Here in opposite world I'm barred from exercising and force-fed salt. It's pretty weird. I was driving along the other day and they had this radio program about how to get salt out of your diet. People were going to extreme lengths, I thought, infusing broccoli with red wine and herbs, and that type of thing, to make people eat it salt-free. Callers were asking how they could avoid salt in this or that form, and I thought it would be funny to call in to say that I have a 5 gram a day salt minimum and for me, salt is not the devil. But I didn't– I'll just head to the POTS support sites and find out those useful tips on how to not pass out in the shower and how to ingest crazy levels of salt.
At the same time, I decided to call up my old trainer and set up a very gentle, tentative exercise program, reset for my new geriatric lifestyle. I talked to her for a while and gave her the run-down on the situation. I said that the cardiology department was hysterically opposed to my exercising at all, which I could tell worried her. But then I added the my neurologist was okay with it, indeed didn't see any reason why not. So she said, well, just call and find out if there are any specific things he wants to restrict. So I called the neuro's nurse Ivy and explained the whole thing. To my surprise, she said NO. She said, "No– do not exercise until the dr. examines you again." I said, "Examines me in person or just can we talk on the phone?" She said, "He has to examine you in person first." I stammered, "But- but– he seemed okay with it when we talked in March, and he examined me then." She said, "No."
Okay. So… I'm going up to the Clinic again on May 12. Partially to find out once and for all whether I do or do not have Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hyper-mobile joints and overly stretchy everything– including veins– due to a genetic collagen malformation). If so, this would explain pretty much every health problem I've had my whole life. But we'll see about that. After that appointment I'm going in again to see the neurologist and go over this exercise issue (meantime my fitness goals will have to wait!) as well as what is up with all these horrible headaches??
I've never been that big of a headache person, until the last couple months. So… is the Cymbalta causing them? Or is it a virus of some kind? (Ben has them too!) Or is the whole migraine syndrome coming into a new phase? Last Friday I had a severe, almost crippling headache in the afternoon. I took Aleve, which I sort of hate, but which is the only over-the-counter I can use with the Cymbalta. I still felt pretty bad, but I had to rally and take the kids to a major birthday party. Ack. This involved a challenging environment indeed– a pool party, with a large pirate ship spouting water, a huge curly slide, a sort of a din of machines and screaming children, splashing water, fumes of chlorine, weird lighting, excessive heat– basically a sensory overload on every level. (Let me pause here to mention that from the vantage point of the kids this was TOTAL JOY. They had a blast and came home– not just tired but actually sound asleep.) I struggled through it, and did okay. I even made it home in one piece, although I had to lie down upon arrival. I went to bed and assumed I had made it scot-free. However, the next morning, I was slammed by a real migraine attack– not a headache, but acute sensitivity to all input, and dizziness galore. I went to bed in Elias's room because our room was way too bright, and there had to cope with stickers on the walls and patterned sheets. It's just the feeling of needing to crawl into a dark, silent hole, and stay there for several hours until it passes.
I came out of it eventually. And thank god it was Saturday and Ben was home to herd the children. (He's having so much fun with his gas-powered lawn and garden tools! New tractor/mower, new power leaf blower, new chain saw! Oh, yeah, he's going to get this yard under control! It's fun to see him so happy. He was out there last night, mowing the lawn in the dark with the headlights on. And to think I was worried that he wouldn't get around to it.) I felt like a wet dish towel all weekend, though. On Monday I called the dr to tell them what happened, and Ivy told me that the change in the weather had set off migraines all over the place over the weekend, and that the switchboard at the migraine clinic was lighting up like crazy. I reviewed my recent dizziness problems, and found that — hey– they were all on rainy days. I've never made this connection before.
We spent a week in NYC at the end of March. I did pretty well overall, with only two days out of seven marred by dizziness. One involved walking across Central Park in the rain. I was getting dizzy as we went, and then when we arrived at the Natural History Museum, I found that I was standing in a huge line, in the rain, on stairs, and really very very dizzy. I had a horrible time there– it was packed because everyone had the same idea of going there to avoid the rain. Elias kept running off, and I was staggering around from bench to bench. I'm telling you– museums are just horrible for me. They really are. Why do I always forget this?
Anyway, so now I'm eying the weather report with concern. Today it's 75 degrees and beautiful, but storms are coming through. Tomorrow it's supposed to be 40. Does this mean I'm in for it? As a response to this problem, the doctor is upping my Cymbalta from 20 mg to 40. I'm starting the new level tomorrow, Saturday, in case it makes me hecka drowsy at first. Still this is a "sub-therapeutic" dose (that would be 60-90), and I hope we don't have to go any higher. But I also hope that stepping it up a bit will block out this sensitivity to everything and I will be able to head into the spring full throttle.
The garden is really going to be excellent this year. We have flats of seeds getting so big I've had to repot the pole beans and the pumpkins. I actually planted the peas outside, risking a late frost as well as deer and bunnies. I've been digging up and potting all these errant strawberries, to move them into their permanent home. Ben used his powerful massive leaf blower to clear a ton of leaves off this wooded hillside into the garden plot. Then yesterday our wonderful friend Dean came and tilled it, tilling in all the leaves into the clay and sand soil. Now it's stunning, a blank canvas of nice even soften dirt. Next week I'm meeting with the fencing man to see what we can come up with. I want to keep out the critters, but I don't want it to feel like a prison inside the walls. I think there's a beautiful fencing option that I want to see if we can afford. It's like a paddock fence lined with wire that you can't really see. I'll post some pictures when I can. (I wish I had taken some when it was just a scraggly mess full of sticks and saplings. It looks so amazing now, and we haven't even really gotten started!)
Also today there's this lady coming over to look at the site for our new bird and butterfly garden along the garage. I bought this at the school auction this spring, and am really excited to see what she will come up with.
So all this is good. The huge bradley pear outside the bedroom window is in stunning full bloom. This morning I literally saw a robin feathering her nest. It's spring– and even in opposite world this is a beautiful thing.