Dealing With Headaches

Hello, Gentle Readers. My apologies for the absence of the last two weeks. This was due to the technical problems on the part of 451 Press, the network this blog is on. Having blogs go up and down like yo-yos is part of the nature of the beast we call Blogging For Pay. So, if you were thinking that perhaps a new blogger was needed for Dealing With Headache, forget it.

Dealing with Downed Web Sites

I’ve had quite a lot of physical and metaphorical headaches trying to get things worked out. In case you ever get into a situation where you feel your server/network/web whatever has abandoned you, here are a few tips:

• Email the advertising department of the site, network or ISP. It doesn’t matter if you have a tech problem, just bring it to the attention of advertising and magically your email will be forwarded to the correct pair of eyeballs.
• Be a bitch, no matter what your gender. Although it’s no fun being a bitch, sometimes it’s the only way to get things done.
• Give yourself a certain time frame to freak about your dead website and then THAT’S IT. Fifteen minutes is generally good enough. It’s not the sky falling in huge bloody chunks, here — it’s just a website (even if it does mean that your income will drop substantiably for a while). Stress is good only up to a point, and then it becomes really unhealthy. Also, the stress can make you prone to shopping online and watching celebrity gossip television shows.
• Keep taking the medicine.
• Complain, complian, complain (self explanatory).
• Eat ice cream. Okay, that’s not the most practical of advice and it won’t get your website back up, but it works for me and makes you feel as if you are doing domething productive. Just dont eat it fast enough to get ice cream headache.

How’s the Head, Rena?

My head hasn’t been that brilliant, but I have just started taking yet another high blood pressure medication called verapamil, which I affectionately call velociraptor (hense the image at the top). More on verapamil in a future blog post — especially when I have a good idea of what it does to me. Right now, your bet is as good as mine.

Also, I have to burn the midnight oil in trying to write enough blog posts in order to make my monthly quota. This will be a good time for any fans of this blog … whoever you may be. Let’s see how many spelling errors slips by me in my blog this week! I would offer a prize for the person who finds the most spelling errors for this week, but then again, I’m not that great with spelling to begin with, so I probably wouldn’t know how to judge.

Onwards! And, since this is a blog, upwards!

It comes around so quickly, doesn’t it? And now we’re caught buying National Headache Awareness Week presents and have to listen to National Headache Awareness Week carols…

It’s June 1-7

Well, I suppose we don’t really have any carols or presents to give during National Headache Awareness Week. I wonder what celebrations and traditions should we do this week?

I know — if we meet anyone who says, “A headache isn’t so bad,” we smack them over the head will a ball-peen hammer. This will definately make them more aware of headaches in the nation.

My Health Insurance Company Hasn’t Forgotten

I know my health insurance company is celebrating National Headache Awarenwss Week by sending me information to drive me around the bend. Today, my mail was graced with a thick package about my prescription drug plan. this included a list of drugs approved to be covered by the health insurance company. It was entitled, logically, enough, “Approved Drug List”.

But then they also sent me an equally long list entitled “Non-Approved Drug List”.

Why?

I have two college degrees. Perhaps they know this and think that I’m too much of genuis to have any common sense left in my head (perhaps if I did, I wouldn’t get headaches). If I can’t find the name of the drug on the “Approved Drug List”, doesn’t it stand to reason that if it’s not on the list, it probably hasn’t been approved?

How many trees had to die to make up the “Non Approved Drug List”? And how much extra postage did it take to ship the “Non Approved Drug List”? I want to know, because I’m the one paying for the tree killing and the extra postage. I thought I’d be paying for doctor visits and Prozac, but how naive could I be?

And people wonder why I get migraines.

Off to bang my head against the keyboard now. That way it will hurt a lot less.

I went to my doctor today (Dr. Fountain of Youth Face) to get read the results of my bloodwork done last week. Included in that array of tests was an HIV test (commonly called an AIDS test). Considering my health had dipped (and that my last sexual partner turned out to be dipping into anything and everything that would give him half a can of Strongbow), I thought this was one test I would definately fail. Perhaps that’s one reason I had I had such a bad migraine earlier this week. I had been putting off having an HIV test since 2004 (when I left my last partner) and now I finally had to face the results.

After I got the results, my head hasn’t been giving me any bother today.

Anyway

So, I’m now on one medication for my migraines and one nutritional supplement for my eternal fatigue. The bloodwork shows I have iron-poor blood, so I’m now on an iron supplement (ferrus sulphate). Unfortuntely, I’ve discovered today (by an odd coincidence while reading Tea Bliss by Theresa Cheung) that black tea can hurt the body’s absorption of iron.

