One week down, fifty-one more to go! Sounds like a long time, but I’m still rattled by how fast last year went so I won’t say a word. I’m still walking, haven’t yet stopped, but this year I’m not taking pictures of my feet. I have to say, it’s a little hard to find my pictures at the end of the week. I’m used to looking for sneakers!
This post should have gone up yesterday, but I got my days confused. Oh well! From now on these health updates will come on Wednesdays, in case any of you were tossing and turning late at night, wondering…hoping…wishing I would once again write about walking.
Moving along on the health front, I had my eyes checked to see if my eyesight might be contributing to my migraines. Diagnosis: farsighted, nearsighted, and an astigmatism. Well! I walked out with a pair of new glasses I’m supposed to wear full-time. I’ve been joking that my book-geek transformation is almost complete, but the Mister says I need a pair of croakies before I can make such a bold statement. As the days go by–it’s only been four–I become more accustomed to them. (The glasses, not the croakies. That level of awesome takes a longer period of adjustment.) I’m not as self conscious about them as I was the first two days and I find myself far more tolerant of the inconvenience of full time glasses since my migraines are so much better.
I read a book on migraine control the other day that came highly recommended. It was good, but borrow this one if you can. It’s not a buy-book. I didn’t learn anything I didn’t learn from you guys in the comments and Facebook, but it is nice to have it all in one place with chapters and an index. I’m going to hold off for now on the diet restrictions the authors recommend, or at least be more methodical about discovering my migraine triggers and then eliminating those items. The book wasn’t nearly as fad-diet as the title makes it seem, but it did reference the ancestral/primal/paleolithic eating that is everywhere. The other day I went to Barnes & Noble to return some items and I couldn’t toss a bookmark without hitting a book about cave people and bacon.
Out of curiosity I checked with Big Brother, and it turns out I’m one of twelve people on the planet who isn’t eating primal. I always knew I was special.
I used to get weekly migraines and found the book ‘Treat your own neck’ by Robin McKenzie extremely useful. I realized that much of the problem for me was postural (too much hunching over a screen!) and the exercises suggested in the book made a big difference. I now only ever have an occasional migraine, usually when I’ve got slack on looking after my neck. Worth a look and most likely available in the library :)
Thanks for the book recommendation. I don’t get migraines exactly, but tension headaches that include back and neck pain that sometimes lasts for days (like right now). Physical therapy has helped, but I’m heading to the library right now to check this out!
Your glasses look great! You get used to them quickly — I didn’t start wearing mine full-time until grad school and now I never think twice about them. I have a half dozen pairs that I switch around, plus prescription sunglasses (that’s when you know your eyesight is really pitiful).
As a certified glasses girl, I love your new look. Well done!
I love your health posts, so thank you for continuing to write them! I think your glasses are superb and I’m happy they’re helping with your migraines.
Nothing to do with migraines (I’ve had 3 in my life – horrible), or cavemen or bacon, but if that’s your neighborhood – I love it! It looks like a real, honest-to-goodness neighborhood. If I lived someplace like that, I’d want to walk it too. :) Well done on the first week! :)
Love the new glasses! They look great on you. I just recently got a pair of prescription sunglasses after 20 years of getting my first glasses. CHANGED MY WORLD. I love them so much. Highly, highly recommend.
The glasses look great! My eyes sound similar to yours and I’m bad about not wearing my glasses all the time. Maybe I’ll try and see if it helps my migraines. Mine are triggered by weather changes – Florida in December means the high was 27 on Tuesday and will be 80 on Saturday, so lots of headaches this month. No primal eating here either – but I do like bacon a lot!
I have a migraine question I’m hoping someone will also know about. My nose gets cold to the touch when I have a migraine – makes me feel like a dog to be diagnosing by touching my nose. Is this imaginary or is it a “thing”?
When my grandmother had her migraines, her hands were always extremely cold. Some migraine sufferers (I think we are actually called migraineurs or something!) find that circulatory issues are either a cause or effect — that is the tough part to determine.
A couple of years ago, in the wake of a migraine that took months to recover from, a massage therapist recommended the book, The Migraine Brain, by Dr. Carolyn Bernstein. Some of the information was basic and well-known, but most of the book was extremely helpful to me. For example, she describes that migraines have triggers, and while independently, these triggers don’t always end up as migraines, when they happen at the same time, a sort of migraine “perfect storm” is born. My migraines have changed over time (I had my first one at 12), and this book gave me some great thoughts that I then discussed with my doctor.
Thanks – I will look at that book. I remember reading about keeping a fairly regular schedule, because migraineurs (!) have nervous systems that are sensitive to change. The author suggested getting up at a regular time, eating at the same times, etc. That helps, but clearly I need to move somewhere that has constant weather and no fronts coming through!
