Author: heiditea

Tea Lover

Migraines

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I’m discovering I have different types of migraines. It wasn’t until my cousin Debbie, who is an aneurysm survivor, said she only had ocular migraines and didn’t get them until after her coiling, that I realized I am getting them too. Upon further investigation online, I’m pretty sure that IS what I’m getting because I had one last night. Of course, in my first meeting with my neurologist, I didn’t really delve into that, nor did she mention ocular migraines when I mentioned how my eyes get funky, then after 20 minutes, they’re okay.

On the Cleveland Clinic website it said this:
Ocular migraine can produce various degrees of vision loss or obstruction. Some patients, says Dr. Mays, report blind spots or “holes,” referring to missing sections in the normal visual field, or they may experience a shade of black or gray over the visual field. Some people compare the visual phenomena of ocular migraine to the patterns produced by an old television with faulty reception, says Dr. Mays. “Others say it’s like looking through watery glass.” Ocular migraine symptoms are temporary and do not harm the eye; but they can interfere with daily activities, such as reading and driving and can interrupt the work day.

Since 1976, I have suffered with the horrible Aura migraines which have effected every female member of my immediate family, other than my niece thankfully.

What I do not know yet, is if this is the only type of migraine I’ll experience now since my annie. Wishful thinking on my part probably. The difficult part will be figuring out what is an aura migraine and what is an ocular migraine because I need to take pills immediately upon those first visual symptoms of the aura migraine in order for the pills to kick and take effect. Should be fun! NOT!

I had a long, tiring day yesterday with a lot of talking and being talked to a lot at work. My brain worked overtime and I was exhausted when I got home. The eyes started in around 9:30 with the shades of black & gray over my right eye. I closed my eyes for about 15 minutes, took two Tylenol, but thankfully it dissipated within the next 10 minute with no pain. I like that they’re temporary and don’t have the pain of the aura migraines. I can handle that.

Neurologist

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I had my first appointment with my new neurologist this afternoon.

#1, I really liked her. The receptionist, on the other hand, has the personality of a piece of cardboard!! Thankfully, she wasn’t who I was meeting with. She frightened me!

The Dr. usually goes over your X-rays with you and usually gets films, but because I received mine all on CD, she had to bring in her laptop and we huddled together to look through all the images from Oct., Nov and the angiogram just done a week or so ago. Again, as it was in November, I’m amazed at how big the annie was. 1.2 cm she said, which freaked me out because they told me it was 11 mm…she said that IS 11mm. I’m confused! LOL Why can’t they just say it in inches or less?!?

She was pleased with how things looked as well and answered a lot of questions for me that Dr. Kwan didn’t want answer, so I feel much better.

Just because we’ve all had migraines, doesn’t mean you’ll get, or have an aneurysm. She said there is no relationship. She said many, many people get migraines and do not have annies and vice versa. She said smoking & hereditary is the biggest risk for getting an aneurysm. Although she said there is no conclusive evidence on 2nd-hand smoke, she was glad to hear I wasn’t a smoker and have never been as that would continue to be the biggest risk for my getting another annie. Not that getting another one is completely ruled out.

She said there were no issue with taking long hot baths or getting a message. So I’m fine with the tub and she also said there should be no issue with continuing my OMT therapy on my neck with the regular Dr. Good! I need it!

I asked her what the biggest risk to my existing aneurysm was. She said the main thing I SHOULDN’T do was become a weight lifter and lift very heavy things. Like moving that 100lb table by myself! I said there was no chance of my doing either and that I’d take it easy when it comes to lifting or moving heavy things. Sorry Dave! 🙂

Dr. Yanoschak also said I was at no risk for developing any eye degradation due to the annie (other than normal issue that are computer and age related) and that I wasn’t at any greater risk for having a stroke than anyone else. High blood pressure can still be an issue, but I haven’t ever had an issue with that.

I asked her about rides at Disney. Not that we have any trips planned there, but just in case! She said anything that jerks my head too badly and has horrible drops in atmosphere (no Tower Of Terror Dave!) should be off limits. Thunder Mountain Railroad should be fine. She’s been there and remembered a lot of the rides. No big roller-coasters with extreme drops. Oh, darn!

One thing I’m “happy” about is that she’s a migraine sufferer herself, so she understands migraines and their effects. I asked her what I’m calling my pseudo migraines as well as my sinus pain. I told her every-time the weather changes dramatically, my head, skull and neck just kills me. She said it’s a migraine because she gets them at those times as well!! I always thought it was sinus but it makes more sense now. I was never stuffed up with congestion and no runny nose or anything. She said they’re migraines! I said they weren’t what I would normally call a migraine and she said you can get different kinds even if you’ve suffered with the biggies for years. She asked me what I took when I had this “sinus” pain. I said “sinus pills”. She asked if they helped…I said “NO!”. So the next time I”ll take something else. She recommended “Alieve” for those headaches if I didn’t want to do the Excedrin Migraine pills for those. I’ll give those a try next time and see. I’m curious now and think she might be on to something there.

She also told me that the other higher octane migraine meds currently out there can be blood thinning agents and wouldn’t recommend them for me with my annie. She said the Excedrin would be fine even though the aspirin in it makes my heart race.

I’m glad I have someone nearby to go to should I need some questions answered or if I have some issues. She’s not out of Scarborough, but simply leases the building from Dr. D’Angelo’s outfit. It’s very nice and the drive back there on First Park Drive is very nice. She used to work in Philly and go burned out on the big city. She’s about my age I think and very nice. Now if I could just get her another receptionist!

I told her about the odd numbness in my hand that pops in occasionally. She wants me to try and record what I was doing when it happens again. When she was testing my reflexes and hit my elbow on that right arm with the hammer, my right hand tingled big time. It might be a little bit of carpal tunnel, so we’ll see. She wants to see me in six months…October.

