Migraine with aura

As I was reading my friend's blogs this morning, the pinpoint of light in the center of my vision started, a bright whiteness which meant I couldn't see the very middle of each thing I looked at.  I thought, this must be what macular degeneration is like all the time.  But for me, that was a signal that for the next 10-15 minutes, I would loose my ability to see and read clearly.

The pinpoint quickly spread out in a familiar pattern, forming a circle that was ever-widening, but the center of my vision gradually returned.  I left the computer as the little rainbow colored prisms grew, like signal flags shimmering in a glowing semi-circle in both eyes.

I walked into the kitchen to get more coffee, thinking of how my mother had a stroke and lay on her kitchen floor over a day, sometimes shouting out the window to neighbors until they heard her.  But she wasn't taking the blood pressure medicine that I now take.  I do wonder however, if I might end up debilitated.  These parts of the body keep wearing out...and diseases creep in that we don't expect.

I am fortunate that I don't have pain associated with these migraines.  I do have sensitivity to light following them, but if it's not a bright sunny day (like today) I can go about my life after that visual interruption.

They started back when I was in my 40s that I remember. I will never forget the one that came as I drove on an interstate to my doctor's office in Atlanta.  There were semi trucks along side me, and I was trying to stay in my lane, by shifting my eyes back and forth to see clearly where I was.  By the time I got to the doctor I was a wreck, and started crying and said to the receptionist while I waited for my turn that I had gone blind.  That was the worst time I ever had with the visual impediment.  And the doctor referred me to a neurologist.  I was advised to not take birth control pills (which I wasn't on anyway.) I was recommended to drink caffeine.  And later I got some expensive pills for migraines that had to be taken right at the beginning of the headaches.  Since I seldom had pain, I didn't get more than one refill of them.

But where the aural migraines used to be only a few times a year, now they seem to happen more often.  Nothing in particular seems to trigger them, besides a glare of sunlight reflected at an angle into my eyes.  Sometimes having an eye exam would trigger them, from the bright light shown in my eyes.  This morning I was just reading a computer screen, which I do every day...so it's not an abnormal occasion.

As I've shared about having these migraines, I've found more and more friends also have them, sometimes with a very painful headache.  I remember hearing of (mainly in novels) various sufferers who have to go to bed in a darkened room with migraines.  It must be terrible for them.

Counting down 20 days to go...

I'm trying to do nebulizer while typing on laptop.  It's a bit of a circus trick.  But since I must sit here by machine, why not do a bit of chatting after reading my emails, Facebook friend's posts, and blog friends?

I've been slammed, so didn't have time to write or even compose anything yesterday.  I did a bit of research on ancestors in between people coming into the Swannanoa Valley History Museum, where I've begun work as a docent.  It was supposed to be a pretty dull job with few visitors (ha ha.)  But it's been raining solidly for 3 days now, and that means tourists have to find things to do indoors.  So where last week only 2 or 3 people would visit during a shift (before I started) this week there were 15 people in the 3-1/2 hours I was there Wed. afternoon and again 16 on Thurs. morning.

I'm still (for now) a volunteerat the Clay Studio at Black Mountain Center for the Arts.  It's right next door to the History Museum.  So when I was at the Clay Studio I didn't really do much but work glazing my own pieces.

And when I came home and had put my feet up while watching the news, I decided to take that chicken carcass out of the fridge and make some soup stock.  Then I noticed of course the last of the veggies which needed to be used to make soup. 

That meant an hour of chopping and sauteing, and picking the meat off the bones, then putting it all together.  It was delicious.  Did I mention washing the pans and dishes? That's 'cause I haven't done them yet.  They are piled in the sink and on the counter still. This afternoon I'll have time and energy for that job.

And now I'm getting ready to go to Yoga which I'm going to try to do again.  I have just been lying on top of my bed stretching a few different ways, so this will mean getting down (and up again) on the floor.  That will be the biggest challenge for me.  But I really don't want to do chair yoga.

