Migraines

I went to see my Augenartzt (eye doctor) yesterday. He measured the pressure in my eyes, which was a bit on the high side. By the time he used his 'Gameboy' as he called it, to perform a calculation once he had plugged in eye pressure plus corneal thickness, all was well. Pressures normal, visual field great, optic nerve wonderful.

All this means that he is happy for me to have beta blockers - in fact, turns out that some drops to treat glaucoma have beta blockers in them.

So I left a message for THAT neurologist and picked up a prescription today. I don't trust her but will make do until I find one I can actually trust. So no more pizotifen for me tonight, and I start the new medication tomorrow. It isn't propranolol, which gives really, really bad nightmares. I *think* it may be atenolol, but of course it has a different name. I am hoping this will have less of an effect on the dreaming - wonder if this is why I am to take it in the morning....?

I feel a little bit excited. It would be great to have more migraine control with no weight gain, but only time will tell.

Travels.

Thanks for the kind words about Athyr....

I really miss having cats in the house, and Athyr's passing just made me feel it more. Looking on the bright side, it lack of responsibilities makes travel a lot easier. We are going to be having a crazy travel year. Part of the travel plans involve my second trip to the USA in May.

Looking forward to it already :0)

Athyr.

If you look at the picture in the 'About me' section on the right of this blog, you will see Athyr, our chocolate-point Siamese. I say 'our', because although she had to go to a new home when we moved here, she always had a special place in our hearts.

The final, and most important, kindness that you can and must do for a pet is to let them go when the time comes. However hard the parting is. One of the reasons that we chose the new owners for Isis and Athyr was that we just knew we could trust them to do this if the time came.

Sadly, that time came for Athyr just under a week ago. She was not quite 6 years old. My heart is heavy, but I can't thank J & M enough for this last kindness.

Thy middle name is....

....lazy.

SO glad to get my dishwasher fixed today. Sad, isn't it?

But trying to balance things out a bit (or am I simply justifying???) I do make my own bread ;0)

Go me! - noch einmal!!

Now, assuming that I did in fact understand what I was saying and hearing, the dishwasher repair man is coming out tomorrow.

These little things, which include explaining the problem, collecting and giving information, can be so daunting. I feel inordinately proud of myself when I achieve something like this.

Now the proof of the pudding - will someone turn up tomorrow? And will he expect to fix the dishwasher?

Flying visit

Number Guy and I spent less than 24hrs in Scotland yesterday. Arrived at 4.00pm, left at 9.00am today. But I got to see my boy, so it was well worth it :0)))

Dear Neurologst....

Further to the consultation re my migraines this morning, I thought you might be interested in this information regarding Topomax. I have taken the information from:

http://www.topamax.com/topamax/tools-resources--safety-information.html

This is the Topomax website, not some anecdotal piece of information.


Other serious risks include decreased sweating, increased body temperature, kidney stones, sleepiness, dizziness, confusion, difficulty concentrating, and increased eye pressure (glaucoma). Call your doctor immediately if you have any decrease in vision or eye pain. These problems can lead to blindness if not treated right away.

I have to say that I was surprised and very worried that you did not know that this was a potential problem. I would also like to commend you for managing to not-quite laugh in my face when I mentioned the possibility of blindness. I would like to commend myself more for not telling you exactly what I thought of you.

Regards,

One Very pissed-off Patient.

PS Why did you also tell me to consult an opthamologist about the side-effects of beta-blockers? It seems that you don't know much about the medications that you are prescribing. What ever happened to the concept of 'Do no harm'?????