The State of Things

The State of Things is not good. No, I'm not talking about Trump, although I certainly could be. I'm talking about life in Chez Martin. Mostly life in my brain.

Let's start with a little context since I haven't blogged in about two months. Patrick and I took a 26 year anniversary trip from here to California (with many stops) and back home. We were gone a full month and had an amazing time! Yes, there were many headaches, but we had a wonderful time anyway.

A couple of weeks ago, I got my usual Botox for my migraines and my neurologist agreed that I could try to go without my topiramate (I take the generic long-acting version). There was a reason behind this. The keto diet has been helping my migraines so I have been thinking that maybe, one day, in a perfect world, I might be able to go back to work. But, I'd have to be off the topiramate because that medication makes my brain fuzzy and makes me forgetful. You don't want your doctor unable to remember drug names and unable to do simple calculations. Not pretty.

Soooooo, I stopped the topiramate for 2 weeks. Wowza! Daily headaches went crazy. Lots of migraines. (But, a clearer brain . . . ) I called neuro and the nurse practitioner said to go back to the topiramate (duh!) and see if my insurance will cover Aimovig, the new migraine medication. And, yay!, my insurance will cover it! But, it takes a while to get all the paperwork straightened out.

Where are we now? My topiramate levels have not come back up to normal. There have been multiple storms systems coming through. And I've been having "carb creep", meaning that I've been slowing eating more carbs than I should and I've been falling out of ketosis. All of which means that in the last couple of weeks, I've had headaches and depression.

The State of Things in my brain is not good. In the afternoon, I tend to want to sit on the sofa like a zombie and stare into the middle distance. But, writing about it sometimes helps. Also, having clean clothes helps and I did laundry today. A big front is coming through, so the weather is changing. My topiramate level is slowly increasing (I can't feel it, but I'm sure it is). And, I should be able to start the new medicine in the next week or so.

I won't be going back to work in the next month. Blah. But, I will knit all the things. And cook every low-carb thing in the world. I WILL keep my carb count below 20g and stay in ketosis!

Now that I've spilled my guts online, it's time to go take my meds and knit some Christmas presents. And pray for a couple of migraine-free days.

So, how's life in your brain?

Catherine