Migraine! Where did that one come from!

Many years ago, when I was a young, slim, healthy lass, I started getting incredibly bad headaches. I didn't associate them with migraines as I didn't have the normal flashing lights, didn't need to lay down in a darkened room etc.

The doctors prodded and poked, asked lots of questions and sent me for a brain scan - apparently, to make sure I had one.

By the fact that nothing else could be found they decided I was suffering from migraines and all I needed to do was find out what triggered them and then I would be able to control them.

While I was trying to identify the cause and therefore continuing to suffer from them I was told to try and identify the early warning signs.

My symptoms always started with my right hand going numb and I would notice this (or my friends would) because I would start clenching and unclenching my fist. Eventually the numbness would spread right up my arm and my vision would go funny. Not the flashing lights I had heard you got with migraines, but my vision goes prismatic - like looking through a kaleidescope - all the bits of the picture are there but not all in the right places. I also found that straight lines began to curve - like door posts and lamp-posts. The final thing was my speech used to go crazy. No, not like Tourettes - just that in my head the sentences were all ok but apparently when I said what I was thinking the words were all mixed up.

I eventually found that my trigger was not eating often enough. If I skipped lunch I would find the symptoms starting about 3pm. If I skipped breakfast they would come on mid-morning. I started to eat better and more regularly and always carried a chocolate bar with me, as I found the instant sugar kick could stop the migraines if I ate as soon as I noticed my hand was numb. It seemed strange that chocolate stopped my  migraines when so many people find it a trigger for theirs.

Over the years I have been able to keep my migraines to an absolute minimum, managing to have whole years with out one.

And that was where I was at until yesterday. I cannot remember the last migraine I had but yesterday morning I woke with the onset of one. Now, none of this make sense as I had eaten as normal the previous evening, had a good nights sleep and not even had a drink.

So, I am now wary that they are a) back and b) have a new trigger.

Oh, I do hope not!

All grown up at 4.

This week was the 4th birthday of our grand daughter and we got to spend 2 hours in the indoor play area at a local pub.

Now, this was a new experience for me and all I can say is - why didn't they have places like this when I was 4 years old. It looked great fun and Cadey had a great time.

She didn't want a meal of her own, she just wanted to share Grandma's. But she dictated what Grandma could have - of course.  The reason for this was that she had no intention of sitting still for any period of time and eating, she would merely pick a chip up, or a chicken piece up on her way past from one part of the play area to the other.

And, to be fair, Grandma didn't get to sit and eat her dinner either as whatever part of the play area Cadey was in, she wanted a photo taking so the dulcet tones of 'Grandma, I'm on the slide, rope, bridge, ladder, ball pool...... can I have a picture' rang out every 2 minutes.

She's into Peppa Pig at the moment and was so proud of her new Peppa Pig dress that she desperately wanted to keep it clean enough to wear to school the next day and she achieved it.

She ran around and played so much that she was asleep in the car before we were out of the car park - a happy child.

And this is Cadey and her Daddy getting ready to blow out the candles on her Peppa Pig cake. Happy Birthday Cadey.

Finally, Spring Sunshine 3 days running.

Saturday was miserable and grey, the sun never broke through the clouds and winter seemed to be dragging on. Somehow Sunday was a complete change. The sun was out, it was warm and it felt like Spring had arrived. We no longer needed several layers when we walked the dogs. We kept Sunday as a quiet day after my difficulties of the night before but, half way through the afternoon Neil did comment on how nice a 'golf day' it had been. I think he appreciated that I was having enough trouble just breathing let alone walking for 4 hours.

I was lucky that the sunshine stayed with us on Monday, my day off. We walked into town to do all the little shopping jobs we should've done over the weekend (I love that we are close enough to walk into town) and then decided we would have a drive out to one of the local parks with the dogs. At the moment it is still winter season, so there is no charge for parking. Soon they will start to to charge £5.00 for the day - but we only tend to be there for an hour with the dogs so, I refuse to go when we have to pay.

As I had taken the dogs to Rufford Abbey 2 weeks ago, and we had done Sherwood Forest last week, I thought we would try out Clumber Park. We are very lucky to live so close to so many wonderful woodland walks and Clumber is our nearest, a mere 10 minutes drive away.

I remember going many times when I was younger but it's probably 20 years or more since I was last there. I remembered there were many little stopping places alongside the forest with good trails through the trees, and the big house down by the lake but while being vaguely familiar it was surprising how new it all felt after so many years.

The dogs loved running through the forest, investigating all the new smells left by rabbits and foxes and many other creatures, meeting other dogs out having fun in the sun.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-clumber_park-2.htm

Springtime is a lovely time of year.

Man-flu is no fun when it's passed on.

A couple of weeks ago, Neil came home from golf feeling very unwell, shivery and listless. Man-flu had arrived.

