Category Archives: Health

August 30, 2021

Weekend Recap

By Joe

My heart goes out to those who are suffering from the aftermath of Hurricane Ida. Hurricanes can be so devastating, and the loss of electricity at this time of year for those in the hurricane’s path can be deadly. With a lack of air conditioning, the heat and the humidity can be overwhelming in a hurricane’s aftermath, not to mention the massive number of bugs that are pushed ashore from storms like these. In the days after Katrina, the love bugs were so numerous that you couldn’t always see more than twenty feet in front of you. The love bugs are the harmless ones. The mosquitoes and gnats and all the other creepy crawlies will be everywhere. They are mostly a nuisance, the devastation that comes from wind, flooding, and tornadoes is much worse. So, the people in the path of Hurricane Ida are in my prayers.

I had a really bad migraine day yesterday. I’m hoping to wake up this morning with less pain than yesterday. It was one of the worst migraines I’ve had in years. At times, the pain brought tears to my eyes. Thankfully, I go for my next Botox treatment on Thursday. I’m hoping I will see improvement because I think the last treatment has worn off. I’m not looking forward to the procedure, but I am looking forward to the effects of it. I really hope it helps. Migraines with the addition of the trigeminal neuralgia pain can be overwhelming at times, and I need some relief.

I had short periods when I was able to be slightly productive. I made the brown sugar pecan pound cake I spoke of the other day. I made one on Saturday, but it did not turn out as well as I expected. Putting the pecans on top as the recipe called for, caused me to mistakenly believe it was completely done (the toothpick did come out clean). As it cooled, I realized that it was not done in the middle, so yesterday, when I had a short time with tolerable pain, I made another one. It turned out much better partly because I cooked it longer, but also because I mixed all of the pecans in the batter. It’s almost too sweet for my tastes, but it was good. I wouldn’t have made another yesterday, except that I’d promised my friend and neighbor that I’d give her half the cake when it was made. I was embarrassed and wouldn’t give her part of the failed cake. I didn’t want to admit defeat, so I made another one.

It wasn’t the greatest of weekends, but I hope the week will be better. Work should not be too bad this week (fingers crossed/knock on wood). I’m off work Thursday for my Botox treatment, and I’m taking a vacation day Friday so I can be refreshed and have plenty of time to get ready for the Pride Ball in Burlington that night. Sunday will be the annual Vermont Pride Parade down Church Street in Burlington. It most likely won’t be a big parade. They never are. They only last about 20-30 minutes, but they are fun. So, I have that to look forward to this weekend.

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August 19, 2021

Nothing

By Joe

I’m sorry everyone. I really have nothing to say today. With all of the rain and now with the remnants of Tropical Storm Fred coming through today, I’ve had a continuous headache for several days. So being creative or having something to say is just not in me right now. I hope all of you are doing well. Maybe this headache will get better, and I can go back to my regularly scheduled programming.

6 Comments | posted in Health, Miscellaneous

August 18, 2021

Off Day

By Joe

We had a storm front come through yesterday, and it seemed to cause my nerve pain to act up. So, I had a headache all day yesterday and didn’t feel like writing a post. I still have a headache this morning, but hopefully, it will go away in a little bit.

Feeling Better

By Joe

Thankfully, I am feeling much better. Slowly throughout the day yesterday as I got some much needed rest, I started to feel better, and the nausea subsided. For the most part so did the headache.

By the way, if you’ve ever wondered what I wear to work (which you probably haven’t), today I’m wearing an almost identical outfit to the guy above, except that I am wearing socks. Shorter pants and no socks is just not a fashion trend I care it embrace.

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August 11, 2021

Not Feeling Well

By Joe

I have not been feeling well the last few days. On Sunday, I had a bad headache, but since I woke up on Monday, I have been extremely nauseated. I thought it had something to do with missing the nighttime dose of my medicine on Friday, but I think it must be more than that. I really should be feeling better by now. My head hurts, I have no energy, and I am constantly nauseated. I’ve also been really depressed. I just don’t know what’s going on with me. My body and mind are just not being kind to me at the moment.

I wrote this last night, so if I am still feeling this way when I wake up today, I’ll call my doctor and see if I can get an appointment. I hope he can see me and help. I just don’t know how much more of this I can take. I feel like I am at my wit’s end. Things were going well, and I really thought things were getting better, but it just seems like every time my health improves and things are looking up, I have a setback.

For a while now, my mood has been better. The trigeminal nerve pain had got me depressed, but once they diagnosed me, extracted the tooth, and prescribed medicine to help me deal with the pain, my spirits lifted. Now I am back to feeling hopeless. Maybe this is just a temporary setback, and I am being overly dramatic. However, I can’t help thinking: what if it gets worse? what if the pain never ends? how can I ever cope with this? etc.

2 Comments | posted in Health

August 9, 2021

Another Damn Headache!

By Joe

I have been lucky since I started the new dosage of the medicine for my trigeminal neuralgia (TN). I have had few headaches. With the Botox for my migraines and the addition of Verapamil and Oxcarbazepine for the TN, I have been doing pretty good and basically only having minor headaches on occasion, but God forbid I miss a dose of my medicines. I went to dinner with a friend on Friday night, and I completely forgot to take my nighttime meds. By Saturday night, I could feel the pain returning to the side of my face affected by the TN. When I woke yesterday morning, I was in a great deal of pain, and nothing helped throughout the day. I remembered to take everything yesterday and on Saturday, so I hope things will even out today. I had been enjoying being relatively pain free, so while I’ve had worse headaches than yesterday’s, the resurgence of pain after not having any this severe, I think made it all the worse. I just have to make damn sure that I don’t miss a dose again.

