Laura Chat ~ April 2013

4/9, 6:39amHernandez Laura

I think it happens more right after a strong headache.

4/9, 8:14amBarry Kort

When you have a strong headache, how do you treat it? Do you take aspirin and go to sleep?

4/9, 10:06amHernandez Laura

My doc gives me pain meds, they don't put me to sleep like they do most people.

4/9, 10:06amBarry Kort

I find that when i have a splitting headache, I have to sleep it off.

With or without taking aspirin. Sleep is the only reliable remedy for me.

4/9, 10:09amHernandez Laura

Not everyone is the same. My doc has checked my pupils after taking meds and the don't contract and expand as they are supposed to after taking meds.

In other words he says they look normal, as if I have not taken anything.

4/9, 10:12amBarry Kort

Have you found a reliable remedy for your strong headaches?

4/9, 10:13amHernandez Laura

One that is 100% reliable 100% of the time, no.

The zoomig, made my heart race and my hands and feet sore. We (meaning my doctors and I ) have tried different meds, the ones with the least side effects that work most of the time, are the ones I'm on.

Why do you ask? Do you know something about this subject matter that could help me?

Oh and when the headaches are very strong, yes I have to sleep it off.

4/9, 10:23amBarry Kort

I, too, have experienced episodes where I had frequent splitting headaches. Often these episodes occurred when I was in a long-running, stressful conflict with someone, or working on an especially difficult problem that called for a lot of research and hard thinking.

The only dietary intake factor that mattered was caffeinated beverages. If I drank a lot of caffeinated beverages one day, and then not much the next, I would get caffeine-withdrawal headaches. So one solution was to moderate my use of caffeinated beverages and not vary the amount of caffeine intake from one day to the next.

Another solution was to take a break away from the stressful situation (conflict or hard problem) that I had been obsessing on.

And finally, the short-term solution was to sleep (with or without taking aspirin for the headache).

4/9, 10:34amHernandez Laura

I don't drink coffee or carbonated sugar caffeine drinks. The Equate, which is the same Chemical make up as excedrin migraine and has 65mg of caffeine per tablet. Two tablets of equate and two alkaseltzer and 1/2 a lorazepam woks a lot of the time. My cousin that also suffers from migraines gave me that solution. I have found out that a lot of relatives on moms side of the family suffer from migraines and they don't have a car accident on top of that. Dad (a retired internist) suggested I try the birth control pills that stopped my period and allowed me to only have two periods a year and got rid of most of the headaches. I never had everyday headaches, like now, until the accident.

4/9, 10:37amHernandez Laura

I've stopped eating nuts, gluten, chocolate, milk, honey

I had a case of food poisoning and while I was in cipro n off milk the pain went down, I use to eat a big bowl of yogurt everyday

4/9, 10:39amBarry Kort

Equate variously has Doxylamine Succinate or Diphenhydramine. But if Equate is a Sleep Aid, why does it have any Caffeine at all? That makes no sense to me.

From Wikipedia:

Lorazepam (trademarked as Ativan) is a high-potency, intermediate-duration, 3-hydroxy benzodiazepine drug that has all six intrinsic benzodiazepine effects: anxiolytic, amnesic, sedative/hypnotic, anticonvulsant, antiemetic and muscle relaxant.[4][5] Lorazepam is used for the short-term treatment of anxiety, insomnia, acute seizures including status epilepticus and sedation of hospitalized patients, as well as sedation of aggressive patients.

4/9, 10:39amHernandez Laura

Also, dad put me on a beta blocker

4/9, 10:41amBarry Kort

Note that Ativan is an Amnesic -- it makes you forget things.

Did you forget to read the label?

4/9, 10:43amHernandez Laura

Hahahahaha no sweetie I didnt

4/9, 10:43amBarry Kort

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug-induced_amnesia

You are taking strong drugs that are well-known to cause amnesia -- forgetfullness.

