JenEric Designs

Hello Friends, Fans, and Family;

It’s been an interesting couple of years for my health. I last talked about it in July 2024.

In short, I’ve been dealing with:

• Pain in both my forearms
• Dizzyness
• Fatigue
• Brain Fog
• Tingling in my hands and feet
• Numb and tingling on my left cheek
• Blurry vision in my left eye
• Pain in the joints of my hands and feet

Arms and Spine

I am doing exercises and stretches to help avoid pain. It still there in my arms but it’s manageable. I sometimes get pain in my neck that radiates down, but I double up my exercises and it usually goes away within a week.

Migraines

This is the big one. I’m currently taking Amitriptyline to try and prevent the migraines. So far I’ve been on it for two months with an escalating dose, and it hasn’t done much beyond make me sleepy and have terrible dry mouth. If this doesn’t work, there are other drug options.

I am starting to identify my triggers better. I know the following will trigger me:

• Big change in caffeine consumption (If I have no coffee or if I have 4+ cups)
• Alcohol (I noticed it with red wine and with cream liqueurs but I’m just cutting it all out.)
• Changes in eating routine (If I don’t eat every 2-3 hours I start to feel faint and it can trigger)
• Changes in sleep patterns. (Especially if the change is often)
• Fluorescent lights
• Strong smells (Mostly anything floral or going close to a soap store in the mall. Although someone had a poutine at work and the smell lasted all day. I loved the smell but ouch)
• Changes of 10+ degrees in the weather and rainstorms. (I have no control over this one.)

Stress doesn’t seem to make the migraine worse but it does make the side effects worse. I had a really stressful day in December and for the next two weeks the muscles in my hips hurt like they were on fire. It’s caused by the migraine, the brain, and the two causing muscles to tense too far (probably what happened to my arms.)

I see my doctor on Wednesday and we’ll see what happens. I think this is a long haul.

Allergies

I have restarted my allergy shots and one week hasn’t cured me yet. I’ll be taking them weekly for 22 weeks. My allergist’s office prefers that I do the shots elsewhere so I’m thinking of going to an Appletree near my house on my lunch break.

Neurodiversity

As I mentioned in Friday’s post, I am Autistic and have ADHD. This explains a lot about how I burn out and how drained I feel in certain situations. It, with the migraines, explains a lot of why I feel like crap at certain times.

I’m not sure how this interacts with my other health issues but I’m sure that they interact and make things more complicated.

Sleep apnea and asthma

I have taken an asthma test and I am scheduled for a sleep test this summer. Hopefully these will be eliminated as concerns.

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In Conclusion

Despite everything on this list, I feel better than I have in years. With my doctor’s help and hopefully finding the right thing to help with my migraines I should be even better by next year.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric