I haven't checked in for awhile, so here's my week so far: Sunday - planned rest day Monday - very mild migraine, so I was able to go on my usual little 2 mile run Tuesday - weights (Stronglifts 5x5 workout A) Wednesday - bad migraine, so the most I was able to accomplish was a little 1 mile walk in the evening when I was feeling a little better Thursday - still had the migraine, but much milder, so went for a run Hoping to do one more run, and Stronglifts workout B tomorrow and Saturday.

:grouphug: Poor girl, that's awful! I'd definitely get her in to see a gynecologist as soon as possible. Until then . . . Aleve helps me more with menstrual pain than any other OTC drugs. It sounds to me like she might be having menstrual migraines (I have them, so I guess my mind jumps straight to that). If she's having migraines, some caffeine in combination with an NSAID helps. Plain old aspirin works best for my migraines, but in her case the Aleve might be the better choice. Has she ever tried a heating pad to help with the cramps?

These are absolutely situations in which I would genuinely want to help. I have a very hard time asking for help too. I'm a firm believer that if we (immediate family) *can* do it for ourselves, then we should. I had a situation (which I recognize was absolutely NOTHING compared to what either of you went through) where I had been sick for a few weeks, and a friend offered to come over and help me clean house. I was calling her to thank her but tell her that wouldn't be necessary when my daughter said something like, "you always help other people, but you never let anyone help you." It stopped me in my tracks because it made me think about what kind of example I was setting for her. It's such a tricky issue, and there is definitely a line that can be crossed between accepting appropriate help and being too free about asking for help when you really could handle things on your own. I've known both types of people, and I guess I do tend to err on the side of not asking for enough help (honestly, though, most of the time I don't even think about it! It just doesn't occur to me to ask). But this is my long-winded way of saying that neither of you were/are anywhere near that line! Truly, these are the kinds of situations where any decent, good-hearted friend or family member will want to help. So if it helps at all, think about it like you would be doing THEM a favor by allowing them to feel useful! Because it's absolutely true! When someone that I care about is in those kinds of circumstances, it really bothers me if I'm not able to help (live too far away, for example, because that's often the case.) :grouphug:

Basically it's just taking a detailed, high-res picture which your doc can look at on his computer screen, rather than having him dilate and then examine your eye directly. It's far more comfortable, because the picture is done in a split second, and doesn't require dilation. I had it done by my regular optometrist, and didn't have to see an ophthalmologist. I can't remember what the charge was, either $30 or $50 beyond what my insurance would pay, but I'm sure that can vary a lot by location and by insurance coverage. It was well worth it to me. ETA: Oops - didn't see that this had already been answered.

For me, yes, worth every penny and then some, because dilation triggers a migraine. Also, even if you don't have migraines, one advantage to the Optomap is that it takes a detailed picture which is then saved to your doctor's computer. So in future years, he can compare to see if there have been any changes. I have a family history of macular degeneration, so this was important to me as well.

From what I've read, organ damage starts to occur when blood glucose reaches 140 and higher. Since your postprandial and fasting numbers are both below that point, I think you are doing extremely well. I wouldn't worry so much about the fasting number. I noticed that for me personally, when I went low-carb, my postprandial numbers started dropping like a stone immediately. My fasting numbers came down more slowly. I have no idea why that was the case, but it was. Maybe it will be the same for you. You're clearly on the right track, so give it a bit more time.

That is exactly the kind of thing I would WANT to help support. I have to admit that I have exactly zero interest in helping someone else pay for their vacation (unless there were some truly exceptional circumstances) and would probably even be a bit peeved about being asked. But a service dog? That's an entirely different story. I would donate joyfully.

My teen daughter LOVES Santa Fe, but she is an art fanatic, so I don't know if that applies to your girls or not. The train station is within longish walking distance from the Plaza, but there is a free shuttle that runs very frequently from Plaza from the train station and vice versa, so most people use that. There are lots of great art museums and galleries. And shopping and restaurants. And beautiful old churches. Would any of that appeal to your girls? ETA: Oh, and as someone who lives in Albuquerque, I definitely think Santa Fe is the more fun, interesting, and beautiful town! But if you do come to Abq, I think the tram and the Botanic Gardens would probably be my top picks.

