Dealing With Headaches

Two years ago, my Mom almost died from Staph-A contracted from a dirty needle at a doctor’s private office. Thankfully, she was saved by an emergency crew at a hospital where the evil doctor does not work. Lawyers have told us that it will be impossible to prosecute this doctor because it would be impossible to prove the needle was dirty. (Long story).

Anyway, if you are entering a hospital or or at a doctor’s office getting blood tests for whatever reason, you need to speak up when you know the medical people working on you are screwing up. They are not perfect and you are just one of a thousand patients they will see that day. Scream bloody murder should any of the following happens:

• The nurse/doctor will not wash their hands
• The nurse/doctor drops a needle on the floor and picks it up to use it on you anyway
• The nurse/doctor does not clean the injection site prior to injecting you
• The nurse/doctor calls you by the wrong name
• The nurse/doctor is about to give you a new medication you are allergic to. Never assume they know what drugs you are allergic to. If you are conscious, you must have them tell you what drugs they are about to give you

This clip was made by the New Jersey chapter of AARP and focuses on a surgical error, but it can work for just about any other state or country. Doctors and pharmacists do not have to report any errors they perform, even years later when the error is confirmed. So, until some laws change, you have to look out for yourself when in a doctor’s office or hospital.

In what’s now being called the “Day of Reckoning” speech (or even the “Dropping out of high school is no longer an option” speech), last night President Barack Obama thundered for health care reform plans by the end of 2009. Although these faux-State of the Union speeches are marred by continual cheesy standing ovations, both of America’s major political parties got to their feet for this one.

What Was Good

As Presidential speeches go, this one was a corker. It was great to hear promises to close Guantanamo Bay, commit to fighting climate change and repeal the tax cuts for the wealthiest 2% of the nation. It was also great to hear someone at the podium proving that they have a brain in their heads instead of dollar signs. It was also a relief that he didn’t dwell on the historical occassion of the speech or racism but just went right on into talking about.

And, of course, it was great to hear that he wanted health care reform plans to put into action by the end of 2009.

What Was Bad

18,000 Americans die each year due to lack of health care. An American goes bankrupt every minute because of health care costs. I didn’t hear any definate details on how health care will be changed. And I didn’t hear any condemnation of health insurance companies or Big Pharma that charge such outrageous prices even though it leads to suffering and death.

An easy way to pay for universal health care would be to put price caps on CEO salaries, ban televison drug advertising and caps on drug costs. Well, let’s see what happens. Yet another year of crossing my fingers.

This is one reason why I don’t date anymore — it’s too damn dangerous. But if I was tempeted, I’ll think I’ll get a hairweave before diving back into the dating game. Why? Read on:

Love Hurts — Literally

Briana Bonds, a 20 year old Kansas City woman was approached by a freind of her ex, asking if she would give his ex another chance. (Ah, the Cyrano de Bergerac approach!) She rebuffed him, telling him that she didn’t love her ex anymore anymore. He responded to this insult of his friend by pulling out a gun and firing four or five times at her head. (Ah, the Carmen approach.)

Briana Bonds drove to the police with a pounding headache. The headache was not due to stress — it was due to a bullet. But where was the bullet? Police found it in her hairpiece, which stopped the bullet from entering her skull, so just escaping with a headache isn’t such a bad deal.

Police arrested both the ex and the gun-wielding friend. That’s probably when Bond’s headache stopped.

Screw Kevlar! Does the Army know about this?

Guess What American Women Want For Christmas

Bonds claims she had the hair weave for years and also claims that God protected her than night. (Athough it would have been a tad more convienient if God made sure she never met the ex in the first place.)

But could a hairweave ever become bullet proof? Arguments are flying about on the Internet as to whether the hairweave was touched by an angel or the assailiant was a particularly bad shot.

A happy thought for a Monday, I’m sure. But if you are a woman with migraines, you can’t take your heart health for granted. You will be more prone to having heart attacks and strokes than women who don’t have migraines. Yet more proof that life is not fair.

But why do women migraineurs have more strokes and heart attacks? New research from America may find that the culprit is a gene varaint called angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) D/I polymorphism. (Can’t exactly make a greeting card poem out of that one, can you?) It might not even be that particular variant, but another variation that is often found in women containing the aforementioned gene variant.

Damn, I need an Excedrin. And I really wish I had paid attention more in science class.

Study Specs

This research was a follow up to this study published in Neurology in July 2008. The study consisted of a questionnaire sent to 25,000 white women (why only white women, I have no idea). All of these women were tested to see if they had the gene variant with the really long name.

Of that 25,000, only 4,577 were migraineurs. Narrowing it down even further, 1,275 had migraine with aura and 625 had a heart attack or a stroke. There was an initial hypothesis that women that had migraines with aura were more prone to stokes and heart attacks than women that have migraines without aura, but that didn’t pan out.

