Lots of Nothing

So not much going on, not much to post... Spring Break has just ended, my Mom visited, Easter was fun... we drove around downtown a wee bit with Mom looking at the Cherry Blossoms (it was a drizzly ugly day); if you've never been to DC while the cherries are in bloom you should try to do so...they are simply breathtaking: so lovely, thousands of them adorning not only the tidal basin and the monuments but all over this region. Heaven. I'm sure there are Cherry Blossom trees in heaven. And Lilies of the Valley. Also puppies and little kids who never pout or whine.

I have been busily sewing: twenty skirts and "corsets" for the villagers in our Elementary School's production of Beauty and the Beast...I've been wondering what I shall sew when that's all finished because I've had lots of fun with it. I made a cute handbag looking lunch tote for a friend of mine but I'm not sure I've really bonded with the project; as a bag designer I might not be a rockstar. We'll see. I've been thinking of resurrecting my years old quilt project. I'll be damned if I remember what I had planned but I do have the fabric and some of the initial pieces assembled.

While Mom was here we saw a couple of flicks: Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D...story was really dull and the characters weren't really funny or engaging but the 3D was fantastic...I can't wait to see what Pixar does with Tru3D in this summer's release, Up. Mom and I also went to see I Love You, Man. We laughed our arses off. We were two of three patrons in the theater so we felt pretty comfortable enjoying ourselves. I think Forgetting Sarah Marshall was better but I'm actually kind of hopeful that comedies might actually be improving: two that I've enjoyed in one year. I don't know how long its been since that has happened. I've gone decades without enjoying two comedic releases. 'Sides: I love me some Jason Segal. Isn't he cute?

Headaches
I took myself off of Topamax. I hated every single minute of it. I might have been able to live with it at 50 mg if it had made any difference in my headaches. I think I was actually getting more headaches with the Topamax although they seemed perhaps a bit more easily treated...they just kept coming back. It is very nice to not be a zombie; the Topamax made me a total idiot and I was overhelmingly tired, even at the low dose. Even so, as I was reading about the drug's efficacy I was finding that "successful" trials were those where 48% of patients reduced their headache frequency by about half ---still leaving lots of headaches, if you ask me. The cost-benefit just wasn't working in its favor.

I've read a few encouraging references lately and decided to take myself to the Jefferson Headache Center in Philly. It seems odd to me that the field of neurology still has few answers to offer the migraneur but these guys at Jefferson at least seem to have a fairly sound understanding of the multi-factorial etiology and therefore understand that prevention and treatment must also address those many factors. My big day at the headache clinic? July 14. That's right: 3 months away. Holy hell.

I suppose the one positive thing to come out of this recent experiment with the neurologist is that I've gotten a lot better about documenting my headaches and their circumstances. I can easily now substantiate that about 75% of my headaches are tightly associated with moderate to large-ish changes in atmospheric pressure. Bad news? Kind of tough to manage that risk factor...