I have a Bosch Ascenta - and I have no idea if that's in the 800 series or not. But whatever it is, I love it!

Yes, I forgot to mention ice packs. I retreat to my darkened bedroom with ice packs, after taking aspirin and caffeine, when I have a particularly bad one.

The placebo effect has been shown to help with migraine symptoms, so if your daughter believed that the peppermint oil would help her, then it may have. But not on its own. Through her belief in it. Still, there's nothing wrong with using that belief to her advantage. By all means, try it again if she has one that bad. But it is a skin irritant, so be careful. ​Actually, lots of things could have changed that you weren't aware of. Her serotonin levels could have come back into the normal range. The migraine could have just passed on its own. Migraines do end at some point, whether they are treated or not. I'm not convinced it was the oil. I'm not a believer in oils myself, but like I said, if your daughter is, there's no reason not to try it again. Migraines are miserable so give her help wherever you can! I don't think excedrin is really anything to worry or be hesitant about. But I've found that BC powder - a simple mixture of aspirin and caffeine, works better for me than excedrin, or ibuprofen, or anything else that you can get over the counter. Plain aspirin and a cup of coffee works pretty well too. The advantage of the BC powder is that since it's powdered, it gets absorbed more quickly than pills or tablets. But it also tastes unpleasant. I have a prescription for sumatriptan as well, and I've had no bad side effects from that, so that might be something you could ask her doctor about too. My heart goes out to her. :grouphug: ETA: Not sure how/why my quoting got so messed up. Hope it's still readable.

I'd be grateful to hear about what types and brands of notebooks people have been using, and what you think about the quality. I'm still using my original Moleskine with graph paper, but I'm not as impressed with the quality as I'd hoped to be. It's looking pretty worn, and it creaks when I open it! :lol: It's not a big deal, and I will buy Moleskine again if there's nothing better. But if there is something better, I'd love to hear about it!

Very true! Thank you, Jenn!

I just wanted to thank everyone for all the help in thinking this through. I decided to go ahead and get the CT scan. Surprisingly, the results were waiting for me when I got home. No signs of bleeding, infection, or inflammation. So that is wonderful news and I am much relieved. It did find "patchy areas of hypodensity in the periventricular white matter" (whatever that means) which, the report said, is consistent with migraine. I'm going to assume that's less scary than it sounds. ;) Thank you all again! I still don't know what's causing these migraines, but at least now I know some things that *aren't* causing them.

Thank you all so much for the helpful advice. I do wish that communication were easier with both my GP and the OBGYN. My GP's office has a website, and I can exchange messages with him through it. But it limits the number of characters you can type, and he sends very brief responses. My OBGYN's office doesn't even have that. We haven't met our deductible for the year, which is why the payment is so expensive. The total cost for the CT is over $1600, which seems like a ridiculous amount of money to me. Getting it done will meet the deductible, so I think it would actually cost me about the same out of pocket for an MRI. But I did have an MRI a little over a year ago, for an issue that actually turned out to be a very rare side-effect of a drug I was taking, so total waste of money there. But, I'm wondering if that's why he ordered the CT this time, since my MRI only a year ago was normal. I hate to cancel the appointment at the last minute, but I know that alone is not a very good reason to go through with it either. I guess I was pretty willing until I learned how much it would cost, and then it brought up my other doubts/concerns too. Though you're right, Artic Mama, if the test would help, then it would be worth every penny.

