Original Face

An Etonian and an Exonian

    I haven't written in these pages about my family but I want to make an exception tonight.  It is an odd thing to be a parent.  When your children do wonderful things you are congratulated even though it is their accomplishments lauded.  You feel a happiness in their actions and growth that far exceeds the feelings that  you have felt when you, yourself, were the person at question.  What is it that makes their pain more bitter, their laughter more heartfelt and their joy more uplifting?
    Each day I learn by being their dad.  Each day I thank God for the gift of their presence.  They make being alive wonder-full.

Wired

A couple of weeks ago I decided to stop ingesting caffeine.  No particular reason other than I decided that it would be better for me to drink water and herbal teas rather than coffee and Diet Coke.  I thought I would be a bit sluggish perhaps.  For a day or two.

Was I wrong.  My migraine headaches came roaring back, if not with heightened intensity, then with frequency.  I found my self dragging in the morning and desirous of a nap during the day.  I was cranky and snappy. But the good news was that I never found myself Jonesing for a cuppa.

Finally, after a couple of weeks these problems have begun to abate. I really can't say I feel any better than I did when I had caffeine on board but I have come to appreciate its pharmacological power. 

Last night I drank what I thought, in the semi-darkness, was a caffeine-free soda.  I was wrong.  As  my eyes popped open after just a couple of hours of sleep I took a look again at the can.  Although there was relatively little caffeine in the drink, it wasn't Red Bull or another "energy" drink, it was more than enough to jump start my caffeine free body.  As Keith Jackson would put it "Whoa, Nellie!" 

Right now, as I write, the effects are wearing off and I am tired, very tired.  Unfortunately, it is the start of the day and I can't crawl back into bed to catch the couple of hours I missed earlier.  Maybe just one little cup to get me into the car....yeah, what's it going to hurt?

Read the damn label!

As I posted a couple of days ago, I have a very bad sunburn...as bad as I have had in years.  Last night, I was staying at a hotel and my chest and back were very stingy and itchy.  I went into my toiletry bag and low and behold I had some anti-itch spray.  It said that it was great for bug bites.  It didn't mention sunburn, but hey, I was hurting and beggars can't be choosers, right?

Well, I sprayed it on and it felt as if my whole torso was on fire. It was the worst skin pain I had ever felt.  It took my breath away.  Even 50 mg of benedryl, which should knock out a bucking bull, didn't even touch it.  I had to also take a Tylenol 3 (which was so old I am not certain how effective it still was). 

I gained some insight, from this incident.  I now am certain that I would be a very bad p.o.w.. I would have told my inquisitors whatever they wanted if they did this to me and had the antidote available.

After I got home this evening I went to the web.  I discovered that there is a reason why sunburns were not listed on the label.  The medication is oil of capsasin, the active ingredient in scotch bonnets and all other hot peppers.  It works wonderfully shutting down active nerve endings for bee or mosquito bites, but on burned skin it is, as I now can attest, contraindicated.

Just goes to show ya.  I might have been a Harvard chief resident, but that doesn't mean I'm very smart.

Burn, Baby, Burn

Ouch.  I now know from global warming.  I washing down the horses and after getting drenched I took off my shirt.  Bonnie Grey was being, well, Bonnie Grey and my attention did not extend to remembering to put on some sunblock. 

My back and chest are heat radiators and I look like a lobster coming out of a clam bake pit.  If it weren't for my Whitman Sampler of favorite pharmaceuticals ( i.e. aloe, NSAIDS, and benedryl) I would be in real agony.  Still, it won't be a great night.  I hope that I get a tan out of this at least.

It could be worse, I suppose.  I am not Icarus.  His sunburn ruined more than his day when his wings melted into nothing...hell of a way to lose weight.

And the beat goes on...

Every neurologist I have ever known has migraines, including me.  I think that it must be a question asked at the interviews prior to residency programs.  Whenever the weather is about to make an abrupt change I get an alarm clock going off in my head.  Today was no exception.

It's not just the pain that makes up migraines.  Like other "classic" migraine sufferers, I know often hours before the pounding starts that it will not be a good day.  My one side of my face and scalp (it can vary from side to side each time) will be hypersensitive and feel flushed.  I can get the feeling that I am slightly removed, like I am watching reality through a television set.  Sounds are louder, they can hurt.

Then, inevitably, the pain begins.  It seems as if my head is a giant teiko drum being beaten my a master percussionist who possesses the talent of having precise rhythm.  Light can be unbearable and my stomach starts doing somersaults.  I need to take my 800 mg of ibuprofen as soon as I can.  If I am too late, I can't stop the migraine and I will have to just ride it out. It is no surprise perhaps that just as a squirrel salts away acorns, I have stashes of ibuprofen everywhere--in my car, in every briefcase, in coat and suitcase pockets.  If I travel, I make sure I know where it is.  But sometimes, regardless of how quickly I medicate, the migraine will not remit.

Whenever I meet another migrainour (we even have own fancy French name) I feel an instant kinship, we understand each other.  Even if others don't.  When I was a kid, migraines were dismissed as just headaches and I was told to ignore the pain and carry on.  But things have begun to change for the better. Maybe it is the larger number of us neurologist/migrainours, maybe it is medical science, maybe it is the fact that so many artists and writers are fellow sufferers, but migraines are no longer treated with a "take two asprins and call me in the morning" attitude.

Maybe we'll even get our own walkathon someday...