Doctor Appointment Reflections

I saw my neurologist today. Before heading out for my appointments with her I always check in with my statistics that I keep about my head. I don't like to watch my numbers very closely because I don't want to spend too much time thinking about how many migraines and other symptoms I have. Staying distracted as much as possible from my pain just feels like the right thing to do. So I just go ahead and dedicate a minute each day to writing down my symptoms from the day, giving it a rating and recording whatever rescue meds I may have taken. Then when I need to know them I can simply pull out my tracking sheets and make the tally.

Turns out I had 16 migraines in January but only took 6 triptan rescue meds. In these first 22 days of February I've only had 5 migraines, and have treated each of them with the triptans. The month is not over and I will be getting my period today or tomorrow, which will translate into migraines. But even if I have a migraine every day for the rest of the month that still makes for a lighter than normal migraine count for the short month of February. Now my numbers also reflect that this has happened before. I have had months with fewer migraines than average, months that get evened out with really bad pain months. For now, I'm just going to wait and see what the next couple months bring.

I'm still having 3 types of days: horrible, bad and pretty good. I don't feel like the good days have increased since their onset in late December but I'm very encouraged by the 5 pounds I've put on since the start of the new year. I've been attributing it to my increased appetite but my doc said that it could also be a side effect from the Amitriptyline. Either way I'm thrilled. I've lost so much weight since my migraines got out of control 5 years ago or so. When I gain and lose weight it all happens in my estrogen dependent areas (hips, butt and boobs) so you can see how it is pretty exciting to be getting those back. While my husband knows better than to comment either way, I can see that he likes to my assets growing too.

This is my first weight gain since I've been in my 30s and I can see that it is coming on with less tone than it had in my 20s. So, I think it is now time to step up my level of exercise. I used to be very physically active before all of this and up until now I've been limiting my activity to the basics; walking, light dumbbell work for my arms and my physical therapy exercises and stretches. I think I'll start today by adding more leg work, stepping up my arm reps and doing more core exercises.