4/9, 10:43amHernandez Laura

I had a very traumatic life changing experience happen to my family in 1999

4/9, 10:44amBarry Kort

They give these drugs to people with PTSD to stop them from recalling the trauma.

4/9, 10:44amHernandez Laura

That's when they gave me lorazrpam

Well they should invent a new drug because it keeps me from freaking out but I remember everything

4/9, 10:45amBarry Kort

When your mind keeps recalling the trauma, it makes it hard to function on a daily basis. So they want to make you forget. Look up Nepenthe, the classical Drug of Forgetfulness ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepenthe

Since ancient times, people have drowned their sorrows in various drugs of forgetfulness.

4/9, 10:47amHernandez Laura

Oh, have you taken it? Or know someone who has. I'm like an alien, I don't react normal.

4/9, 10:47amBarry Kort

When the drug wears off, your brain wants to resume processing the trauma, because that's the work of healing.

4/9, 10:48amHernandez Laura

Barry, I wonder what your educatedind would think a out Dr. Kam Yuen

Educated mind not educatedind

4/9, 10:48amBarry Kort

I don't take any drugs to drown out my sorrows. I research the hell out of my breakdowns. That's why I get the headaches in the first place -- from trying to figure it all out.

4/9, 10:48amHernandez Laura

I will look that drug up

4/9, 10:50amBarry Kort

Now watching the video of Kam Yuen ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvLw1XRveEc

4/9, 10:51amHernandez Laura

Cool

4/9, 10:52amBarry Kort

While I don't do martial arts myself, some of my younger friends do. I do the Tao / Meditation / Research thing w/o doing Martial Arts as a component of it. Rather, I just go for nature walks in the woods.

4/9, 10:53amHernandez Laura

He is an engineer, chiropractor, 35th generation Shaolin Grand Master.

4/9, 10:53amBarry Kort

I'm a red-head, so I don't need to subside my Adrenalin levels like most people have to do.

4/9, 10:56amHernandez Laura

Many have healed with his method. ......... Explain what subside my adrenaline.... Dadmentionsu adrenine a lot all I know is, I have to make a huge effort to keepy head and not tell his wife off (she use to be the secretary, let's just say even the way sheansges her tone is a calculated move.

4/9, 10:57amBarry Kort

http://barrykort.wordpress.com/article/all-about-redheads-3iyoslgwsp412-5/

4/9, 10:57amHernandez Laura

Dad mentions my adrenaline a lot

4/9, 10:58amBarry Kort

Do you pump adrenaline easily? Get hepped on on adrenaline rushes?

Heart pounding, ready for Fight or Flight?

4/9, 10:59amHernandez Laura

Mmm I pressed the link, it's not going anywhere ..... What is hepped??

4/9, 11:00amBarry Kort

Elevated levels of adrenalin, like getting excited watching a sports event.

Juiced up, excited.

Hopped up. Like The Incredible Hulk when he's angry.

Or Jekyll and Hyde when he becomes Hyde.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_Case_of_Dr_Jekyll_and_Mr_Hyde

Or like the Second Banana in this cartoon, who become hepped up, angry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCkerYMffMo

4/9, 11:14amHernandez Laura

I get elevated levels of adrenaline when unjust treatment happens. Although I did walk out at the soccer game between the US and Mexico

The American player noticeably pushed the Mexican player and didn't get a foul, when it happened twice I was livid.

4/9, 11:16amBarry Kort

Bingo. You are susceptible to volatile fluctuations in Adrenaline. I am pretty much the opposite. It's really hard for me to get an Adrenaline Surge. I have to be in a genuine Life or Death Situation to get an Adrenaline Fight or Flight Rush.

You are easily angered by injustice. I am slow to anger in the face of injustice.

4/9, 11:17amHernandez Laura

Barry, I am an emotional menopausal cancerian woman.

4/9, 11:18amBarry Kort

You don't have to apologize or defend yourself. It is what it is.

If you want to develop better ways to manage your issues, that's possible.

