Sorting out

[liv]

I was a good girl and went for an optician's checkup today. There is nothing physically wrong with my eyes, (my prescription has changed by a quarter of a point diopter in 5 years). The optician defined the vision problems I've been experiencing sporadically as "visual migraines", and thinks they may be caused by high blood pressure. So I'm going to get that checked out tomorrow. High blood pressure is a lot less scary than some of the stuff I'd been imagining; there are well-defined things you can do about it.

Also, I have come to a decision that I do want the job I've been talking about in friends locked posts. So I have booked flights to Australia for mid November, with a stopover in Singapore so I can see SC. Many thanks to everyone who encouraged me and gave me sensible advice.

lethargic_man, you might like this silly discussion about bentsching from baraita. Anyone else who likes puns relating to bits of Jewish liturgy might also enjoy it, but I'm not sure how many of those are reading other than beckyzoole herself.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

Also, I have come to a decision that I do want the job I've been talking about in friends locked posts. So I have booked flights to Australia for mid November, with a stopover in Singapore so I can see SC.

Yay both decision and diagnosis. *hug*

[angelsk.livejournal.com]

my prescription has changed by a quarter of a point in 5 years

0.25 diopters.

Just nitpicky :) Parents are opticians.

Ollie went for his eye test last week and his prescription had changed 0.75d, which explained why he'd been squinting at the TV for ages :)

[liv]

Can you explain why I should say 0.25 diopters rather than a quarter of a point? I understand the nitpicky thing; woe betide anyone who uses copyright as a verb in my hearing. But I'm too ignorant to understand why my usage is wrong, and if you could explain it I'd be more likely to remember.

[angelsk.livejournal.com]

you could also say a quarter of a diopter, or even 0.25.

It's just point is wrong, theres no such thing with relation to your prescription.

[liv]

Thank you. Fixed now :-)

[lisekit.livejournal.com]

My dear Pa managed his HBP without medication very simply and effectively (with doctor's advice) by cutting out salt from his diet and taking up jogging. So, regular exercise that gets your cardio-vascular system going, and reducing salt (and cholesterol if necessary) might be two ways to fix a problem with blood pressure if you have one. Good luck with the test!

[liv]

Thanks, this is very helpful information. Cutting out salt would be a nuisance but not a huge one. And more exercise and less cholesterol are likely good for me anyway, regardless of whether I actually have a medical problem.

[lisekit.livejournal.com]

My mother started cooking with a product called Lo-Salt, which is some kind of low sodium salt alternative, but it tasted awful. So what they did in the end was, over the course of about a week, just gradually cut out the salt in cooking until they got used to eating none. You can get used to it pretty quickly that way, it seems.

My dad really got into his jogging, but you could try anything that raises the heartrate - swimming, or cycling, or an aerobics class with a buddy if you find having somebody else with you is motivational, or the gym if you don't fancy running around in the cold in winter!

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I used to use Lo-Salt; it tasted just like salt to me. AIUI it's potassium chloride, which chemically is very similar to sodium chloride. TBH I don't know if there's actually any medical advantage to it, given that your body spends a third of its rest energy pumping sodium ions in one direction across your cell membrane... and potassium ions in the other.

[liv]

IIRC reducing dietary sodium isn't just to save the membrane pumps energy, it has a signalling effect as well. It is obviously the case that K⁺ and Na⁺ ions are biologically distinguishable, or there wouldn't be a sodium/potassium pump in the first place!

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Actually, I can't remember what the point of the pump is. I thought it was something to do with homoiothermy, but on reflection that doesn't sound right; IIRC homoiothermy's maintained by futile cycles of biochemical activity somewhere-or-other.

[darcydodo]

*hug* GOOD FOR YOU! (That pertains to both the first and the second paragraph.)

[liv]

*hugs tight* Thank you so much for pushing me into looking after my health properly. I probably would have been too cowardly if it hadn't been for you, and I really appreciate that.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Stephen H. does "rubber tyres never break" too... I'm having difficulty parsing "...is illegal in the state of Iowa", though. Good luck for the job in Australia. (It does give me a good put-off for such people as kept expecting you and me to get back together. :-()

[liv]

There are people who expect you and me to get back together?! OK, I do occasionally succumb to wistfulness, but still. Just trying to imagine what it would be like if I were trying to decide between this job opportunity and a relationship is really terrifying. I suppose in a way I've already made the decision, whereas if we were still together, I wouldn't even have put out feelers towards Australia in the first place.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

There are people who expect you and me to get back together?!

Natasha at work, a week or two ago. She wasn't exactly to know better, given that I don't particularly discuss my love life with people at work (though I did say at the time that it wasn't going to happen).