Practical upshot: more research needs to be done.

In The Meantime

You know the drill — quit smoking, limit alcohol intake, eat a low-fat, varied diet, exercise regularly and work on non-chemical means of stress management — like not trying to understand these genetic research papers.

I’m going to be honest and beg the blogosphere for information of psoriasis and earache. I have psoriasis and now it seems to have spread to my right ear. It causes a dull ache, but not bad enough to keep me awake at night. And of course, this kind of stuff always has to happen on a weekend when my doctor is off.

(Hey — it’s an ache in the head — it counts as a topic for this blog.)

What Is Psoriasis

Psoriasis is one of those conditions that I think was described as afflicting sinners in the first layer of Hell in Dante’s Inferno. It’s like itchy skin dandruff, only worse. It’s considered a problem of the body’s immune system. Most people who get psoriasis also wind up getting psoriatric arthritis.

Psoriasis can often be managed with creams, ointments, ultraviolet light therapies or medication. Some people find relief avoiding certain foods, sodas or alchoholic beverages, which can trigger outbreaks. One of the reasons I stopped eating red meat is that it seems to be a psoriasis trigger for me.

Also, treatments for eczema don’t work for psoriasis, althugh they can certainly soothe the itching.

Earache

According to the National Psoriasis Foundation, an outbreak of psoriasis can happen a few weeks after an ear infection. However, I can’t find anything about psoriasis covering an ear. and causing an ache. I’m assuming the ear ache I have is caused by psoriasis — I’m just guessing here.

This happen to anyone else? I’m thinking of putting the cream I use for my neck and eyebrows, but I don’t want to risk making it worse. Thanks in advance.

I think they probably get a lot of headaches in Bangledesh and not just because of the flooding or poverty. Before I comment further, here’s the YouTube clip and no, I don’t know who filmed this. Perhaps if someone sends this clip to Ellen DeGeneres, her magic elves can find out for us:

Anyone with chronic pain is sure to hide dark secrets about battles with trying to remove the lids from pill bottles. Just this morning, I was trying to remove a lid from a bottle of naxoproxen. It was one of those “line the two microscopic arrows up” option, which isn’t an option for me because I have monocular vision.

So, when the arrows weren’t aligned right, I pushed a little harder. That didn’t work, so I twisted the lid again and pushed even harder. Evntually, when I was considering beating the bottle up with a wooden stick ball bat, the lid popped off — and promptly flew off into my Mom’s leftover oatmeal.

It could’ve been worse. After one time losing a pill bottle lid to the toilet, I’ve never made the mistake of opening up a pill bottle in the bathroom or restroom stall again.

Prescription Lids

It’s a little easier for me with prescription medication because at most pharmacies you can request real lids on pill bottles instead of “child proof” lids. I also urge you to not throw out these lids. Toss the bottles but keep the lids in case you happen to get a prescription pill bottle with a really crappy lid.

What To Do With Empty Pill Bottles

When I was homeless, plastic pill bottles had a function to keep a campfire going. But now that I live in a house, I can’t burn the plastic bottles. So, I went surfing to see what other folks have figured out what to do with their empty pill bottles:

• Make a snowman ornament with them
• Deathrap for ambrosia beetles
• A way to see the light.

Hope this helps.

Many migraineurs are prescribed beta-blockers taken daily in order to prevent migraines. This is an off-label use, but many migraineurs have benefited. Now, a Dutch study has come out suggesting that beta-blockers may have another potential off-label use — blocking bad memories in the brain.

Study Specs

The study was on 60 people with a laboratory-induced phobia. 30 of them were given propranolol (stuff I was on for a month, but my body hated it) and the other a placebo. They tested how startled a person was by flashing a picture up of the thing they had been conditioned to hate.

Conditioned to hate? These 60 were given “mild electric shocks” whenever pictures of spiders were flashed before them, in the hopes of creating bad memories with spiders (or pictures of spiders). I thought getting mild electric shocks would condition you to hate medical researchers and not spiders, but that’s why I don’t volunteer for these things.

Anyway, the propranolol group were far less started by pictures of spiders than the placebo group. The theory is that the beta blocker has somehow blocked the way the brain processes attaching emotionas to memories, particularly bad ones. The participants claimed that they still could remember being shocked when shown pictures of spiders, it just didn’t seem all that frightening to them.

Also, the researchers say that more work needs to be done before anyone with a severe phobia or post traumatic stress could be helped by this.

More Harm Than Good?

Although I’m not a doctor, I think I can safely claim that it’s never a good idea to take medications you really don’t need to take. There’s also concerns over whether taking a pill to block out bad memories may also block out good memories. There is also a concern that this may predispose someone to Alzheimer’s.

