I love the rain, and one of the few things I miss about the South are the great big thunderstorms. Don’t bet me wrong, I do not miss the hurricanes and tornadoes, but I miss a good thunderstorm. It rarely rains very hard in Vermont, and when it does, it’s rare that I hear thunder r see lightning. As much as I love the rain, I have grown to dread it over the past year or so since I’ve had this problem with my trigeminal nerve. Weather changes, especially rain wreak havoc on my migraines. Yesterday was a rainy day in Vermont, and I woke with a headache. I went to work, but as the morning dragged on, my headache just got worse. So, I headed home. I told my student shadow not to come since I would not be there. I had several things I needed to do yesterday, but none of them were going to get done because of my headache. Also, the longer I was at the museum, the worse my headache became.

I went home and went to bed. The new blinds kept the light out nicely. Eventually, I got up and made a simple dinner. I stayed up to watch the first of the televised January 6th hearings. Did anyone else watch it? If so, what did you think? Watching the hearing did not help my headache, so I went to bed as soon as it ended. If I wake up this morning still with a headache, I won’t be going into work. We’ll see.

Sometimes, you just need a mental health break. A day to rest and recharge. So, that’s what I did yesterday. I took a mental health day. Technically, I took a sick day for a migraine, which was true. I had a migraine all day yesterday, but I also just need a day to myself with nothing to do. I went to my happy place, i.e., I lay on the couch and watched Star Trek all day. Normally, that means watching Deep Space Nine, but I decided instead to watch Discovery. I know a lot of Star Trek fans don’t like Discovery, and I usually watch episodes only once when it is released on Paramount+, but I decided to rewatch the last two seasons. I should have started from the beginning or at least watched season two, but I decided to start with after they traveled to the future.

I also watched Obi Wan Kenobi on Disney+. It’s a pretty good show. Actually, I think all three of the Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and now Obi Wan Kenobi, have all been very entertaining. I am not as big of a Star Wars geek as I am a Trekkie, but I’ve always enjoyed the original trilogy. The Han Solo movie was also pretty good. However, while Star Wars is just a story of good vs. evil, Star Trek is about hope for the future. That’s why I like to watch Star Trek when I just need to zone out, because even though it’s science fiction, I still find it very hopeful. I doubt we will make first contact by 2063, and I hope we don’t have WWIII before then either, but I find the ideals of the United Federation of Planets inspirational. Someday, maybe all of humanity really will believe in equality and forgo greed and hatred.

Anyone who suffers from depression and/or chronic pain, you know that there are good days and bad days. Yesterday was a bad day. The headache pain seems never ending, or at least somedays it does. Lately, it seems that my headache medication is just not as effective anymore. Part of it may be the weather in Vermont has been fluctuating wildly. One day, it will be very warm; the next day, it may be 30 or more degrees cooler; and other days, it’s raining. All of these things affect my headaches. Atmospheric changes wreak havoc on my trigeminal neuralgia. I try not to let the pain get the better of me, but there are times that all I can do is surrender.

Then, there is the depression. Most days, my medication helps. Somedays, it also gets the better of me. Whether it’s worrying about my health or worrying about money, I have days when I feel hopeless and really depressed. Writing about my state of physical and mental health is much easier than telling a friend my problems out loud. It’s never been easy to talk to anyone, even very close friends, about what is bothering me.

I’m hoping today will be a better day. As I went to bed last night, I was seriously considering that I needed to take a mental health day today. Some days, you just can’t push through the pain, whether it’s mental or physical.

Yesterday was one of my bad headache days. I woke with a headache, and none of my medicine helped. I wanted to call in sick and stay home in the dark, but that wasn’t possible. First, I had way too much work to do at the museum. There were deadlines to make, and I’ll have to finish them up today and get things submitted. 

Then, I had to leave early for my post-endoscopy appointment with the ENT doctor, which turned out to basically be a waste of time. She basically told me there wasn’t much that could be done. They could preform a surgery to remove my uvula and my tonsils (a uvulopalatopharyngoplasty or UPPP

), which would open up my throat more. I seem to have an abnormally small throat. (No wonder I can’t deep throat. LOL) She told me that if they did the surgery, which would be an incredibly painful procedure, that it might change the anatomy of my throat enough to make me a better candidate for the Inspire implant, but she needed to confer with her colleagues to see what the probability of success might be. The Inspire surgery is supposed to be a fairly simple procedure, but a UPPP is a much more invasive and involved procedure with a longer recovery time. I’m not sure it would be worth it. My better option is probably to continue to lose weight and hope the sleep apnea improves enough to stop needing the CPAP. 

