My days tend to consist of many things, between the different jobs I do, the errands I run, and the time I take to try to relax, any given day can look drastically different from the one before it. What I am about to write about is not something I talk about easily, and it is not something I tend to share, but after a few years I have learned that I need to be honest with what I am dealing with and stop hiding it from the people close to me.
One thing that is constant on a daily basis is the pain from my headache. For 6 years now I've awakened with a headache that lasts all day, until finally going to bed. Some days are worse than others, and when a migraine is thrown on top it makes for a very interesting few hours or days. I've spent a long time searching for the cause or a treatment that will make each day just a little more bearable. My neurologist diagnosed me with "daily chronic headache syndrome" (yes that's actually what it is called- novel I know). I've tried almost 30 prescription medications (in a 4 year span), various "alternative" treatments, had a few different brain scans, and seen several different doctors. So far I have found a few medications that help with the migraines, and one that seems to keep the daily headaches slightly more bearable than when I wasn't on it. Additionally I found that by going gluten free I reduced the number of migraines I was experiencing from 2 a month to only 6 in the past 16 months. So any recipe that is posted on here will be gluten free or an adaption to make it gluten free.
Long story short I spent a lot of time going to doctors and searching for answers. For the past two years I stopped going to a neurologist because my last one gave up on me telling me "you are holding steady enough, that's all we can hope for." Recently I have found out about a few vitamin deficiencies that I have as well as additional family history that relates so I've decided to go to a hematologist as well as a new neurologist. If you know me, I have very little faith in doctors but I need to try again because living in constant pain is draining.
Today I went to the hematologist. This man was kind, understanding, and I actually liked talking to him. He spent almost 40 minutes just talking to me and explaining the inner workings of a vitamin b12 deficiency as well as asking me questions. He even took me to the lab to see my blood under the microscope and explain what he was looking for in it. As much as I was stressing out about this appointment it went better than expected. Other than the b12 deficiency my blood seems to be within normal ranges in everything else. While this doesn't give me any new information about my headaches it does help me know that I am not suffering from some of the other things my Mom is and that with regular treatment I will be fine. It was a breath of fresh air to be given respect in a doctors office, leave with my questions answered, and trust that while I don't have any answers to the chronic pain I have one more thing to cross off the list of possible causes. One of the medications I was on for a while may even be linked to the deficiency.
I head to a new neurologist later in the month. I'm trying to be optimistic without getting my hopes up. I would love to find a way to be pain-free, even if only for a few days, but at the same time I'm tired of constantly trying with nothing but failures.
For those of you who are around me regularly, thank you for putting up with my random pain and for all of your support over the past few years.
On a completely other note, it looks like I will have a job that I enjoy for another school year. I'm still waiting to get the details but it looks like I will be back in the high school running the math lab, teaching kids math (9th-12th grade)!! I haven't been able to find a full time teaching position but this job is a lot of fun! I should have details tomorrow, but just knowing that they want me back is a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders. This means that I will most likely be back to working 3 jobs and 50-60 hours weeks again, but I'm excited!
September is full of changes: new doctors, one job starting up again, another job getting busier, one (first) grad school class starting (ahhh scary!), turning 24 (also scary!!), and finding a new apartment and then moving into it. It will be a busy month, and as much as change scares and stresses me out I'm actually looking forward to some of it.
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