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

[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.