The state of me - natter, natter, natter
Jun. 21st, 2012 02:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchwhichAfter six days or so of a headache, I visited the doctor's office. Had he been available earlier, believe me, I would have gone. Bossman came along as backup in case the doc was slammed and reverted to "just another whiney middle-aged housewife" mode, which he sometimes does.
But the office was slow and easy, and the doctor was again the man I'd grown to trust in the past. He says that my headache is not a migraine, but it is "migraine-oid/migraine-ous". He poked and squeezed my head & shoulders, asked a good number of questions, and ended up telling me that recent studies for migraines show a marked simularity in that the muscles at the base of the skull seem to be the starting point for the pain and that if I can get those to relax, chances are good that the headache itself will ease, as they sometimes do for migraine sufferers. Then he asked me about the pain drugs that I'd been using (meaning "what perscription stuff have you been taking when you got desperate?") since I cannot take any of the over-the-counter stuff right now.
The result is that I am to apply heat and massage to the neck & base of skull area two-three times a week, for a few weeks, even if the headache subsides before then. And he gave me both tramadol & valium. He asked me about the effects of flexeral - it felt odd telling a doctor that what I consider a 'major drug' just didn't seem to have any effect on me at all, but he was unsurprised and said that valium could possibly do the job better.
So I took the maximun dose and then Bossman drove me to the Heritage Store where there is a massage chair-thingy and on-call masseuses. Ten minutes of that was surprisingly effective, even though I had to struggle not to tense up as the woman nattered on and on and on about the glories of vitamin B-12 (It cures cancer! It prevents endometriousis! It is a wonder drug!) and then segued into an info-mercial for chiropractic services and then for quack doctors. I'm not going to tell Doc Nick (my favorite chiropratic person) about her 'reccomendations'. He'd not thank her! Did you know that most illnesses come from having one leg longer than the other, and a trained 'heel lift' doctor can solve your failing liver, kidney, and lung problems just by adding a little height to one leg? No? Well, I know where you can find out all-lll-lll about it.
Next time, I'm going to tell her that I have a meditation that I'd like to do while she works, and will need silence while I do that. She is a believer in the value of meditation. (And so am I, and I won't make that be a lie. I would have been doing it then, if she'd only shut up.) She was good, though, and between her ministrations and the drugs, my pain was a mere echo of what it had been. Now, hours later, I can feel that tense ache of return so I 'got in front of it' and took the meds already. So there, neener-neener.
In other news, we are travelling to Known World Heralds and Scribes Symposium this weekend. It will be a 10-hour drive (sans stops). I know that will throw my glucose levels out of wack but the doctor was reassuring about it and said that I shouldn't worry too much, nor try to reduce my carbs to compensate. And he said the occassional "outlier numbers" shouldn't worry me either. That I should basically ignore them if they are unusual compared to regular ones. I appreciated that. Now I won't freak so much when I get an unexplained high reading.
But the office was slow and easy, and the doctor was again the man I'd grown to trust in the past. He says that my headache is not a migraine, but it is "migraine-oid/migraine-ous". He poked and squeezed my head & shoulders, asked a good number of questions, and ended up telling me that recent studies for migraines show a marked simularity in that the muscles at the base of the skull seem to be the starting point for the pain and that if I can get those to relax, chances are good that the headache itself will ease, as they sometimes do for migraine sufferers. Then he asked me about the pain drugs that I'd been using (meaning "what perscription stuff have you been taking when you got desperate?") since I cannot take any of the over-the-counter stuff right now.
The result is that I am to apply heat and massage to the neck & base of skull area two-three times a week, for a few weeks, even if the headache subsides before then. And he gave me both tramadol & valium. He asked me about the effects of flexeral - it felt odd telling a doctor that what I consider a 'major drug' just didn't seem to have any effect on me at all, but he was unsurprised and said that valium could possibly do the job better.
So I took the maximun dose and then Bossman drove me to the Heritage Store where there is a massage chair-thingy and on-call masseuses. Ten minutes of that was surprisingly effective, even though I had to struggle not to tense up as the woman nattered on and on and on about the glories of vitamin B-12 (It cures cancer! It prevents endometriousis! It is a wonder drug!) and then segued into an info-mercial for chiropractic services and then for quack doctors. I'm not going to tell Doc Nick (my favorite chiropratic person) about her 'reccomendations'. He'd not thank her! Did you know that most illnesses come from having one leg longer than the other, and a trained 'heel lift' doctor can solve your failing liver, kidney, and lung problems just by adding a little height to one leg? No? Well, I know where you can find out all-lll-lll about it.
Next time, I'm going to tell her that I have a meditation that I'd like to do while she works, and will need silence while I do that. She is a believer in the value of meditation. (And so am I, and I won't make that be a lie. I would have been doing it then, if she'd only shut up.) She was good, though, and between her ministrations and the drugs, my pain was a mere echo of what it had been. Now, hours later, I can feel that tense ache of return so I 'got in front of it' and took the meds already. So there, neener-neener.
In other news, we are travelling to Known World Heralds and Scribes Symposium this weekend. It will be a 10-hour drive (sans stops). I know that will throw my glucose levels out of wack but the doctor was reassuring about it and said that I shouldn't worry too much, nor try to reduce my carbs to compensate. And he said the occassional "outlier numbers" shouldn't worry me either. That I should basically ignore them if they are unusual compared to regular ones. I appreciated that. Now I won't freak so much when I get an unexplained high reading.
