ProfessorTomoe

Let's see if we can consolidate some of the "what are you eating/drinking/breathing" threads into this one. I am currently ingesting Crystal Light tea. Just had some hummus & pita chips beforehand. I'm considering getting a glass of Bulgarian buttermilk (I was shocked that my local Albertson's actually had the Bulgarian style! Nom.).

Turns out I did give Mrs. Prof the same disease, and thanks to her stubbornness she let it get worse than mine. She now has an acute maxial infection with water behind the ear, according to the folks at CareNow. And, for some dumb reason, she's going to continue with plans to conduct a feral cat round-up on Sunday. She's going to make herself worse, especially when you consider that she's got to take me to my pain med checkup on Monday. To add to the agony, the stupid Windows update made Google Drive try and sync with every file on my system, and in my anxiousness to get them off, I wound up deleting most of what was there, including my medical records. That's it - I'm using Dropbox from now on, because I'm going to have to restore a recent image backup to an empty drive and then restore what I had from Google drive just so I can access my medical records.

As with the thread from the previous incarnation of the board, I begin this one with a request that the information within remain confidential. This is a thread for those seeking support as they deal with very sensitive situations involving either their own or a loved one's health. Please let this be a thread where such information can be shared with a level of trust. Now, back to the topic at hand. I picked up my second filling of Brintellix yesterday—all $141 of it, for a month's supply. I find it odd that it is an antidepressant, yet the price is so high that it is depressing just to purchase it. As for its effects, I'm still getting used to them. I haven't been able to sleep for more than three hours at a time for a couple of weeks now. When I do wake up in the middle of the night, I'm not groggy. In fact, I feel for at least a short time that I've had a decent night's sleep. That sensation only lasts a few hours, though. I don't crash out—I just sort of fade to the point where I need to sleep again. Very weird. I've also lost weight. Not a lot, but every pound counts, and it's been a slow and steady drop. Some of this might be related to the small dose of metformin that I'm on (my A1C hit 6.5 again, causing my primary doctor to freak out). I seriously don't know. Whatever the reason, it made my cardiologist happy at my appointment yesterday. Speaking of cardiologists, mine determined that I am status quo as far as my PVCs are concerned. He hasn't seen them in the short 30-second EKGs he runs at every appointment, but the memory of my Holter monitor results from several years ago is enough to keep him on his toes. Still, he saw no reason to increase my lisinopril or to add a beta blocker to my shoebox full of medicines. I hope this thread will be as useful as the last one was. Thanks for any support you can provide.

Had to visit the doctor today. Been having sore throat issues, along with congestion (nasal & chest), sinus pain, non-migraine headaches, and a generally foggy head, making it unable for me to write music. Diagnosis: upper respiratory infection that has spread to my mouth. Additional: while showering, I noticed a black spot on the second toe of my left foot. That's the one that had the toenail removed back in February due to infection. Well, the toe is now ulcerated and infected again. I'm on a 14-day course of Augmentin. I haven't been able to write music today or yesterday, although I'm hoping I can by tomorrow (or at least by Saturday). Mrs. Prof is now complaining that I've given her the same disease. I hope not.

A connection has been made between the itching and the 400mg of Topamax. Turns out that, in rare cases, Topamax can cause diffuse itching without an accompanying rash. I seem to have fallen into that crack. I have no rash, and I must scratch. If it weren't for the stuff keeping me from having daily migraines, I'd go back to the 200mg dose. I'm still getting migraines, but they're few and far between now.

In re: mlooney's TMI post on another thread: In non-TMI news, I'm fully transferred onto the 400mg dose of Topamax. Any difficulty speaking has been subtle, if non-existent. Still keeping an eye on it. I'm also having to add Benadryl to my already hefty dose of antihistamines. I've been itching all over the upper part of my body for several days now. It feels like an attack of the hives, but there are no visible symptoms.

I have another website for promoting the Calibrations CD. Please go here: https://leejackson.hearnow.com You can play previews of the songs and get links to the sales sites there. Have a look!

Ohh, it's so tantalizingly close I can almost feel the shiny new jewel case in my hand. If you've followed the forum, you may be aware that I need to publish an album by April to keep my Grammy voting rights. It looks like that may happen much sooner than that. All twelve tracks are complete, tested on a crappy laptop speaker, and await just one more road test. A cover is being designed, and publishing possibilities are being investigated. Of the twelve tracks, three will be absolutely brand new, never published before! Right now, that's all I can release to the general public. Watch this space for more over the next month. In the meantime, if you've got music to talk about, talk about it!

