More Video’s Of Coco
Here is Coco acting like a psycho while poor Mr. Lucky just wants to get away from him and go back inside.
Here is one of Coco ringing the bell again, this one has better lighting. He’s so excited to ring the bell just to hear us laugh, but a treat or two motivates him too
Coco learned how to ring a bell!
Sorry for the dark video quality next time Eddie and I will do it in a room with more lighting, but Coco loves ringing the bell and getting our excited reaction and also he gets a treat.
Endometriosis Support Group
I’d like to start a support group for people who have endometriosis or know someone with endometriosis. I’d like to target people living in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and Guelph so that we might be able to arrange meetings in person at community centres, coffee houses or any public place that will have us and of course if you live in a town close enough to these cities that you can make it to any of the meets you’re welcome to join. I’d also like to invite people from all over to join the facebook group, we can keep people unable to make it to the meet,s up to date with meeting minutes, which will be shared via facebook. I’d also like to have some online discussions. My idea is we can share experiences, direct eachother to resources such as good webistes, articles, and books that’ll help eachother out. My husband will be helping me with this effort. For now if you would like to join my support group please add yourself to my group on facebook, and you’d be doing me a big favour if you shared this with others that you think would benefit from this idea. Thanks and I look forward to starting this up
Pelvic Exams done without Consent
Just linking Ed’s last blog it has some good links to explain this situation.
A really bad headache is not neccessarily a migraine.
So, I’ve mentioned before that I was diagnosed with migraines, this occurred about a year ago last October. Migraines are different from really bad headaches, they can cause really bad headaches and worsen a headache that’s already in existence but they are not the same thing. The problem is in common language people associate migraines with a really bad headache and not the neurological syndrome that it is. But, us migraine sufferers know that there is a difference between a really bad headache and a migraine — you can actually feel the difference, although sometimes a really bad headache can turn into a migraine. Unfortunately, I’m a little slow socially sometimes and have made the mistake that everyone knows what a migraine is, then I’ve confused people by asking them what medication they use to treat it and how it’s worked for them. For those people who either haven’t been diagnosed with migraines by a doctor, or have used a migraine to describe a really bad headache, I usually get a confused look like “what you’ve never heard of tylenol?” Which makes me go on my rant like right now (although I’m usually more polite and a little more awkward).
There is a difference between the pain killers we use to aliviate the pain and the migraine medication. Migraine medication does not aliviate the pain of a migraine headache (there I said it!). Thus, most migraine sufferers take both a migraine medication and pain killers. I’m currently on rizatripan (better known as maxalt) and two tylenol one’s plus two ibprofens of about 400mg.
There are varying theories as to what causes a migraine or what happens in the brain. I prefer the vascular dilation theory, since it seems to be true for me, when I get a migraine I have a vein that sticks out of my head (very scary). Basically, the blood vessels in the brain dilate (or become really big), this causes your body to signal a treatment for inflammation and this area becomes sensitive. Now with every heart beat (or whenever blood passes through these blood vessels) the sufferer feels pain. But, there are many other theories which I’m sure you could find fit me too. I’m going to link the wikipedia article on migraines since it will go into further details than I am here — this also discusses some of the theories as to what is the root cause of migraines — all very interesting and I hope one day we figure out what precisely causes them and maybe cure them! (Glee –not the show, just me at the thought of a cure!)
Finally, I’m going to discuss the symptoms of a migraine, cause while I explained that there are drugs to treat the migraine there are also symptoms which helps doctors diagnose you with a migraine and properly treat you. For me a migraine usually starts behind my right eye, just a sharp pain. Sometimes, it also starts with my head feeling too heavy for my neck (this is a tension headache in which the muscles inappropriately contract, usually due to stress levels increasing, this leads to the sharp pain behind my eye which spreads). For most people a migraine starts with photophobia, and phonophobia (can’t have bright lights or loud noises — cool words eh?). There’s also dizzyness, nausea, difficulty concentrating, altered mood (I’m usually pissed off at everyone), cravings for unusual foods (this has happened to me), fatigue, stiff muscles. I also get what’s known as dyphasia, a temporary language disorder — this means that there are words in my head but for some reason my brain can’t tell my mouth to say them, which gets frustrating and my husband is left to guess what I want from grunts and waving of arms. I can’t even mime it out cause for some reason I just can’t think of how to express what my head wants to say — it is the worst kind of frustrating. I’m going to link a wikipedia article on aphasia (which is a more intense version of dyphasia), it also explains it a bit better, do I have dyphasia now? 
