I know, you're up to, what, 70% of petrol prices in Australia! I feel your pain. Wait. Mock. That's what I meant.

First you bust on our chocolate, now on our petrol pains??!!! *sputter*

Nope, I got nothing.

Yeah, I'm big on the Target gift packages. Get a lot of bang for your buck, and can stock the basics

Target sounds good too!

Everyone does their registrys on-line now, right? OOh! We should put a list of websites in the carepackage and tell her to register for stuff when she's ready. It might be fun for her to 'shop' for things if she's feeling that WTF AM I GONNA DOOOOOOOOO feeling.

I can see it now... {{{dodle-doo doodley-do doodley-do}}

Scarlet: Where shall I go? What shall I do?

Rhett: Frankly, Scarlett, log on and pick out some stuff.

batts eyes, offers opiates

woohoo! Do I know how to page 'em, or do I know how to page 'em?

{{{vw}}} You're welcome to share my portion of the virtual opiates. Hope it lets up soon.

And I'm totally in for the care package.

edited to make the meara re-appear, so as to look slightly less craxy.

sluuuuuuuuut

ita, and whoever is interested, regarding migraines:

If you have insurance, run, don't walk, to a neurologist. Get a recommendation from your regular doctor, but don't go to your regular doctor for treatment, go to a neurologist. Every doctor I trust told me this. Be prepared: Neurologists tend to have really crappy "bedside" manner. From what I've heard, they are almost universally obnoxious. But they can help. If you can, bring someone with you to the appointment to make sure you get all of the information you need. The key: if you have migraines often, you can get drugs that will keep you from getting most of them and will generally lessen the severity of others. Ask for these drugs. They are wonderful. If you don't have low blood pressure, they may prescribe beta blockers, which are also indicated for high blood pressure. If you have low blood pressure, they may prescribe something else. I know that there are other things available, but I'm not sure what.

There are several other remedies that I suggest when you have a migraine. There are several prescription non-narcotic migraine relievers that may work for you. They don't work all that well for me. If you get them, take them at the first sign of a migraine. When you are in massive pain, it may be too late.

What works for me is two Aleve (naproxen sodium), taken at the beginning of a migraine. This was recommended by my neurologist, who said that many of his patients found this more effective than prescription medications. As with the prescription painkillers, this should be taken as soon as you realize a migraine is coming on. Don't be strong and try to tough it out. You'll end up taking much more medication with much less effect. I also find that cola is effective. I've tried coffee and chocolate. Coffee sometimes helps when there's no cola available, but chocolate doesn't alleviate my migraine and exacerbates the accompanying nausea. Coffee increases my nausea, but sometimes helps with the pain. I ALWAYS have Pepsi in my apartment, even though I don't drink it regularly, in case I get a migraine. I have also found an ice pack to the back of the neck to be effective. I had tried heat, because it worked for tension headaches, but found that it made my migraines worse. Then I read to try cold, and it worked wonderfully.

As I understand it, migraines are believed to be caused by dilating blood vessels in the head. Constricting the blood vessels, which the cold and caffiene do, can help alleviate the pain. Some medication for congestion can have this same effect, so it may be worth trying, especially if you don't have the other things available. Don't go overboard on either of these remedies, though, or you may get a backlash migraine when their analgesic effect wears off.

All of this reflects what works for me, and what I have read. I think it's worth trying. However, everyone is different. I have a coworker who uses heat for her migraines, and find it effective. Even if something works for most people, it may not work for you. But, there are lots of things available to prevent or alleviate migraines. If something doesn't work for you, keep searching and trying other things. Good luck!

By the way, I think that there's something in the air today. Two of us at work had migraines today. I had to come in to work late for the second time this month because of migraine. I took the Aleve, Pepsi, and cold pack to get it to the point where I could face the world. But there is hope. I used to have a headache almost every day, and a doozy at least once a week. I now take beta blockers for my migraines, and I would guess that they are 75-90% fewer than before, and the really, really nasty ones only come once every few years.

They must have been bad juleps. That is the ONLY possible explaination.

Naw, the julep was good. The whole mojito-meets-manhattan was the mindset/reason I ordered it in the first place. As I love the muddled mint of mojitos and the bourbon in manhattans (I love manhattans a little too much though- has anyone here ever seen me on manhattans?) But the julep tasted like neither, exactly, which was somewhat disappointing at first, but a few sips in and I was able to appreciate it on its own merits.

If I could permit myself to have more than one bourbon cocktail, I'd have had a second, and I think that would have gone down even more smoothly.

My migraine medication cycle is three Aleve, if it's pain before the other stuff, a Maxalt or Imitrex is the stuff comes with or before the pain, repeated once, and if that doesn't work, Flexoril.

Aleve works one in five times, the Maxalt/Imitrex three in five, and the Flexoril 9 out of ten. I hate having to repeat the Flexoril.

I was briefly on something preventive, but it made me very sick otherwise (not from my GP, but from an ENT), so it only lasted three days. I want to do the neurologist thing, but I'm weary thinking of it.

I will, when I come back from vacation.

If I could permit myself to have more than one bourbon cocktail, I'd have had a second, and I think that would have gone down even more smoothly.

Yeah, and they keep getting easier after that.

Skippity-skip-skip, skim a little:

Hey, Bitches? I was wondering if anyone would be interested in doing some sort of care package for -t, once we have an address for her.

I was thinking of this just today, because I have her tiara and I'm so glad I hadn't mailed it yet. I thought of putting a small gift card for Bed, Bath and Beyond or Home Depot in it. Has anyone suggested anything for the care package yet? I don't know how bad her place was hit by the hurricane and what they may need in the way of supplies.

If we put together a care package for -t, is there any way to find out what her DH might like in the way of treats, etc?