Happy Canada Day!

[fajrdrako]

After feeling miserable for a good part of the day, I got better. Much better.

maaseru came home, and we (meaning maaboroshi and John) had pizza for supper, and we played a game of Scrabble - my suggestion. Part of the fun was making fun of the pseudo-words included in the Scrabble dictionary, words like 'jetlike', 'uniquest', and 'mm'. There are no linguistic depths to which players will not stoop to make points.

You know how, when you get a migraine, you lose your vision neurologically to a jagged-light visual effect? I got that during the Scrabble game, making it often difficult to see the tiles - but, surprisingly, it marked the end of my migraine, not the beginning. These things are so bizarre! It's so much easy to feel cheerful without pain. I won the game, being pretty much neck and neck with maaboroshi until the last turn, when I put SPRINTS on a triple- word square.

When the fireworks started on Parliament Hill, we went out on maaseru's balcony to watch. Beautiful! With many heart-shaped and spiral fireworks - I called them Pictish - I do love fireworks. At one point a bat flew by, looking confused by the lights and noise. But how can you really tell when a bat is confused?

It was uncharacteristically cold today. Usually Canada Day is hot; this was mostly jacket-wearing weather, and I watched the fireworks with a blanket wrapped around me.

Canada has existed for 140 years. It's been 150 years since Ottawa was founded. So far so good!

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I suspect migraines are a little different in anyone who has them - or at least the atypical ones. I was surprised to read on Wikipedia that only 1/3 of people who get migraines get the aura at all.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I suspect they are, too. One thing I've always regretted is that I didn't find out my father got migraines until after he died (of a stroke) when I was 34. I would have loved to talk about them with him. I do know that he had auras, because my mother and I have talked about it.

Have you read the book Migraine by Oliver Sacks? Someone on LJ recommended it to me a while back, and while it's a bit dated (written about 20 years or so ago), and I think he's got some screwy ideas about triggers and so forth, the case study descriptions are fascinating. As are the drawings by migraineurs of their auras. I do love the term migraineur. It makes us sound so -- sophisticated [g].

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

My father didn't get migraines, but my mother did. Not very often. Always heralded by 'the flashing lights', as she called them. I didn't start getting migraines till several years after she died, and I'm also sorry I didn't ask more about it.

Thanks for recommending Migraine. I haven't read it. I like the word 'migraineur' too.

I looked the book up in the local library and ordered it, along with several others on the subject, including Migraines for Dummies. There might be good advice among them, who knows?

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I wasn't very impressed with Migraines for Dummies , but then I'm never very impressed with migraine books that assume all migraines are caused by food triggers. It's depressing when a book purports to have a "cure," then when you get the book all it is an explanation of how to do an elimination diet [sigh].

But maybe this is a newer, better edition. You never know...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, I don't have high hopes. Particularly since I believe my migraines are related not just to food triggers but to candidiasis and weather conditions. How do you control that? There is probably no substance on earth that I can 'safely' eat¹ and I think it's better to just try not to stress out about it. As it is, my migraines, horrible as they can be, aren't happening often. Thank goodness.

And yes, we'll hope it's an updated and improved version on Migraines for Dummies! I find that the "Dummies" series ranges from excellent to abysmal depending on the subject or the author, there's no general standard of quality at all.

~ ~ ~
¹ Except maybe broccoli. Who can live on broccoli alone?

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

I've never been able to control most of my triggers except for trying to stay away from smoke and other fine particulates in the air (I've got going to our local state fair down to an art -- I arrive first thing in the morning as soon as they open, go see everything I want to see, eat lunch, and leave just as they're firing up all the barbecues [wry g]). My two other main triggers are wild barometric swings (which is why I get my worst migraines in May and November), and hormones, usually whatever combination hits me just after that time of the month.

I have noticed that the more simultaneous triggers, the worse the headache. Do yours work that way, too?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Barometric swings certainly affect me. I'm not sure about the rest - smoke doesn't seem to be an immediate trigger, but I bet pollution is.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Well, it's always good to be aware of one's triggers, even if you can't do anything about them.

Although avoidance is always a good thing when it comes to migraine triggers, too. If possible.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That's why I'm hoping the books might offer good advice. It's possible!

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Not likely, IME, but possible...

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They're holding one of them at the library for me now - I just need to find time to go there.