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Awake at 4 am
Mar. 6th, 2021 05:23 amThis is not going to be a good day.
My husband's CPAP woke me almost an hour ago. His mask was ajar and between the hiss of a now leaky seal of mask with face and the beeping alarm of his machine, which was supposed to alert him, but never does, I AWOKE. After adjusting his mask, I spent 1/2 an hour tossing, trying to find a comfortable position to go back to sleep, without success. I got up to take a leak, came back to bed and picked up my phone to check the time, only to find I could not focus on the screen. WTF?
I don't mean I couldn't concentrate on the screen. I couldn't see it clearly. Rubbing my eyes didn't help. I had to look at the screen not directly, but from the side, first with one eye, then the other, just to read the time.
Crap.
There are times when being an MD is a curse. The mental wheels started turning. Mom has macular degeneration, as did her mother and her brother, as did her father-in-law, so I have it on both sides of my family. Never mind that my last eye exam was absolutely normal, other than I'm nearsighted as all hell. Macular degeneration was right where my mind went. Thanks to the pandemic, and social distancing, I've put off preventative care. I'm six months overdue for a recheck on my eyes and I've been waiting for my second vaccine to reschedule my next eye exam.
I spent 15 minutes in the dark, wasting precious time while debating what to do about my sudden onset of bilateral macular degeneration, time I could have spent medicating myself. Sixty-five years old, almost half a century after my first, I failed to recognize my sudden visual issue was my old friend, migraine.
My aura is almost always long enough to medicate and prevent the headache. Once upon a time I used ergot, which gave way to triptans, but I learned 20 years ago, I usually respond to a large dose of caffeine. My migraines are infrequent, triptans are prescription only, usually expensive & often leave me nauseated (as can the migraine itself), and I didn't always have them on hand when the rare migraine hit. In my 20s, they were frequent, sometimes weekly, but by the time I hit my 50s, they spaced out to only a few times a year. Coffee and tea in my home are omnipresent, and if I'm out, Starbucks are everywhere, so I always have that option.
This was a first for me. I can't remember having a migraine in the middle of the night before. The aura didn't waken me; actually, I don't think it started until 15 minutes or so after I awoke. In the darkened room, & without my glasses, I didn't recognize the visual aura nearly as quickly as I should have. Lack of sleep can be a trigger, and thanks to LJ's CPAP, I'm definitely short on sleep right now. I'm finishing my first cuppa joe, a fresh pot is brewing, so soon I'll be having my second, and if needed, a third thereafter. My head is throbbing, albeit it not horrifically. I'm mildly homophobic, but my vision is starting to return to normal, though I'm not sure if that's the coffee, or that the aura is ending and the headache phase beginning.
My day however, is screwed. Once my headache is down to a point where I might be able to go back to sleep, the caffeine I'm slamming is going to prevent any shut eye. I have Zoom meetings scheduled from 10 till 4 today, with a virtual lunch with a friend at noon. This is going to be one long ass day.
My husband's CPAP woke me almost an hour ago. His mask was ajar and between the hiss of a now leaky seal of mask with face and the beeping alarm of his machine, which was supposed to alert him, but never does, I AWOKE. After adjusting his mask, I spent 1/2 an hour tossing, trying to find a comfortable position to go back to sleep, without success. I got up to take a leak, came back to bed and picked up my phone to check the time, only to find I could not focus on the screen. WTF?
I don't mean I couldn't concentrate on the screen. I couldn't see it clearly. Rubbing my eyes didn't help. I had to look at the screen not directly, but from the side, first with one eye, then the other, just to read the time.
Crap.
There are times when being an MD is a curse. The mental wheels started turning. Mom has macular degeneration, as did her mother and her brother, as did her father-in-law, so I have it on both sides of my family. Never mind that my last eye exam was absolutely normal, other than I'm nearsighted as all hell. Macular degeneration was right where my mind went. Thanks to the pandemic, and social distancing, I've put off preventative care. I'm six months overdue for a recheck on my eyes and I've been waiting for my second vaccine to reschedule my next eye exam.
I spent 15 minutes in the dark, wasting precious time while debating what to do about my sudden onset of bilateral macular degeneration, time I could have spent medicating myself. Sixty-five years old, almost half a century after my first, I failed to recognize my sudden visual issue was my old friend, migraine.
My aura is almost always long enough to medicate and prevent the headache. Once upon a time I used ergot, which gave way to triptans, but I learned 20 years ago, I usually respond to a large dose of caffeine. My migraines are infrequent, triptans are prescription only, usually expensive & often leave me nauseated (as can the migraine itself), and I didn't always have them on hand when the rare migraine hit. In my 20s, they were frequent, sometimes weekly, but by the time I hit my 50s, they spaced out to only a few times a year. Coffee and tea in my home are omnipresent, and if I'm out, Starbucks are everywhere, so I always have that option.
This was a first for me. I can't remember having a migraine in the middle of the night before. The aura didn't waken me; actually, I don't think it started until 15 minutes or so after I awoke. In the darkened room, & without my glasses, I didn't recognize the visual aura nearly as quickly as I should have. Lack of sleep can be a trigger, and thanks to LJ's CPAP, I'm definitely short on sleep right now. I'm finishing my first cuppa joe, a fresh pot is brewing, so soon I'll be having my second, and if needed, a third thereafter. My head is throbbing, albeit it not horrifically. I'm mildly homophobic, but my vision is starting to return to normal, though I'm not sure if that's the coffee, or that the aura is ending and the headache phase beginning.
My day however, is screwed. Once my headache is down to a point where I might be able to go back to sleep, the caffeine I'm slamming is going to prevent any shut eye. I have Zoom meetings scheduled from 10 till 4 today, with a virtual lunch with a friend at noon. This is going to be one long ass day.