De-lurking to say hi and also, although I adore bacon, I will not succumb to paleo/gluten free/cave person/whatever else next -diet. Everything in moderation people! But maybe that’s just the European in me ;) Also, love the walk updates, they motivate me to put on my sneakers, too.
Your glasses look great! I recently got a new, large pair..very fashion forward. Have you taken the boys to “Walking with Dinosaurs”? I saw it in 3D with grands ages 15 and 8.
Love the new glasses! Also glad to hear they may help with your migraines, which is probably more important.
I’m also not on the paleo kick (hello, Big Brother!). I’m just not that big of a meat or fish person. :-)
Eating healthfully (NOT paleo… I don’t jump on fad diet bandwagons) and losing 20+ pounds has reduced my migraines to almost nothing. Where I used to take at least one Treximet a month, and during spring, when the weather is volatile, 2-3 per month, I haven’t had to take any in a year and a half. I hope the glasses and (eventual) diet modifications help! Migraines are no joke.
First, you’re home state is SO lovely! I would give my left arm to see a flower right now (under 2 feet of snow here in the mitten) ;)
Add me to the list of the non-fad-dieters/eaters over here, too! :D
Yay for you!
I finally ordered my new glasses a week ago after having the script for 2 months, thinking that was probably contributing to my increasing frequency of headaches. Every time I planned to go out, someone came home sick, or I had a headache. Looking at new frames is difficult enough without my progressive lenses (also far and near sighted here) , add in a headache and wowsa.
You look fab!
Michelle
I just read the comments – and I LOVE my prescription sunglasses The glaring sun has always affected me headache-wise. Up until 5 years ago I was able to get away with not wearing my glasses if I wasn’t reading/driving/at a computer, which meant I could wear sunglasses easily. Once I started needing them all the time with that prescription, I couldn’t wear sunglasses and actually see. As a gardener, camper, hiker, outside lover, this was a problem. Hated the clip ons, and since my glasses are small, the sun got in around the edges anyway. My prescription sunglasses are huge and I am convinced the size contributes to the lack of migraines as much as being able to focus when I am outside!
I love your glasses! And I’ll chime in to also say I’m not paleo, though I have tried it…I just didn’t feel it was a sustainable lifestyle for me and I figure a diet/eating plan is no good if it’s not something you can do long term. But most importantly (tongue firmly in cheek), I wanted to tell you that I disagree with the Mister. Croakies are NOT what you need to complete your book-geek transformation, or at least it wouldn’t be what you’d need in the South, as here, Croakies are for the cool kids – fratty boys, preppy girls, outdoorsy types. What you need is a beaded or metal eyeglass chain. And…..voila! Transformation complete.
LOL – I thought the same thing. My daughter just graduated from a large southern university, and she got free croakies at dozens of events! Croakies or coozies get college students to come to anything.
Your glasses are ADORABLE. They look so natural on you! I can imagine how amazing that migraine relief must feel, too.
Oooh totally not paleo. I love all the things they would tell me not to eat. Your glasses are adorable!
I’m extremely near-sighted, with astigmatism, and probably needed glasses since I was a toddler, but didn’t get them until I was 12. That was the early 80s, and styles were horrendous. Anyway, I’m still, decades later, self-concious about wearing my glasses out in public & prefer to wear contacts. But now at my (ahem) advanced age, the contacts aren’t working so well for me, and I’ve worn my glasses out of the house more in the last 3 months than ever before.
All of which is to say…you’re a natural! The glasses are adorable & make me want to buy a new style, myself.
I love your new glasses. You look great.
I cannot bring myself to go paleo. It seems like all of the diets creep up and are so wonderful, and then later you hear how terrible they are. Honestly, some days it feels like there are no good food choices. I do know not to eat chocolate or avocados when I am hot or feeling a little dehydrated. They can send me into a migraine really quickly.
Adorable …or as we proud book-geeks say in my family….A-Dork-Able! Those glasses make you look so young and hip. Love ’em!
Paleo doesn’t allow cheese, right? Never. gonna. happen. The closest I came to a fad diet was the day I swore off solid food & had a shake in a can for breakfast & lunch & then whines about how my stomach hurt & ended up at a diner for dinner.
I’m slightly envious of people who start wearing glasses in adulthood & can make a fashion statement out of it. I was in 2nd grade when I started wearing & the eye doctor convinced my mother that tinted lenses would make the lenses look thinner. tinted! Usually purple. . .the 80s were so weird. They were ornate, pastel, and hung around my neck. I’m too traumatized to go without my contacts now.
glad your headaches are better. Getting reading glasses helped my husband’s headaches too.
Sooo, since my spleen is still ‘vestigial’, I figure I can eat things that are non-primal. You know, since I’ve evolved and everything. Or at least that’s what I will tell myself when I sit down to have some of my home made chicken pot pie tonight. :)
No paleo either. (And you should know, my computer always tries to ‘fix’ that word, like it isn’t a real one.) I think that should tell me something…. lol