Headaches

Migraines run in my family. They started with my late grandmother Dorothy, skipped my father, and went on to my daughter Michelle. 

I've always suffered from heachaches, dating back to junior high school. They usually hit on Sunday night, fearing the next day at school. I was "bullied" before it became a thing, and I not only stood up to these two guys, but reported it to the school principal, who straightened them out pretty quickly. We became friends, and one of them even protected me from other kids in school.

He learned his lesson then I threw him to the ground and told him what would happen if he did anything to me again. 

The headaches went away.

Over the years I had "normal" headaches, and either Tylenol or Advil usually took care of them. Recently, my headaches have been horrible, and I spoke to my neurologist about it, and it's most likely tension headaches because they are at the front of my head.

He gave me a prescription called Amitriptyline, and it is taken at night as one of the effects is drowsiness. It helps with the morning headache, like the one I have now. As soon as I'm done, I'll take a couple of Advil, which will help with the headache and the back pain.

My daughter takes Propranolol which is taken every day to stave off those lousy migraines, which can ruin anyone's day. And I mean a full day full of nausea, pounding head pain, floaters in the eyes and dizziness. I count myself lucky as not having those.

When I saw my primary doctor, I told him about this, and would my blood pressure cause the headaches? I knew the answer, and he said yes. He gave me yet another blood pressure medication, and to take my blood pressure every day. I do, and while there has been some improvement, it's not down in the normal range yet. It can take up to 6 weeks for it to take full effect.

So a headache is not always a headache. Ask your doctor if you think anything is out of the ordinary, it can save your life.

 OMG Those Big Pharma Ads

How many times a night as we watch "Regular TV" are we bombarded with multiple ads for medications we didn't know that we needed?

The most annoying by far is the song and dance one for Jardiance, a diabetes medication. I take that, and thank goodness I don't have the many side effects that quickly run across the screen. Two things happen to me, I have to pee quite a fee times a day, and sometimes it has a really bad odor to it.

I asked my doctor about that, and he said it was a normal circumstance to the medication. It's converting all the sugar in your system, and that's one reason for the frequent urination and odor.

Then there are the ones for Rinvoq and Humira, which are for psoriatic arthritis. These ads make you to not want to take them!

Then there are the ads for the diabetes medications that are being used for weight loss. I take Monjouro, starting at the 2.5 dose, going up to 5.0, 7.5 and now the 10.0 dose. I have lost about 30 pounds in over a year due to taking it, along with going to the gym 3 times a week.

Wegovy shows people singing and dancing in the street, saying how much weight they have lost. Look at the screen crawl about the side effects, and what you have to do to lose the weight. Diet and exercise are the key things. I have cut out a lot of junk food, but I still love my cookies, cakes, and other sweet stuff.

The most depressing ads are for the lung cancer pills. They are not a cure, but a life extender with so many side effects it makes me wonder are they worth it? My mother had lung cancer, and was on one of these medications that didn't do much for her. At the end, she decided to stop all treatment.

Now I watch the streaming services much more that don't inundate me with all these ads.