Drug experimentation

I think Chris is generally appalled when I talk about health problems on my blog. I don't know, I've never been embarrassed ever since I revealed all while in chemo treatment 10 years ago. So here's health talk.

I started getting tension headaches 10 years ago. I was under the close watch of many doctors at the time so I got a thorough diagnosis. After an MRI, among other things, a neurologist decided that I was having tension headaches because of "all the shitty stuff that's happened." (His words exactly.) Anyway, since then I've had tension headaches. Usually more in the spring, often for about a week. Well, for more than two weeks now I have had a headache. Not a huge one, just enough that when trying to concentrate about all I can think about is how my head hurts. It feels a little like a made up hurt because I don't notice it when I'm doing something fun that I want to be doing and I feel it most of all when I'm doing something not fun, like trying to write my thesis. Last week I read online that sometimes anti-depressants can help with tension headaches so I made an appointment with the doctor to see what he thought about it.

I have a great doctor here - perhaps what I like best about him is that he lets me do a lot of stuff by e-mail. I need frequent blood tests (my thyroid doesn't function anymore, in case you were wondering) to check my medication dosages and whenever I feel like I need another one, I just send him an e-mail and he sends orders to the lab. It's nice, because with other doctors I've had to make an appointment to come in and all they do is write the orders and we've both wasted our times. Anyway... Yeah, so this doctor looked in my eyes and poked me a little bit and agreed with my own diagnosis, that I was having tension headaches and it was not surprising given all the stress in my life at the moment. So after jokingly suggesting that I write thesis while on an exercise bicycle (biking relieves the headaches) he wrote me some prescriptions for muscle relaxers and anti-depressants. Basically, I'm going to take the tiniest dose of both that is possible and increase the dosage until the headaches go away or the side effects get too annoying. Chris seems kind of scared by the drugs - I have to confess the labeling is on the intimidating side. These drugs have tons of potential side effects. I'm so sick of the headaches though. Doing nothing was having no effect, so I want to try something.

I'll try to remember to report back on the results. So far all I've found is that whatever the muscle relaxer is, it would probably be an effective horse tranquilizer. I slept until noon today and didn't really get perky until after dinner. I'm only taking half a pill tonight. Whew.