So, overall, a good appointment. She said she deals mainly with aneurysms and migraines. She answered a lot of questions and the sinus/migraine issue is fascinating! I’ll be curious to see if Aleve does just that…Aleve!

First Full Week of Work

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I did it….well, ALMOST! I worked a full week, but worked from home on Thursday due to a snow storm. The other four days, it was 8:00 to 4:30 for the first time since last October.

My eyes get very tired easily still and physically I get tired, but not too bad. I have finally forced myself to get up and get away from my computer, even if it’s for 10 minutes. That seems to help. I’ve been eating better the last several weeks. No eating as much sugar and flour products and I think that’s helping as well. I don’t FEEL as tired that’s for sure.

It has been a long six months, but I’ve come a long, long way. I’m proud of myself. I feel like I should celebrate in some fashion…take myself out to dinner or buy myself a bouquet of flowers and have them sent to work or something. Maybe I’ll just make myself some scones to celebrate on Easter weekend. Yeah, that’ll probably be it.

I still get caught up in the daily frustrations of the company and my coworkers. That will never change. I’m TRYING to just realize there are important things to get upset about and there are unimportant things that shouldn’t take up that much of my energy. It’s a hard lesson to learn. Old habits die hard, but things have been worse. My life could have been much worse as a result of the annie, but I’m still here and I should remember that I’m actually very lucky to be experiencing the day-to-day “crap” in the work world. I know I missed the daily human contact with others while I was homebound.

It’s very difficult for me in the mornings when I say good morning to say someone and they say “What’s so good about it”, or anything else that’s negative to not get into their face and say “You have a job! You’re walking, talking, thinking and breathing! You’re ALIVE…now shut up!”. We take so much for granted on a daily basis. I’m guilty and I’m sure are too. Take advantage of, and live your life to the fullest. If you have wanted to take the quick weekend getaway? Do it! If you want to spend a day at a spa? Do it! Treat yourself. You only have one life.

Angiogram Results

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I had my six-month angiogram checkup of my aneurysm yesterday. It was an early morning, having to leave at 5:15 to be there at 7:00 in the morning.

I didn’t sleep a wink the night before. Partly due to being nervous, the noisy wind outside, and possibly eating that orange and power bar at 10! I couldn’t eat anything after midnight, so I tried to eat something later that night.

It was odd being back at Maine Medical again. Some memories were brought back. Some pleasant, some not so much, but at least I was arriving under my own power this time!

Around 7:45 or so, I was wheeled into the operating room. I have been here before, but didn’t really remember it. I was barely awake when I had arrived back in Oct, so I asked a bunch of questions and watched as the team was getting ready to perform the procedure. Fascinating.

They went into the same artery in the groin where my previous angio-gram and the coiling was done. It was quite painful when the initial shots and  insertions were made, but after that I never felt the catheter only the inks being injected and the heat and other sensations they created.

One time they had informed me I might see lightening over my left eye. Sure enough…there is was!! A small sprinkling of brightly colored lightening in my left eyeball! Odd and strangely neat all at the same time. I kept my eyes closed the entire time. I was under mild sedation and pain killers so I could respond to them to hold my breath, etc.

Everything went fine until they tried to insert an angioseal into the puncture wound. It didn’t work, but by God, Dr. Kwan TRIED! As a result, he had to pull it back out and put a regular plug in which meant more pain and more pushing. It was not pleasant. He said next time he would NOT use the angioseal. Thank you!! LOL

Dr. Kwan was able to read the xrays during the procedure and tell me right there on the table that everything looked great. The fear I had was that the aneurysm would have enlarged in some fashion or the coils would start to pack down leaving a space between the coils and the outside of the annie OR that he’d find another annie or something else of interest. He found none of that thank God. And it was great to finally hear
that and to know that my sinus issues were just that…sinus and not brain related.

I have read on some occasions that people had head and pain issues misdiagnosed as sinus when they were really annies, so I was really, really nervous a new annie had popped up somewhere. Nope, just my blasted sinus.

Because Dr. Kwan could not use the angioseal, I had to spend four hours in recovery after the operation. The seal would have cut it down to two.

The main issues were to keep my leg straight and flat and do not lift my head. They only raised it about 30Âş and that was it.  My sinus were bothering me too, so I had pain from the puncture and pain from my head. I took the opportunity to lay there and rest….like I had a choice anyway!

Dave stayed with me and cut up a sandwich for me to eat and helped me drink some liquids so I wouldn’t choke on them which would have been bad. He has been so fantastic the past six months. I’m very lucky and I know it.

Once the four hours were up, the nurse got me right up on my feet to test the vertical waters. I was quite wobbly, but not too bad. Sitting down was painful. Anytime I creased that area of the groin was painful. Sitting and moving my leg was pretty painful. Still is today, but not as bad.

I got dressed and we were home by 3:00. I called my family back in NY to give them the good news, but couldn’t sleep yet. I hopped on the computer, ate something then started to fade around 8:30 after putting ice on my puncture site and taking a vicadin. I slept like a baby.

The last six months have been a a kind of uneasy anticipation of this six-month test. It was so hard to know if every headache, numb finger, eye ache, neck ache, and onset of fatigue was still related to the original annie, or if something new had popped up. This was a huge relief and now I feel I can get on with my life again. A huge, huge relief.

It still doesn’t mean something down the road could potentially develop, because I AM at risk, but for this annie, at this moment…it’s good.

As my friend Julie from the message boards reminded me in a poem she and I both posted separately:

“…I am no longer waiting for
The other shoe to drop;
It already did, and I survived…”

Thanks to reasons I don’t know or understand, and God guiding Dr. Kwan’s careful hand, I survived.