Pain in the Head

Tazz and I are going camping this coming weekend.  I’m praying for nice weather but enough rain to fall this weekend so we’re allowed to have a fire at the site.  We’ve been pretty dry the past few weeks but this week it looks like rain every day until Friday.  We left South Dakota right before the big wild fires started up not more than 40 miles from our hotel.  Good timing I suppose.

I had a bad headache last night.  I ended up going to bed early but not being able to fall asleep until really late.  I want to try to have a good time this weekend but the frequency of my headaches has been odd to say the least.  Ibuprofen did the trick last night but not until almost an hour later.  Who knows if it even worked or the pain went away on it’s own.  It did help my neck ache though.

I feel like I’m rambling more than anything on the blog these days.  I have a lack of constructive posts like I used to do.  I never intended this blog to be a public service announcement-type of blog but more of a stream of consciousness deal.  Still doesn’t negate the fact I feel like a babbling idiot :).

Tazz and I just got back from a road trip to South Dakota. We had a lot of fun but my headaches weren’t exactly helpful. For the first time in the past few years, my headaches did not decrease while being at a different location than Milwaukee. Usually I notice a drop in frequency of the headaches when in a different climate, etc but this time they were worse. I found myself taking Ibuprofen and Excedrin at least twice to three times a day with most of it being ineffective.

I didn’t let it dampen my spirits though. We still did quite a bit while we were there and ended up having fun. I drove the entire way and back by my own choice. I like driving for some reason. I really missed our dog for some reason this trip and was happy to have him come back from Tazz’s mom’s place today. I’m still in a “funk” since our return. I think it’s a little bit of post-vacation depression as well as just being worn out. My stomach hasn’t been too well either from all of the dining out at restaurants. I’m trying to make today be my day to catch up on things but I just haven’t been able to do it. This post is one of 100 things I need to do.

I’m reading a book for a programming language certification exam for work. If I pass and get certified, I get an automatic increase in my salary. I have every reason to read it and I actually do enjoy doing it. For some reason, I can’t find the motivation to keep me going. I’m either tired, or having an ADHD moment, or having a headache. Frustrating, very frustrating.

I have pictures from our trip on my Flickr photostream in case you’re interested. It was fun. We go camping in two weeks with two of our friends which should be fun. I am asking the gods for colder temperatures; being in the banks of the Mississippi River with muggy 90 degree weather equals many many bugs.

Well, the first storm of the month has passed; meaning my first week traveling for work went okay.  It was very warm and required a lot of walking and using stairs.  I easily lost weight this past week, which kind of makes it a good week.  I spent most of the time working on site and sleeping.  I didn’t have much time to myself.

The headaches weren’t around much until Friday.  Around 10am, I noticed a headache starting.  I only had two Tylenol on me which helped a little.  When my boss and I were in the airport around 3pm, it hit me like a fridge.  Right around when we sat down to wait for our plane, I couldn’t handle it any more.  I went and got a soda for both of us and spent $7.99 on a little bottle of Excedrin.  Stupid here checked all my meds.  When I got back I told my boss I felt like I was getting a migraine.  Up until this point, I have not mentioned any “ailments” to my boss or coworkers.

What shocked me is he responded with, yeah I get those too.  Talk about relief.  He’s had migraines since he was 10 years old, making nearly 40 years of his life affected by migraines.  How shitty.  He and I talked about our migraines and realized we actually had something in common outside of work.  It was nice to feel like I didn’t have to hide it any more from him.

The headache didn’t go away for almost two hours.  I haven’t had a headache like this since fall.  I felt like I was going to throw up on the airplane.

I go back again tomorrow morning.  It’s nice working somewhere other than my cubicle, but I don’t think I can handle a career doing this very often.  This was an evaluation for me as well for a new type of job.  We’ll see where it goes.

We’ve had snow all this week and I can honestly say that I did miss it. We had the blizzard at the beginning of December but that all melted within a week. We did go for a walk last night with the dog but it was a trite cold. We both had ski masks on and even with that and long underwear, the 15 degree temperature was obvious. We’re trying to stick with walking 3-4 times a week to help with our blood pressure and weight.

At work I got a “healthy update” e-mail describing how to calculate body mass index, or BMI for short. It tells you if you’re too fat and should feel worse about yourself. If you’d like to feel worse as well, do the following: Divide your weight, in pounds, by your height, in inches, two times. Multiply that answer by 703. Example: 200lbs & 6′2″ height = 200 / 74 / 74 * 703 = 25.68. Then compare your result with the following table:

Below 18.5 Underweight
18.5 – 24.9 Healthy Weight
25.0 – 29.9 Overweight
30.0 – 40.0 Obese

I ended up in the tip the scale category. I can’t remember if I mentioned it before, but my new employer is basing next year’s health insurance deductible on four separate readings: blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, and smoking indication. Tazz and I are working on the weight which should help keep the high peaks off my blood pressure. I am taking medication for that but I think it’s not enough. We’re still not smoking which is good because you can’t have smoked for a year in order to sign an affidavit to the effect that you don’t smoke. I think it’s just illegal to do something like this but I can see their motivation. If you’re doing something about your health, then you pay less. If you chose to do nothing then you pay more. I did make sure that even if your numbers were high you could still get the discounts if you get a note from a doctor saying you’re under a treatment plan or it’s just genetic and will always be high.

Anybody else have Health Risk Assessments (HRAs) at their work? I’d be curious to hear how migraines will factor into this whole deal.