I have a head CT scheduled for tomorrow and I'm thinking about cancelling. I got a call from the hospital today saying my out-of-pocket is going to be $900. And there is quite a lot of radiation in a CT scan, right? I'm trying to decide if it's worth it. My husband said its my decision, but also made it pretty clear he doesn't want me to do it. My GP ordered the scan because I've had a huge increase in migraine frequency and severity recently. I thought it might be hormone (perimenopause) related, since my migraines have a definite hormone-related pattern to them. I went to an OBGYN and she did some tests. She told me she would call me with the results on the 10th. It's now the 20th. I've called her office twice trying to find out the results, and nobody has returned my calls. Needless to say, I'm more than a little irritated. Meanwhile, my GP said he wants to do this scan anyway, just to be safe. But is it really safe to bombard your head with radiation? Or am I worrying unnecessarily about that aspect? Is a CT likely to reveal a cause of migraines, or is this a huge waste of money? My doc said he's looking for infections like mastoiditis or sinusitis. But if I had an infection, wouldn't I have other symptoms?? Is there really something else, something worse, he's looking for, and he just didn't want to freak me out? (He knows me well enough to know that I freak out pretty easily!) Uggh, I just don't know what the right course of action is here. Any advice for me?

I hear people say things like this a lot, and I really don't understand it, because it is so completely contrary to the way that my grandparents talk(ed) about the Great Depression. They said that they would quite literally not have survived were it not for the help of their neighbors, friends, and sometimes even perfect strangers. And on those exceptionally rare occasions when they had something to give to someone else, they did so happily, and the help was received happily and gratefully. My grandparents' experience was one of "we're all in this together", co-operation, people helping one another in their darkest hour. But now people talk about the Great Depression as if their grandparents survived it entirely by their own wit and fortitude, completely on their own, every man for himself, too proud to accept any help, etc. Well, I don't know, because I wasn't there. Maybe my grandparents were in deeper poverty than yours - yours did have enough money coming in to squirrel some away so that would seem to indicate so. Maybe it was a regional thing - my grandparents were in Oklahoma, so they had both the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl to deal with, and perhaps people there learned pretty quickly that they would either help each other or die. But all of my grandparents spoke of their experience in that time as one of neighbor helping neighbor. And I think that is something to be proud of. I really don't understand why it should be a source of shame or embarrassment. Starvation also does not tend to put people on their feet. And help does not automatically lead to dependency.

Yes, and I would just like to say that I do NOT feel put-upon or unduly burdened by paying taxes to support these programs. Rather the opposite, in fact: feeding hungry people is one of the best uses of my tax dollars that I can imagine.

Splenda is fine. It's far, far healthier in my opinion to use a little Splenda than to use sugar. Two teaspoons a day is certainly nothing to worry about. Stevia does not taste as good to me, but some people really like it.

I also wanted to mention this website, which is a wealth of good information: http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/

Nope! I opened the thread thinking about all the fun vacations we've had in the Durango, CO area. :)

Yes, I eat low-carb, high-fat and it has resolved my blood sugar problems without the need for medication. I'd have him try it for three months and re-test, but six months is fine too (I don't think it will take that long to see results, though, if he sticks with the diet consistently). My favorite book, if your dh is a nerd who likes to know the science behind why this works: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Science-Carbohydrate-Living/dp/0983490708 If he doesn't want to know as much about the science and wants to just focus on what to do and how to do it: http://www.amazon.com/New-Atkins-You-Ultimate-Shedding/dp/1439190275/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1428242153&sr=1-1&keywords=new+atkins+new+you

I've never owned those particular models, but I have owned several Toyotas and one Dodge. Owning one Dodge product was one too many. I learned my lesson and will never own another. The Toyotas we have owned, by contrast, were very reliable. We still have one 19 year old and one 14 year old one, and they have never broken down on us. We've never had to expensive repairs, just the usual maintenance and a couple minor things. They're great. Chevrolet is also much better than Dodge, in my experience.

I thought that was very well put, Laura. My daughter and I have had some interesting conversations about this, but I never thought to express it quite as succinctly as you did here. I like that.

I think it really depends on you. If you're intimidated by this and somewhat reluctant about doing it, then count then warm-up and cool-down as part of your time, because that means you're more likely to get it done. And anything is better than nothing! (That's my mantra on days when I don't feel like working out, which has been a whole lotta days recently.) If you're stoked and enthusiastic knowing that this change is going to reap many benefits (which it is!) and/or if you're a nerd who likes quantities and precision (like me), then don't count the warm-up and cool-down, but count only the time that your heart rate is in your target zone. Either way, there really isn't a "wrong" answer. Do what works for you!