John had suggested that we download a Canadian movie called "One Week", about a guy who finds out he has cancer. We did, and watched it. It was interesting, and I particularly liked that it was messy, and didn't have a neat ending.
On my birthday we went to dinner at ChokDee, where I had a lovely green curry, and then on to a musical at the Theatre Royal, called "Legally Blonde".
It turned out that one of my research students was the voice coach for the show, and he did a great job. However, we were sitting in the front row, and the noise was deafening. I felt almost assaulted by the decibel level. I started getting a really bad headache during the show. By the end of the show it was a killer.
Then on the night of April second, I got a migraine where my sight didn't come back afterwards. Jan took me into hospital on the Sunday, and they hospitalised me for a few days and ran tests. Of course, they couldn't find anything wrong, aside from the fact that my blood pressure was steaming high: with no idea whether this was a symptom or a cause.
Me either.
My sight slowly resolved over the coming 21 days, which was a total pain in the butt, and as I have trouble focusing, I couldn't read or watch films (thank goodness for my iPod or I would have been SOOO bored). I would find that I got dizzy as the day progressed, and would have to have a nana nap. I was not allowed to drive until I got signed off by the ophthalmologist, which was done at the end of week three.
Crazy & a bit scary (though scarier for Jan).
The result: not a stroke. No brain damage (ie, nothing showed up on the CAT scan that was any different to the scan I had done a few years ago). Everything seems to be functioning normally. My eyes went back to normal. My cholesterol is normal. My blood sugar is normal.
As a fix - even though they have no idea what is wrong - they have put me on lots of blood pressure medication, and watched it like hawks to ensure was rock-solid normal for several weeks (I had to email in my daily BP).
However, I think now that the high blood pressure was a symptom. As my sight started to come back, I started reading lots about migraine and found this researcher in California who has developed her own migraine protocol. Dr Angela Stanton's hypothesis is that migraine sufferers have not evolved enough to cope with modern stimuli, and our brain goes into over-drive and overload at times of high stress. It does a "run away and hide" thing, which is now no longer an appropriate physiological response to our environment. I am officially a throw-back!
Thus the overload from the show, combined with my currently heavy workload, might well have triggered a massive migraine attack.
To correct this, Dr Stanton goes right back to cell chemistry and works on balancing inputs: getting the right amounts of salt, potassium, calcium and magnesium for correct cell hydration, so that our cellular pumps work properly. If the ratio of these chemicals is unbalanced, then we become dehydrated, and she thinks this is the basis of how migraine attacks occur. She also thinks we are habitually dehydrated, because we probably still don't drink enough water.
In addition, she thinks that migraine sufferers have an intolerance for glucose, so need to eat a low carbohydrate, low salt, low fruit diet. Her research has indicated that we need a HIGHER salt diet than most other people: that migraine sufferers need about 1.5 times the 'normal' daily salt intake recommended by the FDA.
Of course, I have eaten a low salt diet since I was about 11-12... funnily enough, right when my migraines started. The 'correct' ratio for migraine sufferers should be 4700 Potassium; 3600 Sodium; 700-ish Calcium; and 237 Magnesium per day.
So it has been a very interesting month. Not good, but interesting. Also interesting was that I lost my taste for coffee. VERY surprising.
At least it has taken my mind of my PhD derailing!
I had a week off work, then was able to teach (Jan dropped me off at work). But I couldn't mark or read much. So basically I had to postpone all my marking for a fortnight until I recovered. Students & staff were pretty cool about it.
Jan has been my seeing-eye husband for several days, taking me out for a walk and guiding me. It took him quite a while to get used to being a guide, and to calling out the obstacles appropriately early enough (no falls, luckily, as a result of poor instructions :-D).
In amongst all this, Jan and I went into Nelson to pick up Katrin's goddaughter (Toni) and her friend (Leah) from the intercity bus.
Toni and Leah are both very nice - seeming to enjoy the Turkish kebab shop (Akbabas) that we took them to. It was so funny - our old neighbour from Montrose Drive shouted hello to us Turkish coffee and rose Turkish delight. She gave me a big hug.
The girls, who are both pre-uni age, are on a gap year of sorts. they have been to Bali, and Australia, now New Zealand before going to Fiji and the US.
We dropped them at Kaiteriteri for a day cruise into the Abel Tasman. I would have liked to have sent them overnight into the park, however the bunks at Anchorage were sold out before we had a chance to book them.
I bought some new running shoes which are so colourful they nearly make your eyes hurt. Feels just right for this month! Jan & I have been doing a walk near Motueka called the Inlet loop walk which is really nice:
We took Toni and Lea into the Nelson market and up the centre of New Zealand hill, to the Motueka market in Decks Reserve and to Takaka and Golden Bay.
We visited Anatoki salmon, the cafe at Puponga, Collingwood, PuPu springs, Takaka, and enjoyed the view from the top of the Takaka hill.
We stopped at Rosy Glow in Collingwood, and bough enough Rosy Glow to last the winter. They are back in full production: how awesome.
While Toni and Leah were with us, we had a barbecue John and his mum, Lilla, who is here from the UK for a few weeks. We later farewelled Lilla with fish & chips on the Mapua wharf, with Chris Ratt, Scott, and Chris's Mum - who turned out to be Ginina - Aunty Jill's friend (small world). I had a really interesting conversation with Ginina about the Misses Dodson who owned the old pale metallic blue Chrysler that their father had bought for them to learn to drive in. It turned out that they had lived down the driveway from Ginina and her husband in Rainbow Drive. See? A very small world.
We caught up with Erik and Anne at the Nelson Ladies Kennel Association show in Nelson. Erik was showing a gorgeous red baby puppy. Yes, I can feel a new puppy coming on...
I hope you are all well!
Sam (& Jan)
Anyone wanting to read some of Dr Stanton's work can go to: Stanton, A. A. (2015). Migraine Cause and Treatment. Available at SSRN 2690927. Retrieved 17 April 2016 from http://www.mhfmjournal.com/mental-health/migraine-cause-and-treatment.php?aid=7552
