Snowglobe

I’ve heard a lot about it, and am wondering if anyone has experience with it.

Any feedback is appreciated :)

• Regular exercise. Yoga has given me the biggest improvement boost. I noticed that my migraines started to be more frequent when I wasn’t practicing as much. I make an effort to exercise in some form every day whether it be as small as walking instead of taking the shuttle between campuses.
• Taking magnesium on a regular basis, as my doctor suggested it to help prevent my migraines.
• Keeping a migraine journal. I use the App “Migraine Notebook” on my iPhone. It is highly customizable and lets me input data later on if need be.
• Reducing my intake of caffeine. I’ve seen many people cite caffeine as a migraine trigger, but it is actually the opposite for me. When I don’t have caffeine, I have a higher risk of having a migraine. I do try to keep it to a minimum though and try to stick to half-caf coffee and green tea.
• Keeping a regular sleep schedule: As a college student with a part time job, this isn’t the easiest thing to do. You can probably figure that out by the fact that it’s about 5:30 AM right now. It’s nearing the end of the semester, so my sleep schedule is all messed up right now. Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back on track again soon.
• Massage. It sounds utterly self indulgent, but I know that I carry a crazy amount of tension in my neck and shoulders. As a result, I’ve found that on the few occasions I’ve gone to get massages, my migraines stay away for awhile (or at least they’re reduced in intensity). I have a gift card from Christmas that I still haven’t used, and the place I go to has a package where if you book so many massages, you get a reduced rate. I plan on using some of my work money for this. I’m lucky that my mom works for the school system and therefore has very, VERY good insurance. We have very minimal copays and save a lot on medications and doctor’s visits. If this is something else that can help me, then it’s worth the extra cost.
• Being open to new ideas and suggestions for preventative care. I’ve been tossing around the idea of going to see a nutritionist for quite sometime now. I take a daily medication to help prevent my migraines (and it’s worked so far without having to up my daily amount), but would love to not have to take such medications. Finding a food trigger may be a solution. I’m always willing to research and try new things… except acupuncture. I am terrified of needles and that is NOT going to happen.

So that’s my list. Maybe I’ll be adding more to it soon.

This post was inspired by one by the blog “That M Word” which you can find here: http://thatmword.com/post/21844522203/holistic-health-and-migraines

fibromyalgiaproblems:

I would make it so everyone knew how to be compassionate. First on my list wouldn’t be hunger, or disease, abuse or neglect, poverty, intolerance, or war. Because if people knew how to be compassionate, they’d fix the rest. If people knew how to care about and help each other, everything else would fix itself. 

jelibat:

People: Your music is on loud.

Me: Yeah I know.

That’s right.

I’ve missed quite a few dance classes because of my migraines (and one because of my mom being in the hospital).

Fortunately, my professor is very understanding (and is herself a victim of cluster migraines) and told me that to make up some of the credit, I can either attend two classes back to back (there’s an 8 AM class right before my 9:30 one) or I can write a paper about how having migraines have affected my life in the sense of school, work, personal, or anything else.

This should be interesting.

I had class at 12:30. We ended early, so my group met to work on our PowerPoint that goes along with our final paper. Then I rushed over to main campus for the dress rehearsal for the scene I’m in for the director’s workshop. Then I rushed back over to East Campus for my Tests & Measurements class. Thankfully my professor wanted to get us out of there ASAP since the weather was so nice. I had to administer a simulated In-Basket test, but the results were easy enough to interpret. Plus my partner did a good job, so we were pretty set.

Then I got myself Chinese for dinner since we were having leftovers from Pascha. I’ve been tired all day, but when wanted to go to sleep, it didn’t happen. I took a muscle relaxant because my lower back has been hurting something awful (probably due to my monthly friend) and it’s made me a bit loopy, but I’ve yet to be able to sleep.

Mom still isn’t home. She should have been home either Sunday or Monday. She was told that the infectious disease doctor had to come in and be the one to release her. He never even came in to see her on Sunday. Then today he came in, but not until the late afternoon (he usually stops in during the morning). By that time, she had a really upset stomach, so he didn’t release her. My dad went over to see her tonight and she was doing well, so hopefully she’ll be home tomorrow… er, today.