After that class it will be about time for lunch at the Lakeview Center for Active Seniors.  We have recently lost our recreation director and assistant director, so the activities are suffering a bit.  But the Council on Aging provides these low cost nutritious meals.  They tend to be high carbs, so I have to skip some of them...have to work on what my stomach can handle.  That's the joy of aging again.

The weather has been a thing to deal with in a different way than most of us anticipated the first week of Aug. Last week we dealt with 90 degree afternoons, which usually cooled off into the 70s at night. Many people wanted to be out in the woods, and only the most hardy are geared up for constant rain and wet leaves and mud and puddles and streams.  The nights are in the 60s now, and my air conditioner doesn't kick in at all.  The choice is to either open windows and get humidity and some fresh air, or run the fans on the units so there isn't any mold thinking of growing.  With my allergies I do the latter.  I turn them off at night and run them all day, just moving air around.  I kick the a.c. on when it feels too hot inside...and that is hard when it's so cool with the rain.  Decisions, decisions.

Catch up

 On this day was born Mary Hull Granger Phillips  in   1829,    grandmother of my paternal grandmother, Ada Phillips Swasey Rogers.  Died within a year of birth of her second child; her husband, William Phillips, then died early in the Civil War.

I have been busy away from this place for the last couple of weeks.  Sorry that I haven't been looking at my favorite blogs much, let alone writing anything.  And several ancestors were having their birth anniversaries in this time.  Today is the birthday of Mary Phillips, who moved back and forth from early Texas plantations to Georgia as a young mother.

I know this because some of her letters have survived.

And I spent many hours transcribing some of them.
Here are previous posts:
letters,
grigsby-bluff-letter-dec-9-1861
before-war-started-1856-texas
old-letters-transcribed

So since this is just a catch up post, I won't post any new letters here.  But I will think hard about making a new post soon about these wonderful ancestor letters.

Last week I joined forces with another woman who has led an annual event for the church, but who said she couldn't do it this year.  As this has been our biggest fund raiser I didn't want it to fall by the wayside, so I asked everyone if they could find one other person to help, and we could do it as a community, as long as J. told me how she had done it in the past.

I organized volunteers based on what J. told me we would need.  I am not a mind reader, so when she asked me things that I hadn't done, I had to just say no, I didn't do that.  I had no idea that I should have done whatever that was.  This is "crazy making" that my family used to do all over the place, but I didn't fall into the drama.   She had always had a good friend work with her, and I didn't fill those shoes in any way - I didn't attempt to.

I just did what I knew how to do, and I think the event went very well.  Pictures are here trillium-5314.

My body didn't do so well, and my psyche is more of an introvert, which to me means I am happily alone for long periods of time.  My body complained almost constantly and I had to take pain relievers all the time, as well as allergy medications.  I slept like a baby, missing many events that otherwise would have kept me awake at night.  I also lost my sense of smell.  I think I remember the musty dusty smell about Thurs. as we repacked all the donated items for the sale into boxes to be carried out to the parking lot.

I've got pottery to make, and some to sell.  I laugh at "some" as I've halfway inventoried what I have on hand, and the value surprised me (higher than expected!)

I also have been attending the Council on Aging low-cost lunch that is provided at the Lakeview Senior Center weekdays.  I don't make it to all the lunches, but manage to be there for most of them.

This program brings a diverse set of elders together, many of whom have more needs than I presently do.  Some don't drive and there's a van that goes to their home to pick them up and take them back.  I'm so glad to see that there are some good programs helping people...and this is certainly one.  I wish more of the homebound elders could join us.  I know Meals on Wheels exists, but probably was cut by our current ignorant representatives in NC.  I hope the Senior lunch program continues.

I read Ronnie Barrett's blog .timegoesby as often as I can.  She often speaks of aging issues, and many are pertinent to my life. 

I have a doctor's appointment this afternoon.  My life is so often put under a scrutiny of the medical profession these days.   I'm very grateful for pain relief and other medications that my blood pressure and a recurring shingles virus are controlled by. What must my ancestor's lives have been like when the few doctors were used mostly to set bones or deal with fevers?

 Of course I'm talking about the long-lived ancestors.