Pain in the Head

I just said this week I don’t post news articles.  Well, I was wrong.  Here is a quick article on the potential triggering of migraines with fluorescent light bulbs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=505571&in_page_id=1965&ito=1490

Upon direction of my neurologist, I have taken caffeine out of my diet completely.  All I can tell you that it sucks.  Sucks suck sucks.  I’m getting by with drinking caffeine-free tea, a lot more water, and once in a while a flavored La Croix.  I’ve also had to drink sugared soda when visiting restaurants because Sprite or 7-up is the only beverage available without caffeine.  No buzz, but lots o’ calories!

I’m tolerating the new medication well.  From my previous experience, I know not to expect anything until at least about a month into it.  I’ve had some horrible headaches this week but that’s most likely due to the drop in caffeine.  My eyes have been dry and bleary again lately; I’m hoping it’s not related to the “Topamax Eyes” (increased ocular pressure) that I had before.  We shall see how it pans out.

I’m looking forward to the Thanksgiving weekend.  I need the two days off to recuperate and catch up on homework!  Tazz has a really good chance at two places he interviewed at.  One already called around for reference checks and had him take an online personality test.  We’re hoping that they don’t wait too long to at least give some sort of feedback.  Talk about a headache!

This Wednesday marks two full years of me complaining about discussing my headaches and my life that revolves around them.  It’s crazy that it’s only been two years since it seems like I’ve been actively involved in blogging longer than that.  Honestly, this is the first thing I’ve kept on doing longer than a month before some other shiny metal thing grabs my attention.

I wanted to review a little of what’s happened to me in the past two years.  Maybe not so much for your sake, but as a tool for me to reflect.  That sounds sappy but why have a journal if you never reread it, right?

1. Topamax hurt me more than helped me.
2. I finally got out of my deadend job; 4 employers total in the past two years since leaving the hell hole.
3. I got my bachelor’s degree and now I’m going back for my master’s.
4. Coffee is a drug and I’m a pusher.
5. I’ve had raw sewage dumped all over me.
6. Stomach acid sucks big time.
7. Losing weight also sucks big time.
8. I’m more scared about losing my vision than being in pain all day.
9. Verapamil made me fatter.
10. Hawaii is awesome.
11. Podcasts are fun but take a lot of effort to do them.
12. Aging parents frighten me.

I’ve learned and experienced much more past these twelve items.  I never wanted my head pain to define who I was or to change how I interact with the world.  The truth is, I am the headache pain and it’s me.  I’m just glad I have a place to bitch and whine about it!

There is a guy that walks around where I work with his bluetooth headset on all day long. He goes into the bathroom with it, the elevator, and into meetings. Since when do you have to be poised to get a call 24×7? Take the headset off and put it into your pocket. When you get a call that lasts longer than a minute, put it on. Simple as that. The blue light on it gives me a headache too!! Seriously.

Then I found this post today on the 37 Signals blog. Holy crap you need to read the comments.

I went to my favorite eye doctor on Thursday; she ended up telling me that my eyes were healthy.  What I do have is something like dry eye syndrome.  Because the cloudiness was only happening in the morning and because it responds to regular eye drops, it wasn’t a concern.  She gave me samples of various eye drops and they seem to help.  I think if I consistently use them I won’t have the problems in the morning.  I’m just glad it was nothing like glaucoma or cataracts.  I know I’m way young but the Topamax did have my ocular pressure in the high range at one point.

We’ve gotten a boat load of snow today.  As we’re ready to leave from our bowling league last night, it started to snow.  It looked pretty at first and then we realized a quarter inch or more fell in a matter of 15 minutes.  Fun.  Driving was exciting and very unsafe.  I do enjoy snow on the weekends because you have nowhere to go.   Tonight we’re supposed to get another 8-12 inches.  That’s nearly 30cm for you metric peeps.

I came into work this morning and realized I hadn’t posted anything since last week when Tazz and I were at the coffee shop.  Oops.  I guess it’s a good thing, maybe??  The headaches have subsided to 1-2 in a week rather than 1-2 a day.  I had this type of recession last year when I took myself off the Topamax.  I’m hoping it holds out.  It gets to a point where after a day I forget I even have a problem with head pain.  One could hope.

We met my parents for lunch yesterday at Applebee’s and had a good time.  I saw a friend from my old job.  I talk with him online all the time so it was nice seeing him.  I do miss the place; I worked there for almost eight years.  He’s finally getting an interview to move on.  A lot of my other “work” friends haven’t done much in eight months.  People threaten to leave but never seem to be able to get out of that evil pit of despair.  [ maybe too dramatic... ]

My eyes have been bugging me lately.  I promised myself that I would make an appointment with an eye doctor.  Not a shopping mall eye glass dude, but a real doctor of eye diseases.  I think they’re called ophthalmologists rather than optometrists.  I can’t tell if it’s a bad prescription or if my eyes are just dry all the time.  I get fuzzy vision in the mornings mostly and artificial tears don’t seem to help.  It’s weird.  It reminds me of how my vision got when I was on Topamax…  Hopefully it’s nothing serious.

Other than a birthday party on Saturday, it’s been pretty much a normal work.  I have a project at work to spend my time on for a few weeks.  I need a focused task rather than doing a little of everything right now.  I am supposed to travel to South Carolina in April and it could be for weeks at a crack.  Yuck.  BUT, software engineers where I live tend to travel because of the market.  If I lived in California, I would have a three hour commute each day rather than traveling once in a while.  Fun.