Sucksgiving weekend
I just realized how spotty my posting was this month. Sorry for that.
Well, here there has been sorta maybe good news and really crappy OMG what NOW?? news.
First, I think I figured out what's wrong with my head. For reals this time. Now I just have to convince the neurology resident and attending I see on the 9th to at least take my thoughts seriously enough to pursue the possibility. I figured this out when I was hit with the worst headache in forever on Thursday. When that front came through, my head felt like it was going to burst. You know when you get that squished head feeling as you dive underwater? About an hour after the front moved through, my head suddenly felt like I was sitting at the bottom of the pool. (Then again, the barometric pressure had increased from 29.70in to 30.20in in 24 hours, which is equivalent in the air of diving in water.) I started to have a headache like my brain was being squeezed out of my sinuses. My nose started to drip. I think I ended up with a minor leak of the cerebrospinal fluid from my brain out of my nose. It happens spontaneously on occasion. I had a spinal headache - one which gets better upon lying down and worse upon sitting up. The leakiness resolved, and my headache became one that didn't go away at all. I started researching what could possibly be wrong with me. One of the medications I was on, Diamox, is a diuretic used to treat glaucoma and altitude sickness. I stopped it recently because I ran out just before the holiday. I figured it wasn't helping me anyway, so it was okay to go ahead and discontinue it. I think being without it is what caused the blinding headache on Thursday-Friday. I looked at the dosing instructions online for Diamox, wondering if I just hadn't been taking enough to be truly helpful. Turns out that I might not have been. And one of the things it's used to treat: pseudotumor cerebri. Basically, it's a neurological disorder where the pressure in the brain is higher than normal, but there's no reason for it (like crowding in the brain because of a tumor or other problem). It affects mainly young women who are obese. *raises hand* This causes severe headaches, nausea, pain behind the eyes, and a buzzing in the ears that is synchronous with the pulse. All things I have. ALL THE TIME. This is me. Ironically, the treatment is Diamox. Just in a much higher dose than what I was on. So when I pick up my filled prescription tomorrow, I'm going to go back on it, and increase the dose somewhat to see if it fixes the problem. If so, then I know what I have.
You know, it's weird. I don't want a potentially serious diagnosis like this, yet I also do at the same time. I've had these headaches for years with no relief no matter what I tried. If this is the answer, then I finally have something I can point to and say, "SEE? I'm NOT crazy, I DO have a problem! I AM in pain! Here's the reason!!" I've felt like no one believes me about the toll this pain takes on me for a long time. Even Mom and Sis don't always take me seriously when I tell them I have a headache. Also, with a diagnosis, then there is an automatic course of treatment. There are clear-cut ways to proceed and fix the problem. No more guessing. No more trying things that don't work. (I told Mom the other night that it's like I've been in an episode of House for years. They know something's seriously wrong, but tests are normal yet other symptoms are cropping up. So they keep trying more and more treatments in the hope that something will work and tell them what the diagnosis really is, yet nothing is working. I'm hoping that I've had the Dr. House moment, when he stops in the middle of what he's doing and dashes off to the patient with the final and correct diagnosis and the treatment that will save the person's life.)
The bad news is that we are now being sued by the HOA where we live because the horrible bitchy neighbor next door is blatantly LYING to the HOA president and he's BELIEVING her without checking out our property himself. We're being accused of not trimming our bushes properly, and also keeping cats in cages outside. Neither of this is correct. (Well, the girls did live in a cage for about a month this summer, but have since been living in the bathroom, so that charge is completely bogus.) The bushes thing? We've maintained the property as it was when we got it. It was overgrown when we began renting it. We have kept it at that state. They now want us to severely crop everything back. This is something that we can't do ourselves. Mom's working all of the time and can't get up on ladders with her knees and back the way they are to trim the tops off of 8' bushes. Neither Sis nor I can do that, either. However, we can't hire someone to do it because we don't have enough money. I told Mom to call the landlord and explain the situation to him. I am going to try and start up my old computer and see if I can't pull the pictures I took of the house pre-Hurricane Ike off of them before it overheats and dies to prove what the house looked like right after we moved in. I pray that I can do it. What's really shitty is that the letter was sent to us on the 23rd. It didn't show up at the house until the 28th. Right when we couldn't do anything about it because EVERYONE'S GONE ON THANKSGIVING VACATION, ASSHOLES. I'm almost positive it was sent then on purpose, since we only were given 15 days from the date on the letter to remedy the situation, and, by not having mail service on Thursday, and then a holiday for the whole weekend, we were completely incapable of contacting anyone to come and trim the bushes, or to get ahold of the landlord, or the HOA president, as they're ALL ON VACATION UNTIL MONDAY. BASTARDS!!
Mom's totally freaked out. She's gone into complete panic mode. She's started to do that spiral thing where one tiny thing leads to something worse, which leads to something worse, until we're homeless and dying on the streets. It's at these times that I can't be around her at all, because my basic presence seems to set her off. I endured a merciless yelling attack Saturday evening. I held myself together until I walked upstairs and then collapsed outside my door, unable to deal with it anymore. I broke down in tears. Sis comforted me and has been taking care of the house since I am a complete mess between the physical pain and the emotional.
Some prayers and good thoughts sent my way (that the doctors finally figure out what's wrong with me, and that this situation with the house is resolved easily and with no problems) would be much appreciated.
