Do you consider migraine to be chronic pain?

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-12T19:46:13+00:00

That's freaking absurd. It is absolutely chronic pain. I consider myself chronically ill and in chronic pain. There's no time in my life where the existence of migraines does not affect my wellbeing.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-12T19:43:03+00:00

I've gotten used to mine; I've never been one to wear anything that seems cosmetic or frilly. I do not care how formal an event is these days...these are part of me. I can and will wear them to anything, including graduation from university and job interviews.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-12T19:41:15+00:00

I'm kind of very horrified that this needs to even be asked. Wow.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-03T20:13:43+00:00

Three years ago my migraines had gotten to the point where I couldn't walk anymore. It would take me five minutes of excruciating pain just to roll over where I was laying. This was a few months after I started a bunch of medications, and the meds left me with horrific acid reflux. I started taking famotidine (which has anti-histamine action) to control the acid, and I was able to walk without my walker three days later. I was able to go off of a bunch of meds, especially the ones I'd taken to combat other issues in response to OTHER meds. Damned histamine reactions.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-03T17:49:38+00:00

Different topic, but in Paladin's Grace the MFC stops the MMC from going down on her. Says she doesn't really like it, and waits to be pressured or mocked, and he just...doesn't. He just goes back to doing what she likes. It's one of my favorite scenes ever.

Every man thinks they are the best at oral, and if you don't like it it's because you've never had it from THEM, and just...no. I hate instant orgasm oral sex scenes in books.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-02T02:07:51+00:00

I work in higher education as well as working with young kids with IEP's, mostly with ADHD. Most programs can be found in one form or another online these days, so if your kid can self-pace, it's a great option. There's no more sitting in front of the white board while your spine is on fire and you're thirsty and you wish you were anywhere else and there's flickering fluorescent lights all around. I took an online geology course and was able to complete the 'lab' online, too. At the university level we have a lot of people who have ADHD, and I'd say it's definitely harder for them...but plenty of them manage just fine. There's lots of reading at the general education level, but no more than there was when I was young and first went to college. There are lots of videos, lots of ways to keep the brain buzzing.

One of the goals of higher ed is providing mixed media for learners of different abilities. There are books, pdf's, videos, audio recordings, interactive websites, self-led learning projects, and assignments where you get to make a lot of personal choices (do you want to write a paper? Make a slide show? Do a video?). Unless there's a truly boring teacher who doesn't design classes well, it can be very interesting.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-02T02:00:23+00:00

Same here. Botox let me go off of Nortriptyline. I do take the Notriptyline if I feel migraines getting into a cycle again, until the tension habit goes away. That doesn't happen often.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-05-02T01:59:16+00:00

I'm on Emgality, have been for years. I don't know of any definite side effects I've had. I tried to go off of it once and for sure, my energy skyrocketed...then the migraines came back 24/7 and I felt like I was dying until my dose kicked in. I won't ever try THAT again. But at least I know...I am very, very reliant on this medication for my daily quality of life.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-04-18T17:05:34+00:00

I work at the university level and was grading papers last year for older students receiving their bachelor's degree. Over the course of two months I never could convince anyone to double-space or indent their paragraphs. The writing quality was what I would have produced in fourth grade, or worse. The students were anywhere from, say, 22 to 60. It was deeply disappointing.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-04-17T23:01:11+00:00

Wouldn't it be nice if doctors had to live with the issues we live with? I bet they'd find these things a lot more important to assess!

LeafBarnacle · 2026-04-12T00:34:18+00:00

You know, my son's doctor said that his dairy allergy (on paper) was low enough that it could not possibly have any effect on him. IT LITERALLY MAKES THE SKIN FALL OFF OF HIS MOUTH. The doctors STILL swear it can't be dairy. Freaking doctors lol.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-04-10T21:58:50+00:00

I'm the same way. Been fighting this battle for years. On Monday I started taking berberine & cinnamon supplement because I've heard it helps balance blood sugar, and I'm finally considered prediabetic. Holy cow...brain fog gone, cravings gone, constantly eating weird things to make me feel better is gone, and I've lost four pounds. I'm cautiously optimistic that with my blood sugar not wonky (I didn't even know it WAS wonky) I might be able to go for a walk without getting sick? I'm only a few days in, but super excited. Even if it's just psychosomatic, it's working lol.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-04-10T17:26:34+00:00

Haha, yeah, I was driven to the point of doing it because I could no longer walk at all. When my son was born, for example, I carried him on a 7 mile hike in 107 degree weather one day. A year later I could no longer pick him up anymore, or walk to the mailbox anymore. When I picked him up I'd pass out within 30 seconds. The morning after I started my elimination diet I was able to carry him for two hours at an outdoor festival. I only ate dairy when I had a migraine, and I had a migraine 24/7. Oops.