4/9, 11:21amHernandez Laura

Yes, unfairness, injustice, demeaning treatment is not only inhumane, it is intolerable. But you are right, I don't need to defend why I am the way I am. Being that way may change the outcome of a situation a time or two but it is an emotional response not a productive logical one.

4/9, 11:22amBarry Kort

I am working systematically to analyze and devise solutions not only for injustice, but for a collection of ten problems, of which injustice is but one.

All ten problems are inter-connected, like a maddening game of Whack-A-Mole.

http://moultonlava.blogspot.com/

4/9, 11:26amHernandez Laura

How come when you write a link it does not come out on blue or let me press it do I can go to it ??

4/9, 11:26amBarry Kort

Because you are on a Mobile Device, I presume.

4/9, 11:27amHernandez Laura

Yes on an iphone

4/9, 11:27amBarry Kort

The FB support of Mobile Platforms leaves something to be desire (and for you, something unfair, to get angry and upset about).

4/9, 11:28amHernandez Laura

I moved since we last chatted

I live with my dad now

The doctor (internist)

Most of my belongings are at moms since I am in no condition to move

4/9, 11:30amBarry Kort

Does he have a regular desktop computer there, with a regular Web Browser?

4/9, 11:32amHernandez Laura

Yes, but I'm not allowed to touch his computer and he has no wifi. I can't httpy MacBookPro online

It is my massarati, it has four processors.

4/9, 11:33amBarry Kort

Can you go to a local public library to get on a full-screen computer?

4/9, 11:33amHernandez Laura

Yes

4/9, 11:34amBarry Kort

You will need a full-service machine to access the resources I am directing your attention to.

4/9, 11:34amHernandez Laura

Why?? You want me to look at your game?

4/9, 11:34amBarry Kort

My game? What game are you referring to?

4/9, 11:34amHernandez Laura

Why don't I Judy ho get wifi

4/9, 11:35amBarry Kort

Come again? Do you have a machine that is not plugged into the Internet because your Dad won't let you? I'm not following you here.

Can you ask a neighbor for permission to use their WiFi signal?

4/9, 11:36amHernandez Laura

http://moultonlava.blogspot.com/

4/9, 11:36amBarry Kort

That's not a game. It's a blog. I mention the game of Whack-A-Mole as a metaphor.

4/9, 11:37amHernandez Laura

I have not met any of the neighbors

4/9, 11:37amBarry Kort

Are they friendly enough to meet?

Or can you use an Ethernet cable to plug into your Dad's home network?

4/9, 11:40amHernandez Laura

Things around here are not easygoing I mostly keep to myself and resolve things by myself

So, what did you want me to look at?? I'll go to the liabrary or Joes

4/9, 11:46amBarry Kort

On my blog, "Moulton Lava," I have some recent postings about systemic problems, including the problem of injustice.

I explore how injustice is connected to nine other related problems.

And why they all have to be solved together, because of the way they are interconnected.

In your case, injustice is cause you to experience adrenline surges. And you are taking medications that are, in part, intended to calm you down from that. But the medicines are having unwanted side effects, like making you forgetful.

So everything gets out of whack.

The Shaolin Martial Arts are one way to burn off the anxious energy. Not the only way, but a way that works for many without having to turn to drugs with unwanted side effects (like headaches, nausea, or amnesia).

If you are unfamiliar with the children's game of Whack-A-Mole, there might be an iPhone App to play it. You only need to do that if you don't understand the metaphor of Whack-A-Mole.

I use the picture of Whack-A-Mole in this particular blog post ...

http://moultonlava.blogspot.com/2013/02/solving-systemic-problems-requires.html

I have a duplicate of that blog post here:

http://barrykort.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/solving-systemic-problems-requires-systems-thinking/

4/9, 12:10pmBarry Kort

You could also just ask your father to look at the pages with you. Tell him you got them from a Stanford University Ph.D. in Systems Theory.

4/9, 1:02pmHernandez Laura

Thanks Barry, I'll look those up when I have a chance. Take care my friend.

4/9, 1:02pmBarry Kort

Good luck sorting out and solving your issues.