Well, here there has been sorta maybe good news and really crappy OMG what NOW?? news.
First, I think I figured out what's wrong with my head. For reals this time. Now I just have to convince the neurology resident and attending I see on the 9th to at least take my thoughts seriously enough to pursue the possibility. I figured this out when I was hit with the worst headache in forever on Thursday. When that front came through, my head felt like it was going to burst. You know when you get that squished head feeling as you dive underwater? About an hour after the front moved through, my head suddenly felt like I was sitting at the bottom of the pool. (Then again, the barometric pressure had increased from 29.70in to 30.20in in 24 hours, which is equivalent in the air of diving in water.) I started to have a headache like my brain was being squeezed out of my sinuses. My nose started to drip. I think I ended up with a minor leak of the cerebrospinal fluid from my brain out of my nose. It happens spontaneously on occasion. I had a spinal headache - one which gets better upon lying down and worse upon sitting up. The leakiness resolved, and my headache became one that didn't go away at all. I started researching what could possibly be wrong with me. One of the medications I was on, Diamox, is a diuretic used to treat glaucoma and altitude sickness. I stopped it recently because I ran out just before the holiday. I figured it wasn't helping me anyway, so it was okay to go ahead and discontinue it. I think being without it is what caused the blinding headache on Thursday-Friday. I looked at the dosing instructions online for Diamox, wondering if I just hadn't been taking enough to be truly helpful. Turns out that I might not have been. And one of the things it's used to treat: pseudotumor cerebri. Basically, it's a neurological disorder where the pressure in the brain is higher than normal, but there's no reason for it (like crowding in the brain because of a tumor or other problem). It affects mainly young women who are obese. *raises hand* This causes severe headaches, nausea, pain behind the eyes, and a buzzing in the ears that is synchronous with the pulse. All things I have. ALL THE TIME. This is me. Ironically, the treatment is Diamox. Just in a much higher dose than what I was on. So when I pick up my filled prescription tomorrow, I'm going to go back on it, and increase the dose somewhat to see if it fixes the problem. If so, then I know what I have.
You know, it's weird. I don't want a potentially serious diagnosis like this, yet I also do at the same time. I've had these headaches for years with no relief no matter what I tried. If this is the answer, then I finally have something I can point to and say, "SEE? I'm NOT crazy, I DO have a problem! I AM in pain! Here's the reason!!" I've felt like no one believes me about the toll this pain takes on me for a long time. Even Mom and Sis don't always take me seriously when I tell them I have a headache. Also, with a diagnosis, then there is an automatic course of treatment. There are clear-cut ways to proceed and fix the problem. No more guessing. No more trying things that don't work. (I told Mom the other night that it's like I've been in an episode of House for years. They know something's seriously wrong, but tests are normal yet other symptoms are cropping up. So they keep trying more and more treatments in the hope that something will work and tell them what the diagnosis really is, yet nothing is working. I'm hoping that I've had the Dr. House moment, when he stops in the middle of what he's doing and dashes off to the patient with the final and correct diagnosis and the treatment that will save the person's life.)
The bad news is that we are now being sued by the HOA where we live because the horrible bitchy neighbor next door is blatantly LYING to the HOA president and he's BELIEVING her without checking out our property himself. We're being accused of not trimming our bushes properly, and also keeping cats in cages outside. Neither of this is correct. (Well, the girls did live in a cage for about a month this summer, but have since been living in the bathroom, so that charge is completely bogus.) The bushes thing? We've maintained the property as it was when we got it. It was overgrown when we began renting it. We have kept it at that state. They now want us to severely crop everything back. This is something that we can't do ourselves. Mom's working all of the time and can't get up on ladders with her knees and back the way they are to trim the tops off of 8' bushes. Neither Sis nor I can do that, either. However, we can't hire someone to do it because we don't have enough money. I told Mom to call the landlord and explain the situation to him. I am going to try and start up my old computer and see if I can't pull the pictures I took of the house pre-Hurricane Ike off of them before it overheats and dies to prove what the house looked like right after we moved in. I pray that I can do it. What's really shitty is that the letter was sent to us on the 23rd. It didn't show up at the house until the 28th. Right when we couldn't do anything about it because EVERYONE'S GONE ON THANKSGIVING VACATION, ASSHOLES. I'm almost positive it was sent then on purpose, since we only were given 15 days from the date on the letter to remedy the situation, and, by not having mail service on Thursday, and then a holiday for the whole weekend, we were completely incapable of contacting anyone to come and trim the bushes, or to get ahold of the landlord, or the HOA president, as they're ALL ON VACATION UNTIL MONDAY. BASTARDS!!
Mom's totally freaked out. She's gone into complete panic mode. She's started to do that spiral thing where one tiny thing leads to something worse, which leads to something worse, until we're homeless and dying on the streets. It's at these times that I can't be around her at all, because my basic presence seems to set her off. I endured a merciless yelling attack Saturday evening. I held myself together until I walked upstairs and then collapsed outside my door, unable to deal with it anymore. I broke down in tears. Sis comforted me and has been taking care of the house since I am a complete mess between the physical pain and the emotional.
Some prayers and good thoughts sent my way (that the doctors finally figure out what's wrong with me, and that this situation with the house is resolved easily and with no problems) would be much appreciated.