The end of the semester has me stressing out a bit. I need to get myself back into the habit of doing yoga and exercising more. Not doing those things is throwing me off and making me a bit out of sorts.

This week is going to be madness though, and it’s probably going to remain that way until the end of the semester.

Here’s to making it through and graduating.

Just want to wish all of my fellow Orthodox Christians who are celebrating Easter today a very, very blessed Pascha!

There’sanother reasonthat I will (hopefully) be much more active on here soon. I didn’t get into a graduate program anywhere. I was waitlisted at two schools (NYU and Temple), so there’s still a chance that I may get into a program, however, those chances are slim. At first, I was absolutely devastated. What was I supposed to do? I had a plan and now that plan was - at the very least - put on hold. It had been changed.

Then I really started thinking. One of the things I realized was that I had been putting too much emphasis on what MY plan was. I’m a religious person, so in the grand scheme of things, whatIwant and plan isn’t what’s most important. What’s important is God’s will and His plan for me. Apparently, what I thought was the path for me isn’t quite right. So I’m taking this as an opportunity to really delve into myself. This means taking care of myself in a new way and exploring my passions outside of the classroom.

I’ve always been a very academic person, so going to school and pursuing something academic seemed the natural course. In high school, I fell in love with theatre, and it’s something I’ve been passionate about ever since. Unfortunately, a career in theatre wasn’t something that my parents or I could justify. Now don’t get me wrong, I really do like Speech Pathology. In it I found a way to marry together many of the things I love. However, now it’s time for me to take a different path, or at least a detour.

So I plan on spending the next year dedicating myself to the things I love and the things I want to learn more about. I’ll work at camp again this summer, and when I return I’ll still have my retail job. Besides this, I plan on trying to put myself out there a bit more when it comes to my cakes and cupcakes. My sisters have told me that people have asked them about where they got their kid’s birthday cakes and that they’ve had friends express interest in maybe having me make a cake fortheirchild’s birthday or another special occasion. This is something I can capitalize on and possibly make some money from.

My mom asked if I would make a nice cake for her & my dad’s 42nd wedding anniversary in May. She said that she’ll think about it and come up with a design that she wants so that I can make a really nice cake.

During my next year, I want to take the 3rd Wilton class that I wasn’t able to take last year, and also the tiered cakes class. I want to work on my technique and start developing my skills further so I can do more inventive and out of the box things.

I also want to spend more time on stage. I want to eat, sleep, and breathe theatre. I want to read more plays, see more plays, and go on more auditions. When I clean, I’ll be able to set up my keyboard in my room. I’ll be able to spend more time playing the piano and will be able to develop my audition songs and monologues more by putting a book together. With the money I’m earning from my retail job, I can get new headshots done. Maybe I can take a dance class. I’ll be able to pursue things I really want to pursue without having to think about classes and writing papers and grad school.

When the time comes, I know that I’ll reapply to grad school, but I’ll have plenty of time in between to lead a life full of things that I love. That will make everything I do easier and more enjoyable.

I’ll have more time to do Zumba and ride my bike, and maybe try the whole running thing again. I know it’s something I have to work my way up to, but it’s such a pain that running is so difficult for me!

Anyway, I have lots of things that I want to be able to do, and now I’ll have the time to do it. And who knows? In a year’s time I may find that I have a better opportunity somewhere other than grad school. Or I may find that grad school is the place for me. I won’t know until I’ve given other things a shot.

At first I saw this as a major setback and a heartbreak, but now I see it as an opportunity to reinvent myself and experiment with my life.

I’m used to having a plan, but I’ve gotten used to the idea of having more of an outline than a real plan :)

I promise this to you.

There are a few reasons.

My mom is going to be coming home from the hospital either Sunday or Monday. While she was in the hospital, they took her off of ALL of her medications, save for her high blood pressure medication. This is something she’s wanted to do for a very long time.

See, my mom has been in the hospital (as you know from my last post) and may be coming home on Sunday. If not, she’ll be home on Monday. While she was in the hospital though, they took her off ALL of her daily medications. That means that my mother is no longer on any daily prophylactic prescriptions for her migraines.