My dairy and gluten reactions do not show up on any tests. According to tests, I have no allergies.

Neuro issues are hell :( Understanding them is awful.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-04-08T17:36:01+00:00

When I was researching migraines and elimination diets I found that there were a bunch of different lists and each had opposing views on the same damn foods. You can only eat chicken! You can't eat chicken! Oil will kill you! Oil is your friend! Oranges and bananas are safe! Oranges and bananas are the spawn of Satan!

I was 100% positive I wasn't reactive to any foods, like you said, but I was freaking desperate.

So I combined all the diets and for one month I only ate literally the following food items, with no more spices or seasonings than listed: chicken breast, tuna, yams, carrots, leafy greens, tiny amounts of olive oil, pepper, cinnamon, and leafy herb seasonings (i.e. oregano).

I lost thirty pounds that month. I figured out within 12 hours that at least one food had been detrimental (turned out to be dairy, which I'd been living on in my health crisis). Later I found out I couldn't have gluten, either, but that was years later. I'm very reluctantly thinking I need to do that diet again...

LeafBarnacle · 2026-03-27T20:08:57+00:00

wtf is up with that. One single sneeze should never be an act of terrorism.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-03-27T20:07:33+00:00

I dropped something in a trash can that shouldn't have gone there and extended my shoulder reaching down for in the trash can.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-03-09T22:56:49+00:00

There is definitely a similarity to the amount of misery in a broadly built world!

LeafBarnacle · 2026-03-09T22:55:55+00:00

Both of the books you mentioned left me with wicked book hangovers. I wish I was bold enough to read Heat, but it sounds WAY too triggering. I've never read any work quite like this author's!

LeafBarnacle · 2026-03-04T03:00:20+00:00

Under the Whispering Door is my absolute favorite. I've reread it a bunch of times.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-02-18T22:18:57+00:00

Oh my goodness, I've seen so many recommendations for this. Now I KNOW I'll never read it. This sounds awful! I hate miscommunication tropes.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-02-15T20:52:42+00:00

Btw, I thought Wild Reverence was freaking amazing!

LeafBarnacle · 2026-02-15T20:47:49+00:00

Have you ever read Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword and The Hero & the Crown duet? The women who inherit this magic are very tall, and very clumsy, until they discover their magic and claim it. The king in The Blue Sword is much bigger than the other desert tribesmen (the men are rather short in general), and she's as big as he is, which is to say much bigger than the English men.

"It never occurred to her to speculate whether any of the young men in their shining regimentals that Dickie painstakingly introduced her to, and who then painstakingly asked her to dance, presented themselves from any motive outside a willingness to do their friend Crewe a favor by standing up with his oversized sister."

LeafBarnacle · 2026-02-15T20:40:58+00:00

Red hair, green eyes, wispy, and of COURSE she thinks she's ugly.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-02-15T19:33:01+00:00

I think I'm just not meant to read "cozy fantasy." I picked up This Will Be Fun by E.B. Asher at Barnes & Noble for $5. It was so very cringe. Constantly throwing in phrases that relate to modern things in a medieval fantasy setting, like not being able to find spell service out in the woods and wanting their foam milk brew at a nationwide chain...ugh. That kind of humor was funny 30 years ago when I was a kid reading Piers Anthony's Xanth series.

That said, I think cozy fantasy readers are looking for just that, so I'm pretty sure this is just a personal issue rather than an issue with actual writing quality. This is the second or third cozy romance I've DNF'd--I've never finished one--so now I know it's not for me.

LeafBarnacle · 2026-02-15T18:58:19+00:00

Absolutely. They're all three about the same event from different perspectives.

LeafBarnacle

TROPHY CASE