I know, I know.  I show up, promise to be communicative, and disappear.  This is nothing new, although I swear to god I really meant to keep that promise this time.  Thing is, I have this problem with headaches.  Most of you know I get them, most of you know they're migraines and I'm already on two prescriptions for them.

What I may or may not have mentioned in the past (I probably have, I whine about this a lot) is that the drugs have been losing their effectiveness.  The migraines have been more frequent and more intense and longer in duration.  I went to see the neurologist the day before my jury duty.

I had had a headache every single day since January 8th.  I went to see him on the 30th.

I was mostly okay for the trial I was a juror on.  I mean, I continued to have headaches, but I'm pretty used to them at this point and as long as I have something else to focus on, I can work through them.  If I couldn't, I'd be incapacitated half of my waking hours.

I continued to have a headache every single day.  They got worse.  I doubled one of my medications (on doctor's orders, not because I was desperate).  I waited, like he said to.  It didn't help.  Now, when I say I can work through my migraines, I mean the week-long ones.  Sometimes two weeks.  Then I get a couple of weeks, some times as many as three, free of pain.  I get to recharge, socialize a bit more with people, feel well, that sort of thing.

This time, that didn't happen.  Three weeks in, I was tired, and ready for it to end.  Four weeks, and I was mad.  Five weeks, and I started just going to bed at night as soon as I had eaten something.  I went to my primary care physician in the hopes that I actually had some sort of sinus infection.  When they told me I didn't, and it was just (JUST) the migrianes, I actually started crying in my doctor's office.  That was embarrasing.  They had me start the third prescription that the neurologist had added but told me to wait to start - this one for a drug so strong that i had to work my way up to a full dose so as not to send my body into shock.

That was a little less than two weeks ago.  The day before yesterday was the first time I didn't have a full-blown migraine since this started in early January.  My brain feels bruised.  Something has been using it as a punching bag for seven weeks, and I don't think I'm going to feel normal for a while yet.

On the PLUS side, I have felt insanely better for the past day or so.  I'm still sleeping a lot, which makes sense to me, and I don't have tons of energy, but I am no longer at the point of literal despair.  I don't like that I appear to need to take three strong chemicals daily in order to manage these headaches, plus scary-strong drugs when I start to get another migraine in order to head it off, but I'm just going to have to deal with it.

On the slightly down side, the new drug appears to be rather destructive to my stomach lining, so I have to be careful what I eat for a while.  I'll happily trade an acid stomach for a pain-free head every day for the rest of my life, if I have to.

Anyhow, that was probably a great deal more information than any of you really wanted about my headaches, but I kind of needed to share write it down anyway.  I can't talk about it too much at work, because my coworkers can't do a darn thing about it, and they start to feel bad about making me do work, but I can't exactly NOT do work, so it makes things weird and uncomfortable.  And work, which I will share too much about at a later date, has not exactly been stress-free while all this has been going on.

So, on that cheerful note, I am going to wish you all a lovely Saturday night and go to bed.

Yeah, so I got home this afternoon (I stayed late enough at my parents' house that it was simpler to just sleep over last night) only to discover our heat was broken.  There was hot water in the sink and shower, but the boiler that heats the water for our radiators had gone out.

I called my dad for advice.  He said to call the gas company.  I called the WRONG gas company because I don't PAY that bill, and thus had to call the right one after dealing with an operator for ten minutes.  The right company said it sounded like a plumbing problem.

I called my dad again.  He was still not so helpful - he was watching the Patriots in a playoff game and his usual "must protect my daughter at all costs" attitude, which has been somewhat frustrating as I try and survive on my own, was derailed by the need to watch oversized men in tight spandex run eachother into the turf and slap eachothers' bums.  He said to call the plumber and to make my landlord pay me back, which makes sense as a strategy, only I don't feel comfortable demanding things.  So he put my cousin on the phone, because she works at a plumbing company, and she gave me their emergency number (because FUCK it is cold right now and I don't think trying to get through the night without heat was a good idea) and warned me that on-call calls cost $375 for the first hour and more after that.

Tiff remembered that our nextdoor neighbor sometimes does some small plumbing and carpentry stuff, so we knocked on his door at about 7:45.  He was watching the game, and apparently we scared his daughter, who peered out the door and started yelling for her mom and saying "It's people we don't know!!!"  But he came over anyway, because he is an angel upon Earth, and figured out that it was a part that costs $6 that was broken.  So I call home Depot, and it turns out that they close at 8pm.  So I ask if I can pay for the part over the phone and have them leave it outside the door or something (neighbor-guy's idea).  Which they can't.  But they said they'd leave a register open until 8:15 if we could get there.  So the neighbor guy said he would go, only apparently he decided to detour by his brother-in-law's house, where he got one for free (I think).

I feel bad for whoever had to staff the Home Depot register, but at the same time, he replaced the part and relit the furnace and the radiators are going strong (although because of the kind we have, it won't actually be WARM for another couple of hours.  But we are no longer in danger of freezing to death, which is good.

And now I have to go to bed, because I am getting up at 5:40am to meet my dad in Boston at our new gym and work out.  And I only got four hours of sleep this morning, which is a whiny story for another time.

As a quick, positive side note, I had a great deal of fun on Friday and I really enjoyed seeing a bunch of Deis folks for the first time since Orlando.  Yay for me reemerging for hermitdom!

Ok, I have to shivver myself to sleep now.  I am wearing PJ pants, socks, long sleeves, and considering adding a sweatshirt.  I will wake up roasting in a couple of hours, but it may be worth it anyhow.

GNITE!