My mom started getting migraines as a very young girl, and is now 61 years old. She had six children, and after each one of them, she left the hospital in her normal clothes. She was always very thin and healthy and was a daily runner. However, a few years after she had me (her youngest) she started to be placed on daily medications for her migraines. These medications caused weight gain. They also caused a great deal of fatigue and nausea. Because of the fatigue, she didn’t have the energy to run or to exercise in any capacity. The extra weight contributed to more migraines, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and other problems. This led to more medications.

It’s a vicious cycle that she’s been caught in for much too long.

Now, she’s getting a second chance.

She’s only been off these medications for a little under a week, and I can already see the difference. She’s lost weight without doing much (well, I mean, she’s been in a hospital bed and has had a restricted diet for the past few days) and has started to get her energy back. When she’s feeling well enough again, she’s said that she wants to start walking and maybe bike riding with me again.

She’s also interested in looking into some alternative therapies to help with her migraines. It’s a fact of life that she’ll probably need to have a rescue medication for when she gets her migraines. I’m not saying that all of this is going to miraculously stop her from getting migraines, but I am certain that it will do a great deal to reduce their frequency and intensity.

I’m looking forward to this new chapter in her life, as I’m sure she is, because she is getting a new lease on life. Finally, she’ll have the energy to do the things she wants. She won’t come home from work and just want to sleep until dinner and then go back to sleep after then. More than that, she won’t spend countless nights not sleeping at all because of the intense pain.

In any case, I am probably going to use this blog to chart our journeytogether. There have been some changes that I’ve wanted to make, but because I don’t have someone to push me or to go down the path with me, I’ve been tentative to make any kind of commitment. Hopefully, we can make good changes together.

And I know that’s a poor excuse for not blogging, but it’s the only one I’ve got.

Let’s start with good news first. I haven’t had a real, knock out migraine in quite some time (knock on wood). I did have the beginnings of one tonight while I was at work, but it didn’t get too bad and I was able to ward it off with some Relpax.

Also, I’ve been in rehearsals for a scene from “Noises Off” for the Director’s Showcase at school. I have missed performing SO MUCH.

That’s pretty much the good news.

On the not so good news side:

- My mom is in the hospital. She’s been there since Tuesday night. She has cellulitis and when they got the cultures back there was no bacteria growing, so we guess that it was contained to that one area? Not really sure. Anyway, she was in a LOT of pain, and my sister had a staph infection on her face about a week and a half ago, so we’re thinking it was transmitted in that way? She should hopefully be home tomorrow or Monday. They’ve continually pushed the date of her release back because she was running a fever, but that’s finally gone. Hopefully she’ll be home for Holy Week.

- Because of my mom being sick, my oldest sister & her family didn’t come down this weekend to be with us for Palm Sunday. It is possible that they might come down during the week though (since the kids all have off from school) so that would be nice.

- I have yet to get into Grad School. I was rejected from three and was waitlisted at one and only have one more school to hear from. In all honesty, I’m not feeling all that positive about it, and it’s caused me to ask myself a lot of questions. I’ve been trying to figure out what my life is going to be in the fall if I don’t have a school to go to. Is this the push to put myself out there and start auditioning? Should I be doing that instead of school right now? Technically, I could substitute teach, but maybe I could keep my job at Kohl’s and do theatre and take classes. I don’t know yet. I’m not sure what’s going on. And I think it’ll be awhile before I figure it out. It might be a “make it up as I go along” kind of situation. I’m 23 and have always had a plan. Now I find myself with out one and am in some kind of existential crisis.

Yikes.

- Although I haven’t had a migraine in awhile (knocking on wood once again) I have had the closest thing to a chronic cold/sinus infection for what seems like forever. I just finished my second round of antibiotics on Thursday night and when I woke up on Friday morning, I was back to being congested and feeling awful. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s something I need to figure out. I’m sure I need to start on allergy medication again. That’ll probably help the problem somewhat.

- School is devouring my soul. And the fact that I’m not so sure that I’ll be sticking with Speech Pathology now isn’t helping with the lack of motivation.

Other than that, I’ve just been trying to trudge along. Being sick has taken a lot out of me, and over the past week things have just been piling up. I had a nice break down on Thursday before my class, pulled it together, went to class, and then totally lost it again when I got home.

I was going to visit my mom in the hospital with my brother and dad, but between getting another rejection letter that day and starting to feel sick, and just everything, I knew I couldn’t handle it.

Hopefully, my brain starts to work again soon.