While I use maxalt and pain killers to treat the headache there are a few more tricks I use to help me from going crazy when I am in this migraine state, if there is anyone out there who has been diagnosed this has helped me. One, I take ginger pills instead of gravol to treat the nausea, I prefer not to take so many drugs at once and I find that ginger is enough to calm my stomache. Another, is a take a warm bath, for some reason I think this draws the blood out of my head and down my body, but it may just relax me which helps me deal. I usually take the bath with sunglasses on and in the dark (there’s still light peeping out from under the door so the sunglasses aliviate that). I almost always wear sunglasses when I emerge from my dark bedroom to get a drink or food, I bought these wrap around glasses which help block out light from all angles. I use a lavendar aromatherapy spray on my pillow, I find that pleasant smells help me relax and lessen the pain. My Dad also gave me this head band (looks like an 80s fitness head band) it has velcro pucks which attach on the inside of the band (closest to your head) The band helps put pressure on your head while the pucks target a specific area. Sometimes when I have a migraine I feel like pushing on certain areas of my head but due to my fatigue and frustration I can’t do it for long, this headband helps me relax while doing the work of the pushing on those areas. I’m not sure where you would find a headband like this my guess would be a drug store or an alternative health store.
A final thought, if you’ve read this and/or the wikipedia articles on migraines and feel like you might actually have them, please go to your doctor, they can help you and at the very least you can have the migraine meds neccessary to help you recover — the first time you take them you’ll be surprised at the difference afterwards.
Aphasia wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysphasia
Migraine wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migraine
Books and Movies
I’ve been reading “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies”. It’s a really funny book and so much fun to read. I’ve never read “Pride and Prejudice” to compare it to but the characters are so vivid. I want to know what happens to them and with a backdrop of zombies the book just gets funnier and funnier. It is worth the read and I can’t wait to read the next chapter and I just can’t put it down.
I was thinking today about how much books have meant to me. And I love reading all kinds of books, fiction and non-fiction, dramatic, action, adventure, mystery, crime etc. When I was a kid I loved books, before I learned to read I made my mom read and re-read books over and over so that I could memorize the story and ‘read’ it to myself. I can remember looking at the words on the pages and being frustrated over not understanding them. Once I learned how to read it was like being freed. I read every book I could get my hands on. My favorites were the Little House on the Prarie series, The Boxcar Children series, Anne of Green Gables and Little Women. I loved escaping into books. As I grew older I got my hands on horror books and some criminology books. Now I read just about anything I find interesting.
When I was old enough to buy my own tv and vcr/dvd player I began watching the movies my parents wouldn’t watch with me (I was above 18years old in case that concerns you). My world was opened up to so many interesting and vivid stories. Movies that were based on books made me read so I could see the differences between what I saw and what the director and actors saw. I loved losing myself in a really good movie for a few hours.
Really, the truth is I love a good story and I don’t care how it’s told. Whether someone reads it to me, acts it out in a movie or I end up reading it from a book. It’s the best escape for me, it’s the best way for me to learn something new and discover a whole new world.
Today I had my first massage under my new plan to conquer (or at least reduce) these migraines
As the title states I had my first of what will become monthly massages. I’m told I should keep track of them and see how my migraines get as a result. Are they less frequent or even less intense. I’d go for both but one of those two would be just perfect. It’s nice to have a health plan at work which covers these massages otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford these things. On the plus side I feel totally relaxed and I smell like lavendar, which is a very relaxing scent. I almost didn’t want to wash off the massage oil when I got home, I just smelt so nice and I wanted to keep in that state of relaxation.
On the other end of things, my Eddie is busy working on his Ph.D., second semester. Things are getting crazy, in both good and bad ways. We’ve been considering finding a larger place to live, which of course doesn’t help the stress, but I do miss my puppies and having more space to myself (yes I know I am needy). But, after consideration, we really decided that our money would be better invested in a house, equity, an exciting grown-up word. That of course means more time in the smaller apartment, but it’s ok cause I can still put up with Eddie.
Other than that our car is slowly recovering from our Jan 1st, 2010 accident. It’s amazing how a little accident can cause so much work and time and effort to fix. So, far my (wait for it, it’s a stretch but he’s still family) step-cousin in law has done a good job, but we still need a reset on our check engine light — which he said he’ll do (and double check that there really isn’t anything seriously wrong with the car). This is super nice considering Eddie and I are super paranoid about everything.
Last but not least, it’s A.A. Milne’s Bday, he’s the original author of Winnie the Pooh and after the copywrite ended up in Disney’s hand we have some classic cartoons which I’m going to add to the end of this blog. Enjoy!
YouTube Video #2
This one is from our honeymoon. It features Eddie waiting in line at the Haunted Mansion having fun with our camera and a Tombstone that has my Dad’s name on it. Enjoy the surprise!
My First YouTube Video
This might be a hallmark moment for me (or not). This is my first YouTube video ever. I wish it was more comedic or entertaining but I love this video. I just turned on the camera and recorded my family, my Dad, my husband, my Mom, myself and Coco and Lucky the chihuahua’s hanging out being silly having regular conversation while decorating the Christmas tree. The video made me smile when I rediscovered it yesterday on my camera. And even though I hate the sound of my own voice I find it somewhat tolerable in this video. Anyways, enjoy this snippet of a Tucker family Christmas.
Merry Christmas and I hope I have alot more videos and pics to post later on!
Blog Test post for twitter and facebook!
Just writing a test blog to see if this shows up on twitter and facebook!