If you are concerned about long term side effects with beta blockers for your migraine prevention, then talk to your doctor. Don’t just stop them, because then you will get a migraine, and that will definately leave a bad memory.

I’m currently doing articles on 75 artists for another client. (Finally, my Studio Arts minor has come in handy). These artists run all over the mill, from well knowns like Michelangelo to those I’d never heard of like Jean Arp. My personal tastes run more to Andrew Wyeth and his son Jamie Wyeth (who didn’t make the list, darnit), but I can appreciate the more abstract and primative artists’ creations like those of Mark Rothko.

I had heard the usual criticisms of such-and-such artis as “his paintings give me headaches” and I thought it was just one of those snobbish things art critics love to say. But did I ever get a blinder from the works of artist, art theorist and accomplished musician Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944).

Music and Art

If you love Kandinksy, I’m not trying to change your mind. By all means, continue the love. He definately had a unique style. If I understand his mature works correctly, he painting to communicate in pure color and swirls to be the visual equiquivelent of instrumental music. So, he abandoned all attempts to make any recogniseable images.

If you get headaches from flashing of flickering lights, I’ll bet some of Kandinsky’s works like Sketch II for Composition VII will literally hit you in the eyes. (Put on sunglasses before clicking the link).

Am I Looking Too Hard?

I’ve never been able to just glance at a painting or drawing. I wind up staring at it. I try to see the brush strokes or if that squiggle reminds me of a horse or is the painting looking back at me? It’s a bit like not being able to hear a song played on the radio without paying attention to the lyrics.

So, the odds are that the headaches from looking at Kandinsky are caused by my brain strain and not paintings by Kandinsky.

Got a spare tire — (and I don’t mean the kind you can find in the boot of your car?) If you do, and you are between 20 - 55, chances are that you also have migraines, no matter if you are a man or a woman. This is the conclusion of a study of 22,211 human guinea pigs done by prestigious Drexel Hill University’s College of Medicine.

How Fat Is Too Fat?

The particular kind of fat that the Drexel researchers looked at was belly fat and not general fat or even how obese a person was. They measured belly fat by measuring the circumference of a person’s waists.

However, obesity does give you serious health problems such as heart disease, diabetes and problems breathing. So, you stil need to loose it if you are overweight or obese. (Wait … that sentence didn’t come out right … oh, never mind …)

Women migraineurs with abdominal fat were 37% more likely to get more migraines than women migraineurs without abdominal fat. In men, the odds were 20%.

Must Love Migraineurs

If you already have migraines, and then grow a spare tire, then you will be likely to have a greater frequency of migraines. If you don’t have migrains and get a spare tire, then — you get a spare tire and some sniggers behind your back. If only the cause of migraines was that easy…

The study also noted that it was aware that women and men’s body fat tends to store in different areas of the body. They also noted that women are still three times more likely than men to suffer from migraines.

I’ve been saving this bizarre YouTube clip just for Valentine’s Day, a time of dread for migraineurs in committed relationships where you are expected to fulfill large expectations, whether you have a migraine or not.

There have been many, many people who have posted this on YouTube, but the picture quality has been really bad on most of them. So, (I say, wincing) this was the best version I could find. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the clip.

I do not know what comedy skit show this was nabbed from, although I think it may have originated in Canada. I’m not sure why. Perhaps it’s the way the bedroom is decorated. Please keep in mind that this clip is rated PG-13.

Of course, the wife could probably cure her headaches by getting rid of her husband. I know my rate of migraines dipped noticeably as soon as I kicked out my last lover. Oh sure, there’s that brief time when you sob and wail because your heart is broken and then, you know what? You get over it. Not only that, but you feel healthier, too, and sleep better and can eat what you want without someone saying, “You going to finish that?”

There really should be a clinical study put out on how much better men and women feel about a year they get divorced. It doesn’t even need to be funded by Big Pharma. Just get a few law firms to do fund it.

Hope this helps.

Only on the blogosphere do migraines and sex go together. Most times migraine pain makes sex impossible, although a few migrainers claim that the release of the orgasm can help temporarily relieve pain. If you are having sex and suddenly get the worst migraine you ever have, then call an ambulance.

On that happy metal image, let us now turn to the February 2009 edition of the Headache and Migraine Blog Carnival, hosted by the lovely and talented Diana Lee over at Somebody Heal Me. A blog carnival, once again, is a selection of blogposts that all loosely revolve around a particular theme.

And yes, there’s one from me entitled Sex, Orgasms, Headaches.

Highlights

This is the time in the post where I announce my personal favourites among the seven entries. As always, this is not meant to slight any blogger in any way. These are picked solely on my personal tastes (or lack thereof).

