migraine-o-rama

I feel for you!

I woke up this morning with a thunderous headache, thanks to the root canal I need to have done but can't afford. I walked into the bathroom to discover one of my eyes was bright red. I have my third interview at National Geographic on Thursday (with the VP for Mission Programs), one side of my face is swollen, and I think I have pink eye.

Is this when I go look for a nice cave to live in??

Re: I feel for you!

On Wednesday, all Scorpios are supposed to start experiencing spectacular good fortune!!

Can you get to the doctor for the suspected pinkeye? And the root canal...ughhh.. how are you coping? could the red eye have anything to do with your tooth?

I wish you the BEST of luck with your interview. To be asked back three times is wonderful. You're going to make a perfect impression, no matter what. Even the planets say so.

Re: I feel for you!

Thanks for the good thoughts - and for the good news for Scorpios. I sure could use an upswing in fortunes right now. I have an appointment with the eye doc tomorrow morning, so hopefully, I'll be less pink by Thursday. The tooth has been bothering me on and off since March, but that's when I lost my job and a root canal runs $1K here in DC. So, no tooth action for now. :-( I actually cut up little Ben-Gay heat patches and apply strips to my jaw on particularly bad nights.

On the good fortune front - I purchased a copy of "Silk" from your friend Caitlin via eBay. I am ashamed to say that, despite all your good words about her over time, I've never read any of her works. And, now that I read her LJ, too, I felt it was time. My copy arrived today, not only signed, but with a cool spider doodle on the title page. Little could she have known that I keep a lot of Russian superstitions in the back of my mind.

In Russian culture, spiders are considered good luck, and spiders showing up around your birthday is seen as a particularly positive sign. :-) On my 22nd birthday, in Armenia, someone bought me a bottle of champagne - something had gone awry at the bottling plant, and, when I poured out my glass, it was loaded with spiders. Utterly undrinkable, but an incredibly powerful talisman per local beliefs. :-)

Here's to Obi-wan Arachnid and his fellow travelers!

MJ
Visitors always welcome at the Church of the Big Sky!

Re: I feel for you!

You would love my new apartment! There's a veil of spiders completely covering one side of the building. I love them (I name the ones I frequently see...)

I'm so glad you regard them as lucky too. I want to name my new studio for them, in some way. I was thinking of "Spider Veil" studios. Does that sound too gothy gothy?

I hope you love reading SILK! I love Cait's little drawings. You should tell her what good luck it is for you, especially since you received the book right as the sun passed into your birth sign. Lucky lucky lucky!

I hope your eye feels better. You're very brave dealing with your tooth. Dental insurance, where for art thou?

Maybe...? Did this sensation of being too small affect the entire body or parts of the body? How small did you feel? (Remember John Tenniel's images of Alice shrinking to so small a size that she was smaller than a dog, mouse, or caterpillar!) How long did it last (sort of "the entire day" or for circumscribed period or periods)?

I felt about half my usual size. It was extremely weird. The effect started in a Wal-Mart, which always has bright lights that bother me. But I've never felt smaller than usual in there before. Walking behind the shopping cart, I felt miniature and it was like everything around me was massive and looming above me, even the cart I was pushing. That was about an hour. Then it started up again when I got to work (again, bright lights) and lasted for about six hours.

It hasn't happened since. I'm thinking it might be that strange Migraine symptom, or perhaps some other thing having to do with medication, or possibly my vision? or maybe I'm insane?

Sounds like a migraine aura to me, one hour duration is a quite common duration for migraine aura, and whereas six hours is long for an aura it does by no means argue strictly against it. I'm not aware that microsomatognosia (the feeling of being abnormal small) has been described with beta blocker therapy (which you have stopped by now, didn't you), and you don't take other medication right now, right? Mella, can you add to your description the 'context' of migraine/headache symptoms you had the day before, the begin and rest of the day (at which time was the onset of the feeling during the visit of the Wal-Mart?), and maybe also tomorrow, if the bodily feeling of being half sized would be sort of "embedded" into a chain of other migraine symptoms that would add to the probability of its identification as migraine aura. And, certainly, this doesn't prove 'insanity', although it may easily promt such fears.

You may compare your experience with that of two other migraineurs who had the following dialogue on a discussion forum:

"Sometimes I feel 'REAL TALL' -- and I'm only five - two! I'll feel weird and tall, and walk into my kitchen and feel like my head is going to hit the ceiling and like I'm towering over the countertops. It's the craziest sensation. Would other people think we're all nuts??? Before you say I am, (or think it anyway - lol) I recently read something to this effect on a headache website and would have never believed it, had it not happened to me!"

( http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=20000202143615.25730.00001084%40ng-ff1.aol.com&output=gplain
Jaye, Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: cool aura page, February 2, 2000)

"Wow! I never knew there were names for those sensations. I thought I was just nuts (heh heh - the jury's still out on that one). I've never said anything to the dr's because I thought it was my imagination.... Hmmmm.... It's weird.... wow it's real! I'm not that crazy (note: 'that'). Wohoooo!!!"

( http://groups.google.de/groups?selm=00744950.2f203915%40usw-ex0103-019.remarq.com&output=gplain
sillybear , Newsgroups: alt.support.headaches.migraine, Subject: cool aura page, February 3, 2000)

This is very fascinating to me. I wonder if it'll ever happen again!

I'll try to remember the circumstances surrounding the effect. Actually, I'm being inspired by you & your Migraine Aura website, to keep a notebook of any migraine related (or even possibly migraine related) events, dreams, and the migraines themselves. I think maybe if I document it, it'll feel less overwhelming & random. I just need a small notebook I can carry with me, to get started!