangements– my husband and i live in a one bdrm apartment.
Most memorable moment/time– probably my wedding day
Naughtiest childhood behavior– bullying my siblings.
Overnight hospital stay– last summer to try and ‘break the migraine cycle’. obviously did not work.
Phobias– ferris wheels. i have this recurring dream where i crash to the ground and die. unpleasant.
Quote — by henry david Thoreau; ‘i have learned this at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavours to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.’
Religion — LDS (mormon)
Siblings — 1 older sister, 2 younger sisters, and one younger brother.
Time I wake up — whenever i feel like it. gosh!
Unusual talent — sensing a storm before it arrives.
Vegetable I refuse to eat — pickled beets. ugh.
Worst habit– biting my nails.

Xrays– um, yes? i’ve had them?
Yummy stuff I cook(or make) — my favorite is thai mussaman curry. mmmmm…
Zoo animals I like most– polar bears. they are so fuzzzy and cute!

Tag yourself and join in! let me know in comments that you’re playing!

V

a sunset near tahoe; for more fun pictures from our trip, you can go to www.spencerkellis.net. click on the picture category california trip 2006 .

sooo the dr.s appointment yesterday. if you’re bored silly by this talk of dr.s and headaches, stop reading NOW.

this was my first appointment at the pain clinic; i saw three ppl.; a physical therapist, an anesthisiologist (wow hard to spell) and a pain dr. the 3 of them then talked about me for a while, and then came back to tell me what the ‘treatment plan’ is. i won’t bore you with all the details; basically all of them asked lots of questions, poked me and watched me to make sure things were normal. they believe that my headaches are BOTH migraine and tension; that is, not simultaneously, but that i have both components. i have tension headaches and migraines, and they feed off each other somehow. this is the first time a dr. has said this, so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. they identified 2 trigger points in my neck, which they believe are causing the tension headaches. the plan is to do physical therapy for my neck (i don’t know what that entails exactly), and then do injections of anesthesia into the trigger points, to hopefully calm down the muscles, and (again hopefully) lessen the tension headaches. after that, they think the migraines will be easier to control.

so that’s the plan! i feel pretty good about it, i’m up for anything, you know.

home again home again jiggity jog

whew. we’re back. we arrived home at 12:30 last night. wow.

i am, in a word, exhausted. but we had a great time; on the way home we stopped by to see spencer’s grandmother in souther california. i wish we could have stayed longer, but it was fabulous to see her for a few hours. (for those of you who might mention it, i realize southern california is not on the way home per se from northern california….but we made a few adjustments).

and we had so much fun seeing spencer’s friend and his wife; they were amazing hosts and i loved getting to know his wife better; they got married about 6 months ago (we went to the wedding) and so this was my first chance to get to know her really. we had to go shopping, of course, and perhaps later i’ll post some pictures of my finds. for now, i’ll leave you with one more picture. tomorrow i’ll tell you all about my visit (today) to the pain clinic. ooh, aah, i know.

wish you were here…

i’m on vacation. at the beach today…..will be back wednesday-ish to tell you all about it!

frustration

gah. i just made a whole thursday 13 — and was putting the pictures in it — when firefox decides it is time to shut down. WHAT!?!?!?!? i’m too irritated now to rewrite it. maybe later.

one unimportant thing, and another REALLY important thing

first, the unimportant thing. have you guys ever made your own salad dressing before? i did today (due to the migraine diet), and it was FABULOUS! i took some recommendations from the betty crocker cookbook, but this is what i ended up with;
oil (unfortunately vegetable b/c olive is not allowed)
vinegar
black pepper
sugar
thyme
oregano

and voila! a fabulous dressing! i wish i’d have had some garlic, but alas, i couldn’t find my garlic powder; it must have been hiding in the back of the shelf (i am too short to see back there).

now for something else; i rarely (that is, never) discuss anything political or of any importance on my blog; i don’t want arguments or heated debates — but on many levels this isn’t political; it’s about humanity. i’m talking about darfur — the genocide that is taking place there, and the utter lack of the U.S.’ aid. it tears at my heart to read about it, and to know that really, nothing is being done. if i were in those women’s place, and i was fearing for my life and that of my child’s, i would be hoping and praying that someone thousands of miles away would be doing something; that the rest of the world would be outraged and come to the assistance of my country. it seems to me that nothing is more important than helping to protect these people and restore order to their country. please visit www.savedarfur.org and read more about this — sign an online postcard, write to your senators and representatives about this. it reminds me of WWII and the genocide of the jews; not having been alive at that time, i can’t really say it reminds me of that, but what i mean is, i think in 30 years, we’ll look back (and our grandchildren will ask us) why no one did anything to prevent this tragedy? did we know what was happening? if so, how could we as a country have turned a blind eye?

this quote was shamelessly lifted from the savedarfur.org site;