Since then I have tried to avoid catching it but living in the same environment, it was high improbable that the bug would pass me by.

And it's my own fault. I'm supposed to have a flu-jab each winter because I am asthmatic. Normally, my asthma is triggered by flowers, or highly perfumed cleaning products, or perfumed candles but, if I get a bad cold that develops into a cough it can be enough to cause serious breathing problems.

Last weekend I started with the dreaded cold. I have boosted the profits of our local chemist with the amount of tablets, medicines and losenges I've gone through this week trying to keep the cough from getting hold. But all to no avail.

The offices where I have started work are very warm, which makes a lovely change from my last 2 jobs where the offices could be incredibly cold on occasions, but warm, dry air irritates my cough and makes it worse. Talking makes it worse and part of my job is to be on the phone quite often - so I struggled to get through to the weekend. Fortunately, my day off is Monday so I have a few days to get over the worst of it.

I find the worst time for my asthma is always during the night, my worst attacks have been during the early hours of the morning and it can be very scary when I wake up choking & unable to catch my breath.

I've slept downstairs for 2 nights so that I could be in a more upright position as, everytime I laid down, the coughing started. I found I could sleep quite well on the reclined sofa but, yesterday was a much better day and so last night I decided I would try sleeping in bed again. I stacked the pillows up to see if that would help and fell asleep while Neil was watching the football review.

The night's peace was shattered at 4am when I woke suddenly with an overwhelming sense of choking. I was completely unable to get my breath and couldn't control my coughing enough to use my inhaler. I sat for several minutes trying to contain the panic that was building in my head, knowing that there was only me that could get this under control, as much as Neil tries to help - there is nothing he can do.

Eventually, I managed to get a couple of puffs from my inhaler and I could feel my breathing calming down. It's several years since I had an attack this bad, so hopefully it will be several more before the next but just incase, I shall be sleeping sitting up again tonight. One night of panic is quite enough.

Too Good to be True?

After the disappointment of Friday's 'no-job' news, I spent the weekend trawling through the internet job sites checking for suitable positions and had my list of contacts all ready for Monday morning.

On Monday morning, the phone rang before I had sat down to start working through my list and it was an agency I haven't heard from for 4 months. They had a position nearby, needed an immediate start, doing what I do - was I interested?

Ermmmmm, let me think about it - YES.

So, I had an interview yesterday morning. Again, a 12 weeks temp contract with a possible permanent afterwards. Yeah, we won't be too focused on that. They were seeing 2 of us, 50/50 chance then.

Afterwards I decided to enjoy my day off and take the dogs to Sherwood Forest for a stroll. While I was there my phone rang. It was the agency with good news.

They were offering me a position 4 days a week - so, I still have my 3 day weekends - and want me to start tomorrow.

Further discussion and it turns out they couldn't decide between the 2 of us, so we have both been set on. One will do Mon - Thurs and the other Tues - Fri, I'll find out tomorrow which days I'll work but I'm happy with either. This gives them 5 days cover, holiday cover, illness and they feel there is enough work for 2 as they are coming in to their busy time of year.

They were let down by a previous temp who was taken on the week before for training and then this week didn't go back as she received another job offer that she preferred, so I think there is a bit of hedging their bets with us. They can try us both out to see who they prefer, and if one drops them in it the other can continue - maybe my experiences of the previous week have made me a little cynical - only time will tell.

But, in the meantime I have a job round the corner in nice, modern offices opposite the supermarket and McDonalds. I no longer have a 80 miles round trip each day which more than makes up for the lower hourly rate, especially with fuel prices going up all the time.

So, tomorrow morning sees me playing the role of new girl again - but this time, I'm not alone.

Wish me luck!

Be Careful What You Wish For - You May Just Get It!

I wrote recently about how much I enjoy my 3 day weekends and that I hoped I wouldn't be asked to work Friday's for a few more weeks.

What I hadn't anticipated was that not only would they not be asking me to work Fridays in the near future, suddenly I wasn't needed to work Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays either.

Yes, on Friday I had a call from the agency to say the company I was working at had had a meeting that morning and decided they needed some cost reductions and that I was a 'luxury that they couldn't afford!'

I've basically been too effective and too efficient in sorting out their issues and now they can continue to tick over as they were, without me. They had concerns over how their customer accounts were being collected. They didn't know how to use the software to it's full extent and didn't have any User Guides to help them! They had an idea what it should do but didn't know how to make it do it.

They now have a full set of user Guides, a new written procedure and a set of reports that gives them the information they need to control things better.

And I have a week off while I look for a new assignment.

I must admit it's left me feeling gobsmacked and bewildered, and a little disappointed that they didn't sit down and talk to me about it rather than waiting until I was on my day off and then ringing the agency.

Quite bizarre!