It’s been a week. I’m glad it’s Friday and that I have a three day weekend. I need some rest and relaxation. Too much had been happening the last two weeks, and I’m tired. I want to go to the grocery store after work today and get some things for a nice BBQ meal on Monday. Cooking almost always relaxes me.

I am being so lame this week. I had another headache last night because there was a rainstorm that came through yesterday, and rain always aggravates my trigeminal neuralgia. So, once again, I remember that I was thinking about writing a post, then I got distracted and went to bed before I actually wrote one. Susan notified me that I had not posted this morning. I had woken up feeling much better had not even thought about not having a post scheduled. 

For the rest of the week, my posts might be a bit short. I am going to a conference in Boston tomorrow and will be gone through Sunday. Thankfully, because I am technically “working” Saturday and Sunday attending the conference, I will be off Monday and Tuesday of next week.

I woke up yesterday still having a headache. It was mostly centered on the base of my skull, but that was pretty painful. I decided I needed to call in sick to work and keep my appointment with the nurse practitioner at my doctor’s office. I’d seen her last Thursday for my pre-op physical and liked her, so when I couldn’t see my regular doctor, I opted for her. After discussing my headache, she said that for headaches like this, they often will give a shot of Toradol to “break up” the headache. Sometimes, they give a strong pain killer to sort of reboot the body and provide some relief, often it’s enough to end the problem, sort of like hitting CTRL + ALT + DELETE on your computer. 

The only problem is that Toradol is an NSAID which I’m supposed to refrain from taking for seven days before my procedure tomorrow. Since the laryngoscopy is not an very invasive procedure, she thought it would be OK to do, but she called my doctor for Friday’s procedure to get her recommendation. While they would have preferred that I only take Tylenol, they did give the NP permission to give a minimal dose of Toradol. So, next thing I know, the nurse has a syringe and told me to lower my pants. She said they could give the shot in the arm, but it works better in the butt, and she said it was up to me. Quite honestly, I wanted whatever was most likely to be successful, so down my pants went. I don’t know if any of you have had a shot of Toradol before (I have), but that shot stings quite a bit.

The good news is that it improved my migraine considerably. Within an hour, the pain was mostly gone. It still hurts a little and I bought some Tylenol as a supplement, and that too helped. I went to bed last night with a minimal headache. I’m hoping I wake up in the morning feeling just as good and can go to work. I’ll learn sometime today when I need to be at Dartmouth for my laryngoscopy tomorrow. All I know at this point is that it is supposed to be sometime tomorrow morning. The past week has been a rough, but I’m hoping this week will end on a good note.

I have a had a severe headache since Friday. The pain has been across the top half of my face, the back of my head, my neck, and shoulders. Sometimes it is only on one side or the other, but mostly both. My head also feels hot, but I haven’t had a fever, nor does it feel hot to the touch. I’ve had nausea and was vomiting Monday night. The pain comes and goes in intensity, but Monday night it got so bad that I contemplated going to the emergency room. The only relief I’ve gotten is when I used a cold pack on the back of my head and forehead and which seemed to relieve things enough for me to fall asleep. Sleep helped a little. Yesterday morning, I felt better when I woke up, but it slowly got worse the longer I was awake.

I took naratriptan as prescribed, but it did not help, and because I have a laryngoscopy on Friday, I have been told to refrain from taking my Anaprox (550 mg naproxen sodium) for 7 days before the procedure. I’m not sure what I can do because this is not my usual headache. The pain though has been unbearable at times.

I went to work yesterday but was only able to stay about two hours before I had to go back home. By mid afternoon, I was feeling relatively normal again, but the headache was back by the time I went to bed. 

I contacted the Headache Clinic yesterday, but the nurse told me that it was unlike my usual headaches that I needed to see my regular doctor. That was a bit disappointing since my regular doctor usually tells me to contact my neurologist at the Headache Clinic. I have an appointment with one of the nurse practitioners at my doctor’s office because my regular doctor doesn’t have anything available until mid June. I’m seeing him on May 4 for a physical, so I’d be seeing him before that. However, the Headache Clinic wants me evaluated again to make sure I’m on to have the laryngoscopy on Friday. If my headache is better today (God willing, it will be), I’ll cancel the appointment with the NP. 

This headache has just been so bad. I thought it was the weather, but this is more than a regular headache affected by weather changes.

ve had a migraine since Friday. I left work early Friday and the migraine lingered all weekend. At times, it wasn’t as painful, but at other times, it was excruciating. Everywhere I laid my head felt like I was lying on a rock. The only thing I could do to help was try and sleep. I hope it’s better today. I’ll be the only one at the museum. Our secretary doesn’t work on Monday, our other curator is away at a conference, and my boss’s two children have COVID.