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

The vast majority of migraines are not related to high blood pressure. (Classic migraines involve visual disturbance, then intense head pain, sometimes with other weird neurological symptoms. Visual migraines involve the visual disturbance and some of the peripheral neurological symptoms, without the throbbing pain. They also miss the nausea and vomiting that go with "common migraine." I've been exploring this for almost 30 years, and the terminology is the only part I'm happy to share.) Most people with migraines do not have high blood pressure, but blood pressure medications are sometimes useful for preventing frequent migraines. They seem to act as surge protectors, interfering with the intense local contraction and expansion of blood vessels that happens when a migraine begins. There's also a drop in serotonin at the start of a migraine, and anti-depressants are also sometimes useful for migraine prevention. I'm telling you this because I think you have an abstract interest in almost everything, not because I expect you to need migraine-preventing medication. It's only worth dealing with the risks and side effects for people who have migraines more than twice a week.

Then again, you might actually have high blood pressure. Some people do. (One of my sweeties does. And does NOT want reminders from me about medication and so forth, despite not always remembering. Being healthy enough to not think about staying healthy for a weekend is a fragile luxury, and I don't want to break it for someone I love.) If this is a warning sign for you, I don't want to seem dismissive of it.

[liv]

Thank you, this is wonderful!

The vast majority of migraines are not related to high blood pressure.
Mhm. Maybe I misunderstood what my optician said; perhaps he only meant that high blood pressure is a possible cause, rather than a probable one. In any case getting my blood pressure checked doesn't exactly hurt (turns out it's "mildly elevated", or high side of normal, in other words).

Visual migraines involve the visual disturbance and some of the peripheral neurological symptoms, without the throbbing pain.
Yeah, that's my situation, I seem to get these weird attacks where I can't see properly, but otherwise feel completely normal. I'm not entirely clear whether visual migraine is a description or a diagnosis, actually.

I've been exploring this for almost 30 years, and the terminology is the only part I'm happy to share
Do you mean that you don't want to discuss your personal medical history (I wasn't planning to pry anyway, but it seems a reasonable stipulation), or do you mean that you hope others don't have to put up with the misery you've been through?

I'm telling you this because I think you have an abstract interest in almost everything
Thank you. *smile* I'm really pleased that that aspect of my character is obvious, and I am indeed interested to know that blood pressure and depression medication can help with migraines.

If this is a warning sign for you, I don't want to seem dismissive of it.
I didn't think you were being dismissive, just informative and to some extent reassuring. Actually even if you'd told me that it might be far worse than I'm imagining I'd probably have found it reassuring, I like to have more information.

May I LJ-friend you? I've seen a few comments of yours that I really like and I think enough of them have been addressed to me that I can reasonably ask, at this point.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

"Migraine" is a diagnosis of exclusion. If you have the symptoms and nothing is structurally wrong, they say you have migraine. Many symptoms of migraine can also indicate other problems that doctors generally consider more exciting, so they will often want to look for stroke, tumor, eye disease, etc, depending on the particular pattern of symptoms. Some doctors go through the whole diagnostic procedure and conclude, "You're fine, it's just migraine," and send the patient home, because there is no exciting disease to treat. *rolls eyes* Other doctors go through the same diagnostic procedure, and when all the tests for exciting diseases come back negative, then they treat the patient for migraine.

I don't know if your doctor saw something in your retina that looked indicative of high blood pressure. Or if he just made his first guess that your problem would come from something easy to diagnose, measure, and treat. (Wishful thinking. *grin*)

When I said I only wanted to share the terminology, I meant that I wouldn't want anyone else to suffer like this. I don't mind talking about treatment or history, but it's so idiosyncratic I don't expect my experience to be terribly useful to others. I have some unusual complications to my migraines and related neurological issues.

You're welcome to add me to your LJ-friends-list. (Anyone who so desires may do so. I think of it as a reading list.) We have mutual friends and I'm interested in what you have to say, but I very rarely read your LJ because I find it so difficult on a purely visual level. I don't process pictures well, and something about your unique LJ interface makes it impossible for my computer to block the pictures, and difficult for me to look past them to the text.

[liv]

I do understand your cycnicism about the medical profession, but against that I think I would want to know if I had eye disease or brain cancer. Diagnosis of exclusion is a useful concept, thank you for that.

I have duly "friended" you. My friends list is a reading list too, but some people seem to have a certain emotional investment in the term, so I thought it polite to ask.

I'm sorry my journal is awkward for you to read; I hadn't realized that the way I designed it prevented blocking the pictures. If you're just reading occasionally (rather than adding me to your friends list), you could bookmark http://www.livejournal.com/users/livredor?style=mine to get rid of my custom layout altogether. Maybe it's time for a redesign; last time I tried a low-graphics version, rysmiel hated it so I went back to the original setup. Oh well, constructive criticism is always appreciated.