amitymamaThe Attachment Parenting Community

Ariadne Umbrell · 05-06-2008, 10:35 PM

Okay, first off, cross your fingers that this works: DH took some games off the computer. I stripped out the picture capability, re: mamabear's excellent advice. We left the computer off for three days. We aren't at a new computer yet. So, cross fingers. I miss you guys so much my heart aches.

Anyway, I've been trying to situate my body for pregnancy. This is really hard to do with a coughy, sick kindergartener, a class where I had to completely jack up my sleep/wake cycle, too much coffee, not enough food......

So, (1) no classes this semester. My brain wants to fall out my ear and run away to a place that cares for it. I'm reading Jacques Barzun in desperation.

(2) Got Costco membership over objections of DH. Unbelievable how much good food the kids eat, given a chance. DH is also earning more ( commission only job) so we can afford it. I'm eating well, too.I'd been sort of patching holes with coffee and popcorn.

(3) Getting very --distant-- when child is ill. I've been the kleenex of choice, and favorite puking target for nearly eight years now. I let them sleep it off in their room, and check in every half hour. I keep my face away, too.

(4) Vitamins: This is where things get interesting/weird.

Okay, first off, doubled magnesium pills to twice a day. Once a day for migraine control- it also sort of works as a mild seizure controller, and sedative/tonic after a head injury, during PMS, during a period, so on and so forth.

Google it, for recently it came out that low magnesium speeds up cell aging and cell grief- they shut down all but minimal essential functions.

Second off, bought a huge, honking huge, bottle of Vitamin C, and just took it every time I remembered it, which is fairly often since I stay home.

Third, brought home a big bottle of fish oil capsules, and take it pretty much as I remember it.

Multivitamin- Costco brand.

Ca/mag/zinc tablet: occasionally. This is from "The Orgasmic Diet" which was reviewed by Valerie Frankel in Marie Claire. Since, basically, to get what I want, Dh has to get what he wants, and I never want, I figured why not retool my brain so I could possibly enjoy myself, too.

Okay,

So,

Within three days the scar on my finger that had basically stopped me from sewing, and which was getting bigger and more fibrous- shrank. Three weeks into it, it looks like a little trace on my finger, and I can close my hands- which hasn't happened in about eight years.

My face looked like I got a complete face transplant- glossy, smooth, well- colored.The gouged in wrinkles completely gone- the two over my nose near my eyebrows- gone- around the eyes are gone to light lines. Circles under the eyes, mostly gone. For a few days, it was hard to make expressions, not b/c my face couldn't move, but b/c it felt thicker- not stiffer, thicker. The muscles had to get used to working with more stuff. I'm waking up and staring into the mirror, b/c it's so nice to see a pretty face.

Energy: higher. Enough, to sky high, depending on the weather. Damp weather is not sending me to bed, groaning with whatever auto- immune creepiness that I live with and refuse to acknowledge.

Mentally: clearer. Reading in calculus, for fun. Not much, since I'm still vague on trig, but I can see how it makes sense. This is huge for me, since after the car accident, I haven't been able to read the basic texts from my major in college. You have no idea how grieving it is to live out that stupid play " Flowers for Algernon' (?) The slow guy gets a new brain, he's brilliant, and then it degenerates, and he can't read his books. It is utterly, completely - adverbs fail me.

On the other hand about 1/3 of my hair fell out in about four days. It's still a full head of hair- it's like all the thick hair stayed, but the undercoat fell out.

The lightest period I have ever had, ever, started today.

Which makes me wonder if I triggered off PCOS.

what do you think? Good/ weird/ I should stop this and go to a doctor?

ari

mamabear · 05-08-2008, 07:46 PM

I think good! Weird about the hair...I don't see how all that could trigger PCOS, either. All that stuff should only help that.

I wanted to mention something: traumatic brain injury. It causes the symptoms you have re: post car accident. I think there is treatment for it. You might want to look into that...do you have health insurance? I know Flowers for Algernon. Read it as a kid and it haunted me. I have lived it temporarily with the Lyme disease. It's awful to be cognitively foggy. I'm still a bit foggy and slow in fact...

eta: I am SO glad my suggestion worked! Glad to see you back.

Wish I was there, I could help you fix that computer. Reformatting might work...

Ariadne Umbrell · 05-10-2008, 02:18 AM

Coping With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury is the best book on the subject.

Now I have insurance. It makes a difference. Doctors can hear what I'm saying. I think, before, they were hearing a mosquito buzzing "Can't trust cash. Can't trust cash. Can't trust cash." I was working a minimum wage job, part-time, to save up, and afford a single doctor's visit ( usually in the range of $300) each month. It was nearly all I'd made each month. Dh also started coming to doctor's visits. I could say something, and the dr would completely ignore me. He would repeat it, word for word, and they'd note it, or act on it in some fashion.

How do you think I ended up in Supercrunch? Not by training or inclination: I was raised Republican. I was studying chemistry, with a lech for materials science. I was raised in a Dallas suburb- it's hard to get excited about a scrub grass backyard, a weeny little live oak- and frankly ugly, drought- stricken parks. Not a "wonders of nature" upbringing.

As I could barely afford doctors, I had to research what was going on. Fortunately, the minimum wage job was department manager at a college textbook store. The general manager liked me. I could read textbooks, or borrow them. I still have some of the notebooks. It's painful to even look at them.

Epilepsy: a new approach, is a book that was nearly a godsend. I backtracked what the author had written, to figure out what was nonsense, and what might work, and why. I got pretty fearless about high doses of Magnesium, and pretty gigged on anti- oxidants- manganese "catches" the chemical whip that makes some nerves work, for example. I took it from two or more seizure- like episodes per day down to one a week.

Atypical hemiplagic migraines. Migraines, btw, a itty- bitty seizures. The nerve spasms, it drains all the glutamate out of the mater covering, and then it takes up to a few days to recover. Untreated, the patches of spasm-blighted nerves grow. One can end up epileptic. Epilepsy, untreated, for that matter, does kill nerve cells. All the old prejudices about epileptics being ignorant came from somewhere.

I am sorry if this is disjointed. I keep editing. I sound like I"m bragging and obnoxious if I talk about where I started, and then what happened.

Oh, the book about multiple sclerosis- swank diet, or something like that- hugely helpful- it stops all sorts of ill-adventures. It says "limit fat to 5 teaspoons of fat per day" or something like that- maybe one teaspoon? Fast, then go to no butter/minimal oil. It stopped the headaches cold. That was the first breathing space.

Anticonvulsants did wonderful.....it's like I was underwater, asleep, befogged ( literally) and I came back to my self.

I am so sorry you are having lingering effects. Why are you still foggy? From a fever, or the really nineteenth century "brain fever" or "brain exhaustion"? I am so sorry. It is so frustrating to live in it. Is there an end point, or do you just keep walking, and maybe yes come out of it, maybe in a few years? or summertime? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you pleased with what you can do, or are you upset?

ari

mamabear · 05-11-2008, 06:30 PM

Thanks Ari...I'll come back and read again when fresher. I'm foggy from the lingering effects of early disseminated (and maybe, late disseminated) Lyme Disease. I have lots I can do and am doing...just taking time, I think.

Don't worry about bragging. You don't sound obnoxious. Glad to have you back and please keep sharing...