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Archive for February, 2008

Door Injury Prevents Typing

After slamming it in a door, hard, my finger is so swollen and numb that I can’t type much. I reimbursed myself for pain and suffering by buying the cute scarf I went in for. I’ll see next week if it was a fair trade.

Is Chronic Daily Headache Easier to Live With Than Migraine?

Sometimes I think coping with chronic daily headache is easier than with migraine. I have both but lately have focused on migraine in life and on this blog. Time to remedy that.
Predictability is in chronic daily headache’s favor. I wake up each morning with some degree of headache. Sometimes it will be a full-blown migraine, [...]

Headache & Pain Blog Carnivals

Check out February’s blog carnivals on headache and pain. Somebody Heal Me is hosting the Headache Blog Carnival, which is about migraine and romance. The Pain Blog Carnival is up at How to Cope With Pain.

Oliver Sacks Answers New York Times Migraine Blog Readers’ Questions

Renowned writer and neurologist Oliver Sacks describes non-visual auras, correlations between migraine and memory loss, migraine’s connection to strange dreams and more in Answers to Reader Questions on the New York Times migraine blog. Inquiries and responses aren’t about medical advice, but less frequently discussed components of migraine.
Topics covered:

Non-visual auras (like hallucinating or distorting sounds [...]

Trouble Thinking on Topamax? Study Finds “Language Disturbances”

Migraine preventive Topamax (topiramate) has long been associated with trouble thinking, hence the widely used nickname of Dopamax. A recent study indicates that some people have trouble with language while taking Topamax. Some “language disturbances,” as the authors call it, include:

Finding words
Substituting a word with another unrelated word
Taking forever to get a thought out
Meshing words
Naming [...]

Sunny Weather = Fewer Migraines? The Everlasting Hunt for Triggers

Yummy food, Rock Band, neighborhood walks, warm weather. Mild chronic daily headache levels and nothing more than moderate migraine symptoms. That’s what the last four days have been like for me. I’ve been so happy.
Is the convergence a coincidence? The good mood and beautiful weather certainly go together; the mild pain and weather do, too. [...]

Helping Others Understand: A Letter to People Without Chronic Pain

Wish that your friends, family and coworkers had a better idea of what you’re going through? This anonymous letter has circulated on forums and by e-mail for a few years, but is always worth repeating.

Letter to people without chronic pain:
Having chronic pain means many things change, and a lot of them are invisible. Unlike having [...]

Waylaid by Nausea, Dizziness

Waves of dizziness and nausea have visited me intermittently since yesterday. Working on the computer is making me feel worse, so this is today’s post. I hope to be back to blogging and responding to the forum and e-mail tomorrow.
Take care.

Treating Depression With Music Therapy (and Lifting a Funk With the Dave Matthews Band)

I was in a horrible mood the day before I emerged from hibernation. Disgruntled, “a state of sulky dissatisfaction,” according to the Visual Thesaurus, is too mild a word, but combined with gloom and self-hatred it paints the picture. I made it through the day OK, but was out of my mind by evening. Hart [...]

Migraine’s Visual Aura & Hallucinations on the New York Times Migraine Blog

The deep explorations of visual aura and hallucinations in the two latest entries on the New York Times migraine blog provide education far beyond what most migraineurs encounter; including one who writes about headache disorders and migraines nearly every day (me!). Check out the following posts to expand your knowledge.
Patterns
Acclaimed writer and neurologist [...]