• Jasmine over at Jasmine’s Cove gets the Best Title Award for Tonight Dear! I Have A Headache. The article itself is funny, sexy and practical (as well as the comments afterwards.
• The “let’s get right to the point” award goes to Headache During Sex over at Headache Advisor. Covers the topic from a variety of angles.
• The “‘Depends Who You Ask” award for Megan Oltman’s Migraine Consolation, which asks the question “Either it’s just a god-awful mess, or you have to spread out a towel and wear rubber gloves, and really, how sexy is that?”

Next Month’s Topic

Diana is accepting submissions for next month’s topic - “Advice for Creating a Migraine-Friendly Living Environment” due of Fraday, March 6. Your blog does not have to be solely realted to migraines or headaches, but the particilar post should have something to do with it. There’s no money, but it sure brings traffic to your blog.

When I moved back home with my Mom, she hadn’t quite remembered that I had migraines. At one point, she was convinced I had carbon monoxide poisoning and so got a carbon monoxide detector, which of course showed that the carbon monoxide level in the house was okay (except when the dog ran by it, for some reason, then that would set it off.) I’m not sure why she thought I had carbon monoxide poisoning while she didn’t, but that’s a subject for another blog post.

But Seriously

But one of the first symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning is a very severe headache. Soon after that (depending on how much carbon monoxide you’re inhaling), you get nausea, dizzy, sleepy and disorentated. You really need to get help before the mental confusion sets in, or you’re screwed.

This kind of headache comes on suddenly and tends to cause pain on both sides of the head. I did have carbon monoxide poisoning twice in my life that I know of (looong story), and that was the pain I felt. The doses I was exposed to were apparently quite high, so my experience may be atypical.

Low Dose Exposure

Usually, when you hear about some poor soul dying of carbon monoxide poisoning, they were sitting in a car with the engine on. They fell asleep and that’s that.

It is possible to get very low doses of carbon monoxide over a long period of time and not die quickly like people in running cars. In this case, you feel like you have the flu, including headaches and nausea.

I’m seriously thinking of switching my perscriptions over from a bricks-and-mortar store to an online pharmacy. But you hear about the dangers of online meds every week, or so it seems. The fears are that the medicines will be sugar pills, out of date or mixed up with some dangerous ingredients.

But online pharmacies have worked very well for pet medication. These online pet pharmacies do require a veterinarian’s prescription in order for them to send anything. And reputable human online pharmacies work the same way.

Say Hello to VIPPS

If there’s a lot of money in it, there must be some sort of organization associated with it. In this case, the organization is VIPPS (Verified Internet Pharmany Practice Sites). A legitamate online pharmacy not only requires you to send a prescription, but they also will be listed as certified by VIPPS.

Still Delete All Spam

The same rules still apply when it comes to all of those fun spam emails you get that clog your inbox like plague in a blood vessel. They shouldn’t come to you — you need to go to them. If you eer get an email from an address you don’t recognise, delete it — and then delete your delete file.

Same thing goes for any pop-up windows or for any tempting messages promising deep discounts on medications on forums or chat rooms. Don’t click on any links.

The only time an online pharmacy should contact your via email is because you contacted them first.

What About The Cost?

You won’t necessarily save money by using an online pharmacy, but if you don’t live close to a pharmacy or are house-bound, this may be a viable alternative.

Hope this helps.

People with migraines or chronic headaches tend to have other chronic pain and need to take painkillers. One of the most powerful painkillers on the market, Darvocet (active ingredient propoxyphene), which is already banned in some countries like the United Kingdom, is now on the road to be banned in the United States. Darvocet also is known by the brand name Darvon. The worry is that Darvocet can make someone with non-sucidial tendecies suddenly up and commit suicide or accidental death. Another worry is that Darvocet just doesn’t work, or only works as a placebo.

Come Again?

Since Darvocet’s introduction in 1957, the Federal Drug Administration has reports of 1400 accidental deaths or suicides that they feel was caused by Darvocet. The FDA set up a panel to investigate whether Darvocet should be banned (or phased out, as was done in the UK from 2005 - 2007).

The panel was set up after a watchdog group called Public Citizen petitioned the DA to re-evaluate their position on Darvocet and Darvon way back in February of 2006. That was their upteempth Darvocet petition, with the first being sent to the FDA in the 1970’s. They claim there has been over 2100 Darvocet-related deaths since 1981.

In the last days of January, 2009, the FDA panel recommended the ban.

Is This Good News or Bad News?

The jury is still out on whether this is good news or bad news. It kind of depends on your point of view. I remember that my Mom spent years trying to find a suitable arthritis painkiller after Vioxx got banned. Arthritis patients do not seem pleased.

Growing our own marijuana is looking REAL good now…