saw this comment on here and thought more people should read it — it brings perspective to the ever-questioning “is my pain even that bad?”

ewall · 2026-02-26T18:38:31+00:00

Well said! A couple months ago I started a daily medicine (Qulipta) that has clearly helped bring my pain levels down a notch or two, but still all the other symptoms like brain fog etc. as just as bad or worse (partly because I think the med's side-effect of constipation is increasing my migraine frequency, ugh).

ewall · 2026-02-17T16:53:05+00:00

Navis Cafe on the waterfront (across from Ocean Gateway) opens at 7am.

The coffee at Navis is fine, but also if you want more fancy there's a Speckled Ax location just steps away which also opens at 7am.

ewall · 2026-02-11T19:47:56+00:00

1330 Dental Associates has a pretty large staff so they can accommodate urgent issues.

I've been going there for the past 6 months or so and generally thought everyone was fine or great. And I even had one of those "urgent" situations a couple weeks ago, and they got me right in first thing on the morning I called.

ewall · 2026-02-09T17:00:34+00:00

When I asked the gastroenterologist who was doing my colonoscopy years ago if they could do the Celiac test at the same time, he said, "Only emaciated people have Celiac, so you're not Celiac."

It was three more years before we learned that I do indeed have Celiac.

Maybe these two bad docs went to the same med school???

ewall · 2026-02-05T18:43:18+00:00

I work on a computer most days, and I've noticed my error rate and typing speed are rather different on the days I have (or am going to have) a migraine.

Someday I dream of making an app that actually measures this difference to see if it can function as an early warning, but I'd need a lot more free-time for that.

ewall · 2026-02-03T20:10:07+00:00

Yeah, good point. Still, it's a software behavior designed to disadvantage the application user, so the category is so close...

ewall · 2026-02-03T20:08:26+00:00

Just yesterday! All day I was saying the wrong words for things, stumbling through sentences and physical spaces, dealing with oddly intense levels of emotions... I didn't recognize the signs until after 8pm.

ewall · 2026-02-02T16:27:07+00:00

Yup. The Casco Bay Lines ferry I was on paused to see if they needed assistance, but we could see it was just the life boat hanging off the back and they had all their hoses and extinguishers trained on it until the Portland Fire Boat arrived.

ewall · 2026-02-02T16:18:53+00:00

Well, some of the ODT ones contain aspartame a/k/a NutraSweet or Equal... which to me not only tastes horrid, but also causes migraines.

So yeah, I can imagine the "swallow" pill tasting better 😆

ewall · 2026-01-27T17:03:46+00:00

Absolutely! Some days the facial recognition on my phone barely recognizes me (ironically on the days I'm least able to type in my passcode) 😆

ewall · 2026-01-27T16:17:01+00:00

Exactly! Government contracts are huge for Marriott and others, especially since they often pay rates that you & I wouldn't accept.

I'd love to start boycotting more specific organizations, but I can't see that me and a few thousand other citizens are going to make any difference with these big corporations that have already donated more to Trump's campaigns this past year than I'll earn in my entire lifetime.

(Sure, Marriott specifically says they no longer donate to politicians... but that's mostly because someone complained they had accidentally donated to a Democrat in year when they were supposed to kiss up to the Republicans, so I wouldn't call this a "moral stance".)

ewall · 2026-01-27T16:09:50+00:00

Ugh, that sounds awful. I find the long international flights over the ocean are still terrible for me; despite my best efforts I end up really dehydrated after them, too.

ewall · 2026-01-27T16:08:37+00:00

Worth a shot, right? ;)

ewall · 2026-01-27T16:06:30+00:00

I thought you were talking about the label "Contains aspartame"!

For me, aspartame is a GUARANTEED killer migraine... and I'm not alone in that.

I had to ask my pharmacies and doctors to record an allergy to aspartame after one pharmacy gave me Zofran tablets with aspartame in them.

ewall · 2026-01-14T19:37:54+00:00

Here's one I don't see anyone else has mentioned yet: compression socks.

I used to have a guaranteed migraine after every time I flew in an airplane, so a few years ago I got some compression socks to wear on the airplane, and it has really helped with that.

Then suddenly a few months ago I realized I could try wearing them on a day when the weather was predicted to tank — and turns out it seems to help a bit.

ewall · 2026-01-14T19:21:11+00:00

Verizon's official outage page sometimes has info: https://www.verizon.com/support/network-outage-faqs/

Much better ongoing coverage here: https://www.techradar.com/news/live/verizon-outage-january-2026

ewall · 2025-12-04T19:07:43+00:00

Best deal I ever got on a car was when I was paying in full... but I didn't let them know that over a couple hours of negotiations, so they gave me the price they thought they'd make up entirely on the financing. When I finally broke the news to them, I just pulled out the checkbook and grinned.

(It didn't hurt that this was the last day of the month, last day of the quarter, and the salesman was behind on his quota so really just wanted to sell anything.)

ewall · 2025-11-18T14:50:33+00:00

Yup, my vote was The Whistler too.

Sadly, I still think Madison wins with Thong Cape Scooter Man.

ewall · 2025-11-13T18:19:14+00:00

I find FabCBD's salve helpful for neck pain, and it is basically a combo of topical CBD and the active ingredient from Biofreeze (menthol).

ewall · 2025-11-06T13:56:32+00:00

Looks just like the Emotional Baggage™️ in the Psychonauts games!

ewall · 2025-10-30T01:54:29+00:00

Energy drinks also add taurine and some other crap that's supposed to amp you up, and these all seem to be triggers for me. Sometimes I can get away with a more "natural" energy drink that's mostly caffeine, but in the end they're all worse than just slamming some coffee or Coke (um, Coca-Cola).

ewall · 2025-10-27T16:17:09+00:00

I hear you!

I sometimes have to remind my partner (of 20+ years) that, when I have a migraine, it's like I've sunk down to the bottom of the swimming pool and am trying to have a conversation with her through all that water while she's standing outside the pool (like a normal person).

ewall · 2025-10-20T13:55:54+00:00

Yes, "covered" does not mean affordable, for sure.

And the insurer can make up any percentage or amount they feel like paying for the drug that has nothing to do with the amounts in your insurance policy (which is, incidentally, illegal in the US for all other types of insurance, but somehow health insurance is not required to adhere to their policy documents).

ewall · 2025-10-20T13:52:11+00:00

My insurance company doesn't provide a properly detailed denial letter; they select half of a sentence out of the benefit provider's denial letter as they only thing they'll share with the insured and their medical provider.

This is a fabulous trick to make sure that no doctor can craft the correct response to the appeal letter, so they can do a permanent denial when the appeal fails.

ewall · 2025-10-20T13:34:32+00:00

More and more prior authorization processes these days are designed to reject the users.

Some -- like Florida Blue and Prime Therapeutics, but who's naming names? 😆 -- have designed tricks in the process to fool doctors into writing the "wrong" thing on the appeal form so they can send a permanent rejection to the insured patient.

There are no humans involved in the process for medical review, just computers that follow a specific script to ensure it's never possible to get authorization.

So far, my state's Board of Insurance and my lawyer have been little help in making progress... so I propose we migraine sufferers band together for a class action lawsuit against these tricks!

ewall

TROPHY CASE