The Sierra Chronicles

Wow!! what a day. I went to look at some town houses, now that I'm in the market. What some people are selling.....amazing. I looked at one place today that is listed at $312,000.00. A 3 bedroom town house. The place was filthy, the basement unfinished, the people who currently own it drilled holes through the walls on the 2nd foor so they could put TV and compter wires through to another room. The rooms weren't even beside each other...so you have these wires that run over the doors and across walls, with huge drill holes completely through the headers of the door ways.

Needless to say, I'm NOT buying that one.

All of this comes about because I am going to adopt Sierra. And we both need a place to live. I was telling my brother about her today and how she is with me, he said; "she chose you". And you know, he was right. It took her about a day to decide. Our first walk together was nice, she was companionable. Day two, she was just so great. I sat on a park bench and she comes up and puts her head against my stomach so I could scratch her. Totally unbidden, she just does these things. She loves to cuddle too.

Today I went out and bought her a ceramic food bowl, vinyl placemat (it has paws and bones around the edge), a tug-of-war toy and a portable water bowl. It's waterproof and folds up so you can carry it in your pocket when you go hiking. I'm going to try it tomorrow, see how it does. It's really exciting, having her in my life. She is my motivation to finally get off my butt and buy a place of my own. That in itself is exciting.

I plan to put her on the bones and raw food diet, so I've been reading the book by Dr. Ian Billinghurst, who developed it. Makes sense to me. This will be an interesting endevour.

Wish me luck!

Living with Paroxsymal Hemicrania

When I was diagnosed with Paroxsymal Hemicrania, I thought, great, at least the medication works, and I can see properly and hey, the headaches have subsided. But living with it...that's something else. What's it like? Well, say, you're walking along having a great day, feeling good, when suddenly, BAM, you feel like someone just hit the side of your face with a bat. Sometimes it feels like someone is crushing my head between their hands. It hits fast, sudden, and hard. Sometimes I can feel it come on, but not often...I just suddenly have trouble talking. Not because it affects my throat, just that the pain is so piercing, I need to concentrate on calming it down.

From what I understand, there is no known cause and no known cure for Paroxsymal Hemicrania, just that it could suddenly go away altogether, or go into remission for up to 18 months. Oh Joy!!

I've discovered something about the medication I'm on. If I've had to take it early in the day, I can't even have a glass of beer 12 hours later. Not only does it make me dizzy, but it eats my stomach. I've also discovered that work makes the headaches worse, could be the stress. But walking the dog makes it a bit better. Sunlight and red neon hurt the most, even red exit signs can hurt. I hope I don't have to deal with this for the rest of my life.

What puts me off most, is that because it's rare, no doctors really think of it, so they give you all this medication for other stuff, as they 'practice' medicine.