Sure enough, the doctor was right about the increased Topamax dosage. I'm on 300mg, and I'm feeling generally wharrgarbl. It hasn't interfered with my vocabulary too badly yet, thankfully, but it has made me a bit woozy. I'm not looking forward to the jump to 400mg. The Topamax is supposed to prevent my hand grenade headaches from hitting me, but it hasn't so far. I had one hit yesterday afternoon while in the middle of writing music. It brought that composing session to an abrupt end. Had to take two rizatriptan pills to get it to go away.

Some actual good news for a change: I'm no longer diabetic! https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2018/04/beating-diabetes/

I would still need an EEG to prove that it's functioning,

This doesn't bode well. My sales since the CDs came back in stock have been ... wait for it ... one. I've got a hundred of the damned things sitting in my bedroom. I might be stuck with them. The only hope I've got is a pending tie-in with Jon St. John. He's going to be giving away free CDs that he'll be autographing at his convention appearances. For those who don't get a signed CD, he'll have special square business cards with the Calibrations cover art on the front and the CD Baby link to buy it on the back. I ordered them from Vistaprint. They'll be arriving Wednesday, I hope.

I am officially a migraine patient. Damn. Hello, mlooney, you're not alone anymore. The CT scan definitively proved that I have a brain, and that there's nothing visibly wrong with it. My doctor is keeping me on the rizatriptan for whenever a hand grenade goes off in my left hemisphere. He's also ramping up my Topamax dosage over the next 10 days from 200mg to 400mg. He warned me that it might make me more dopey (i.e., might make me "lose more words"). I start by taking 200mg in the morning and 100mg at night for 10 days, then switch to 200mg twice a day. Just what I needed when I'm in the middle of a project. My anxiety level is going through the roof.

BTW, the CD is finally back in stock at CD Baby! https://dleejackson.lbjackson.com/2018/04/calibrations-cds-back-in-stock/

I'd do that if I followed the community. As is, such an attempt might be viewed as too blatant, I fear.

As scheduled, my personal stock of 100 Calibrations CDs arrived here on Friday. Now, all I'm waiting for is CD Baby to receive their stock so they can go selling again. I'm probably going to have to pay to boost my Facebook post on the matter so that word spreads as far as possible.

Had to take the rizatriptan headache medicine today. That's my third dose. Knocked me out for most of the day. This has been a wasted week. Between headaches and bugs in my music software, I haven't been able to get jack (censored) done. Tomorrow is tech support hell day. Monday is the day I go in to get a CT scan of my brain to see if anything visible is causing the headaches. I'm guessing it's going to be another mystery with no obvious cause.

Nonexistent, while CD Baby remains out of stock. The latest news on that is that they'll receive their copies on Monday the 16th. I am not happy. Meanwhile, my 100 will arrive on Friday the 13th. I will take care of the CD Baby restocking myself from now on.

He did send it, to the right pharmacy. The pharmacy found it 15 minutes after I called to check on it this morning. It's now ready for pickup.

Verified this morning that the pharmacy never received my headache medicine prescription. Appropriate countermeasures have been taken. We begin launching missiles in five minutes.

I had an unusual occurrence today at the doctor's office. Many times, when you go to the doctor about a problem, the problem doesn't show up when they examine you for it. It's just like taking your car to the dealer for a problem: the car acts perfectly when the dealer looks at it. Well, I had the doctor examine me for my headache problem, and lo and behold, I got hit by a monster while he was in the exam room. He's ordered a CT scan with and without contrast. He also sent a prescription for rizatriptan to my pharmacy, but unfortunately the pharmacy never got the prescription. I just have to pray that I don't get hit by another monster before Mrs. Prof can make it to the pharmacy (when they've got my prescription filled).

I am adding an item to today's appointment with my doctor: massive headaches that feel like a grenade has gone off down inside my skull. They're always on the left-hand side, and they always make me wince and bend my head down. I don't know what he can do for me with all of the other medications I'm on.

I hate my left foot. First it was the infected ingrown toenail on toe #2 (counting left from the big toe). The podiatrist removed the nail and made it so it couldn't grow back. It's not bleeding, but it still looks infected. Next, I broke toe #3. It seems to be healing slowly but surely. Now, some unknown crap is going on with toe #4. It's turned purple and black for absolutely no reason whatsoever, and it hurts. I can't get in to see my doctor until Monday, and I can't see my podiatrist until the 19th. WTF is going on here?

All right, all right. (*ahem*) A restock is being printed and sent to CD Baby as of this past Monday. A further 100 CDs are being printed and will be sent to me. I can restock CD Baby faster with pre-printed stock. I just have to hope that there are 100 more people out there who want the CD.