The good, the bad and the ugly

Bonjour!

Like all things, my experiences here have their ups and downs. So here goes the good, the bad and the ugly!

The good:

I got a week off of school for spring break and my dearest sister came down for a visit J I got to do some more touristing around NOLA and spend some quality time with her. After all the work I’ve been up to and missing my partner in crime, I had a great time! Since pictures are worth a thousand words, here are four thousand words for ya:

Awkward sister picture outside the WWII museum (which was amazing by the way!! If you're ever in NOLA, go to the WWII museum!!!)

Nachez riverboat along the boardwalk :)

If you're ever looking for a unique evening, sign-up for a haunted ghost tour! The ghost is supposed to haunt that top right dormer - perhaps that's why the light was on???

Street Car pic :) (Because New Orleans has street cars, NOT trolleys!)

The bad:

Migraines suck. Additionally, so do side effects from medication. If there were a competition where whomever got the most side effects from medicine won, I’d be the Olympic champion. Well, maybe I’d be tied with a few other fellow migraineurs. People who get migraines have a sensitive nervous system; that’s why we get migraines when we’re exposed to the same environments as other people – a strong smell, a loud concert, not enough sleep, stress, barometric pressure changes, etc. are just nuisances to others while the nervous systems of migraineurs go “Hey, that's too much for me, I can't handle it so I'm going to give you migraines.” These sensitive nervous systems are also to thank for allowing us to pick up side effects from medications most people never experience.  

If you know me well, you’ll probably recall the Topomax fiasco. To catch others up so everyone can appreciate my deep hatred for side effects, here’s the long story short: I was taking medicine that impaired my cognitive abilities (while in biochem classes!) And being cognitively impaired and all, it took a while to realize my medicine was to blame for my failing grades…

So recently, I stopped another migraine preventative medicine because it was making me crave sugar. Not like “I’m a little hungry for ice cream” crave sugar, more like “I’m eating a healthy dinner right now and I should be full but all I want to do is go buy a huge jar of Nutella and eat it all!” Suffice it to say I gained some weight quickly and it couldn’t continue. In hindsight, it was actually a bit comical working as a health coach then; I would sit and think “I’m the worst person for this job, I’m supposed to get people to make healthier choices and ALL I WANT IS CHOCOLATE!”

To replace the medicine that was making me gain weight, I started taking another medicine that actually did the opposite and is suppressing my appetite which, while ironic, isn’t my main point. The other side effect my sensitive nervous system picked up from it is tiredness. And like the sugar craving side effect, my tiredness isn’t all “A nap would be nice,” it’s “Must sleep all day! Wake up in time for and attend class?! Nope! Exercise? Hahaha!” which is quite disruptive when I want to, you know, live!

The cherry on top of the whole side effect situation is that despite all these medications I've tried, not much progress has been made in preventing the migraines that plague my life (I can't even remember the last day I didn't have a migraine!) So yet again, medicine has failed me and migraine has found another creative way to interfere with my life. 

I tell this tale not for sympathy but because it's real and because I've been so consumed with it, omitting it would be hiding a part of who I am. But despite the crazy obnoxiousness of my migraine situation, I'm determined to use it to make me stronger. And I also know I’m lucky in a lot of other ways so I'll just focus on my glass half full. 

And the ugly:  

Finals are coming soon. If you don't hear from me in 2 months, they'll have killed me.