‘if every member of the house and senate had received 100 letters from people back home saying we have to do something about Rwanda, when the crises was first developing, then I think the response would have been different.’
–former U.S. senator Paul Simon

family reunion

well i’ve been gone all week. i forgot to tell you i was leaving! oops. spencer’s family had a big family reunion; in the interest of maintaining others’ privacy, i won’t post their pictures on the internet. we got home yesterday afternoon, and we just knackered from a long week. it went by quickly, and we had a fabulous time. i have a much better handle on the aunts and uncles and cousins’ names now, so that’s a good thing. he comes from a big family. thankfully, the reunion coordinator was aware of my ‘issues’ (headaches) and got us a fabulous room that was both dark and quiet. a girl couldn’t ask for much more.

we (the other women of the family) exchanged quilt squares, and i tell you, it was more meaningful than i thought it’d be. mostly b/c i knew that everyone’s stack of 33 squares represented so much work and i was much more grateful for them than i would’ve been before this expedition. we also received instructions for quilting the squares all together, so that’s my next (overwhelming) adventure. we shall see, friends, we shall see.

now, tonight, we’re off to a friends’ house for a BBQ; more later.

you thought i was done talking about headaches?

yeah right. i’ve only just begun to talk!!! hahahaha. in any case, it was suggested in the comments that i fill you (my readers) in on what treatments/tests/other nonsense i have tried to relieve these migraines.

for those who are new; i have migraines. every day. i have it when i wake up in the morning, until i go to sleep at night. so when i say all the time, i mean all the time. anywho, this is the reason i don’t have a job, and don’t go to school. needless to say, it cramps my style.

i have seen 5 neurologists, in california, pennsylvania, and utah. (that’s a whole other story) i also have seen a holistic chiropractor and a massage therapist (for a massage with essential oils) — we have done tests including an MRI with and without contrast, an EKG, and EEG, hearing and balance testing, testing my sight, testing for a hole in my heart, a spinal tap to test the pressure of the fluid and to be sure there was no infection in it.

i have tried many many many meds; in the preventative category we have topamax, depakote, zonegran, propranonol, verapamil, and doxepin. all of these had no effect except the topamax made me lose weight, the depakote helped me gain it back, and the doxepin made the headaches worse. in the ‘natural’ arena i’ve tried these supplements for prevention: feverfew, butterbur, vit.B2, and magnesium.

as far as abortives go, i use toradol, and if that doesn’t help, i go to zomig. i have used in the past imitrex, relpax, maxalt (didn’t work), and frova.

moving on. ……

what i DO take; is prozac (supposed to help w/preventing) — a calcium supplement, and an anti-seizure med called tegretol. tegretol helps my headaches somewhat. unfortunately, i’m still not at a functioning human being level after it, but it does help. this was actually prescribed b/c i had a few seizures, and my neuro wanted that to stop. it’s a lucky side effect that it helps my headaches. seriously now. i’d rather have the seizures than the migraines. just sayin’.

so i’ve tried the chiropractor, a massage w/essential oils, those meds, a natural remedy that didn’t work for me, staying off wheat for a couple months to test for a wheat allergy. i went in to the hospital overnight last summer for a round of IV meds; DHE being the main one to ‘break the cycle’ of the migraines. this worked, but a week later they started back up again. ah, and then there was the ‘headache stick‘, changing of birth control pills, taking me off of birth control pills, and the current elimination diet.

that’s about all i can think of right now. there might be more. in any case, the main problem is that every med i try has to be tried for 3 months. and that’s after i’ve tapered up to the correct dosage. so that takes a lot of time.

hopefully this has sparked some idea for you; something else i should try. let me know! i’m interested in trying acupuncture, but have not gotten a recommendation for a good one in town yet.

brownish hair

so on saturday evening (like a week and a half ago), i was talking to my SIL and we were talking about hair colors past and present. long story short, i decided i was ready for something new. and when i’m ready for something new, i don’t usually wait around to ‘think about it’. by sunday morning i had purchased hair dye and dyed my own hair brown. ha! crazy, huh? indeed. i’ve been blonde for my whole life — i once dyed it red in high school, but it faded out pretty quick. so this is a big adjustment.

be gentle:

why is it that no one takes any pictures of me when i’ve actually fixed my hair; it’s down and lookin’ good? weird how that works….

it’s MEME TIME!

whoo hoo!!! i was tagged by Krisco, and am more than happy to join in !!

Five Things In my closet
clothes. lots.
my hanger with belts and scarves
my husband’s clothes – he doesn’t use very much room, luckily.
shoes – - this is something of a family joke. i have upwards of 80 pairs of shoes. go ahead, laugh.
my bathrobe -hangs in there since my hook broke off the door.

Five Things In My fridge
pudding dessert – one of my husband’s favorites
jug of green smoothie; has fruit and spinach. actually tastes very good.
skim milk
yogurt, cheese, etc., other dairy products i can’t eat right now
lime jello. my dessert last night. i made the jello GEL!

Five Things In My car
sun shades
small yellow pages (this is awesome)
empty water bottle
coupons for restaurants
blanket for sitting on

Five Things In My Purse
Phone
gum — extra peppermint
medicine for any possible migraine situation
wallet
ear plugs. also important for headaches when loud noises are around.

I tag:
the Edge
the Muum
Queen Beth
Chilihead
the House Warden
Holy Mama!
Novelist in Training
Denise

dream big, right?