I don’t smoke. I don’t drink alcohol. I stopped gambling. Hell, I haven’t had sex since 2004. I am NOT giving up tea. If it’s a choice between feeling tired all of the time and my tea, I’ll stick with the tea.

But, what about the migraine medication? Well, I was given a choice of Imitrx or low-dose high blood pressure medication. Now, I have low blood pressure, but this medicine isn’t to affect my blood pressure. A notable side effect is that it can reduce the frequency and severity of chronic headaches and migraines. I chose the blood pressure medication, propranolol

Let’s see what happens, eh?

Not that I really care at this particular moment. I don’t have AIDS. I feel like making a T-shirt and running an ad in the Philadephia Inquirer.

(Not to be confused with the computer game series of the same name, but different spelling. Sorry — as I far as I know, they don’t do fully funded clinical trials for video games, although they probably should). If you were interested in joining the clinical trail for MIST II, forget it. NMT medical announced over the weekend that they were scrapping the clinical trial for heart holes being the cause of migraines in some people because they could no longer afford it. Instead, they will concentrate on just one major clinical trail, this one for strokes.

What Was MIST II?

MIST II wasn’t a clinical trial for a new medicine, but to prove that some people get migraines with auras because of PFO (patent pramen ovale, a genetic whoopsie of the heart often nicknamed “heart holes”. It’s not an incredibly serious genetic condition, but not something you wish upon a star to get.)

MIST II was to have backed up other studies done in the UK and America about closing the heart hole to give relief to those who get migraines with auras. One of the reasons that this clinical trial was scrapped is that far more people get strokes than have PFO and migraines with auras. NMT claims that out of over 1400 applicants since August 2006 for the MIST II trial, only a handfull passed the screening qualifications. So, they have decided that the trial had “little likelihood of being completed in a reasonable timeframe.”

NMT will also save at least $14 million (US).

In NMT’s favor, the odds of you getting a stroke rather than a PFO and migraines with auras is really high. It’s estimated that 750,000 people have a stroke just in America alone. NMT claims stroke is the leading cause of disbility in older Americans, and the American Heart Foundation (which has a sister group, the American Stroke Association) claims that stroke is the third leading cause of death in America.

In case you have migraines with auras, you should go to the doctor anyway, whether you also suspect you have PFO or not. PFO is a treatable condition with surgery.

Hope this helps.

This isn’t exactly a recall, but this is what the FDA calls “a public health warning”. The FDA issued a recall for the fentanyl pain patch on December 21. As far as I know, these weren’t made in China, but still can be dangerous. The fentanyl pain patch is sometimes used by migraineurs, (even though the FDA says you’re not suppossed to) so that’s why I’m giving you the news here. If you don’t use the pain patch to treat your migraines, go have a cookie and I’ll see you tomorrow.

What Is The Pain Patch?

This is a way of delivering a narcotic painkiller through skin absorption for those with a variety of chronic pains. This is NOT for temporary pain. This is for people who are not opiod-tolerant or who cannot take other kinds of heavy-duty pain medications. This is also for people who can tolerate a patch.

Ideally, a patch delivers painkillers bit by bit. Those intolerent to patches have the wonderful ability to absorb all of the painkiller or medication all at once.

The fentanyl pain patch also does not play well with some other medications. Anyone taking a pain patch (or any medication or alternative treatment) should tell their doctor all of the medicines or herbs or supplements they are currently on. For example, if you are taking anti-depressants, stay away from St John’s Wort, a potent herb known for it’s anti-depressant properties. The St. John’s Wort and the anti-depressants cancel each other out, so you wind up without any needed antidepressant at all.

What’s The Problem With The Patch?

Actually, the FDA does not recommend the pain patch for headaches or migraines, but notes that doctors will perscribe them for headaches or migraines, anyway. The FDA notes that there seems to be a general confusion as to how to use the pain patch.

The problem is that too much fentanyl can be absorbed into the bloodstream, which can kill you. Death is definately not recommended for maintaining good health. This is especially true when you place a heat source or a heating pad on the pain patch on your skin. You shouldn’t even go out into the hot sun when wearing a pain patch. Signs that you are in trouble include severe trouble breathing, shallow breathing and/or a fever of 102 degrees F or higher while wearing the patch.

Much thanks to Diana Lee over at her excellent blog, Somebody Heal Me, for the heads up. Go tell her thanks.

Hope this helps.