Migraines

By Joe

I have been out sick from work for the past two days because of a major migraine. The new medicine for the trigeminal neuralgia (TN) has been helping with that pain. My neurologist doubled the dosage because the smaller dose was helping, but I was still having some nerve pain. The higher dose seems to be working but is also making me very drowsy. I felt a little drowsy with the smaller dose, but nothing like this. I’ll see how it goes at work today when I will be more active.

While the TN seems to have gotten better, I do still get migraines occasionally, and when I do, they are doozies. This one actually started on Sunday. I hope today is headache free, or at least mostly so. I have to be at work today because I have two important meetings. One has been rescheduled twice, and another has been rescheduled once. I can’t reschedule again. So, we’ll see how today goes.

3 Comments | posted in Health

July 22, 2021

Down in the Upper Valley*

By Joe

Yesterday, I had to drive down to White River Junction, Vermont, on the New Hampshire border for an appointment to get fitted for a new type of CPAP mask, since the one I have is aggravating my trigeminal neuralgia. I did get a new mask, and I just have to see how it works. There weren’t a lot of options that don’t put pressure on the right side of my head. I just can’t continue with the old mask which was causing me to go to sleep in pain and wake up in pain. I hope this helps, but there are other options if it doesn’t. I was told by my sleep doctor that I had to try the new masks before we could move onto other solutions.

While I was in that part of the state, I decided to go to the King Arthur Baking Store in Norwich, Vermont. They have a really nice kitchen store that sells much more than just King Arthur Flour. It’s expensive , but it’s fun to look. However, I got there and it was so crowded with people, I decided not to even go in to have a look around. Instead, I decided to drive across the border to Hanover, New Hampshire. Hanover, you may know, is the home of Dartmouth College. The college makes up most of the town, but it’s a beautiful little New England town. I had wanted to check out where a few restaurants I’d heard about were and see what the parking situation was, which turned out to be basically nonexistent. All I saw was a few street side metered parking spaces. Nowhere seems to have their own parking lot.

While the buildings on the campus and in the town are beautiful, the better view is of the male students. Basically, they all look like J. Crew models, and there’s a good reason for that. One of the largest retailers near the campus is J. Crew. Not only do all of the guys dress preppy, they are all pretty cute too. The women on the other hand seem to all dress like hippies. None of them look to take particular care of their appearance, but I’d venture to guess, they work really hard to have the appearance of not working hard on their appearance. In Vermont, unshaven men and women seem to be the norm, and most clothing appears to be from either vintage clothing store or if they want to dress up, L.L. Bean and their flannel collection. I am only exaggerating slightly. However, seeing Dartmouth students walking around Hanover, it’s refreshing to see guys clean shaven and dressed nicely.

In other news, my coworkers and I at the museum have been strategizing on how to best deal with the issue over the current exhibit. I’ll make sure that I update y’all tomorrow. I am not looking forward to today, but at some point we have to make a stand. I just pray, this isn’t our version of Custer’s Last Stand. All we can do is make our case and hope for the best. If it goes against us, there are back-up contingencies. I just hope we don’t have to go that route. I am looking forward to my phone interview tomorrow, and I’m going on a date Saturday afternoon. He’s a professor in Burlington, and we’re going to meet at a museum up there. Then the plan is to go back to his house for an early dinner. I’ve enjoyed my chats with him so far, and I hope it’s a pleasant experience Saturday afternoon.

*The Upper Valley straddles the Connecticut River between New Hampshire and Vermont which includes the towns of Hanover and Lebanon in New Hampshire, and White River Junction and Norwich in Vermont.

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July 9, 2021

Rough Day

By Joe

Yesterday, I woke with a bad headache. My trigeminal nerve is still healing and some days the pain can still be pretty bad. Yesterday was one of those days. It was compounded by a bad stomachache and some hypoglycemic episodes. Occasionally, my blood sugar does drop to between 55 and 70. Around lunchtime yesterday, my blood sugar dropped to 70. I know when it’s happening because I get very unsteady on my feet and confused. I often also feel very hungry, but that was not the case yesterday because I wasn’t hungry at all. I have glucose tabs to get my blood sugar back to where it should be, and I was able to get it back up. However, a few hours later, it dropped back down to 72. The second time it dropped, it was a little more difficult to get it back up, but it did eventually get back to normal.

Today is likely to be a very emotional day for me. Nine years ago today, my beloved Grandmama passed away. I will always miss her. Growing up, I spent as much time with her, if not more, than with my parents. She also took up for me when my sister got me into trouble or when Daddy was being particularly mean to me. I had a truly special bond with her. I never came out to her, but if she was alive today, I probably would. When I could not reason with other people in my family, I could with her. She would listen to me, and she always took my side and saw my side of things. Hell, I even convinced her to vote for Democrats. Grandmama never lived a perfect life, but she was perfect to me. I loved her so much.

2 Comments | posted in Health

July 1, 2021

Bad Weather

By Joe

A heat wave, high humidity, a storm front, and a cold front all passing through Vermont over the last few days, the weather has been crazy. The heat, and I know it’s much worse elsewhere, and changes in atmospheric pressure has gotten to me. I woke yesterday with a bad migraine that plagued me all day and into the evening. I had to take a sick day from work, and I spent most of the day in bed. I pray that I wake up today feeling much better.

Overall, my headaches have been getting better, but the damage done to my trigeminal nerve by that infected tooth is going to take some time to heal. My doctor told me it would likely be slow to heal. I am on medicine to calm the nerve pain, but major changes in the weather still trigger headaches.

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