Grumpy with a side of cereal at 2:14am

Barometric pressure headaches have returned.....It's been a while since I've gone on an angry rant about my shunt and chronic pain. This week just about everyday, I've had continuous pain from the shunt valve, chiari malformation, distal catheter in my stomach, eye pain and scalp sensitivity near my shunt.  I feel some of this discomfort is from elevated csf pressure in my forehead. Perhaps my shunt is over working again. The good news is, I know it's not obstructed. At least I don't hear the device making noises anymore...

Yesterday, I chose to watch Netflix. I figured maybe watching this for a few hours will take my attention away from my pain issues.

I couldn't focus on drawing, games or reading yesterday because of pain issues.

I was up this morning around 2am for super early breakfast and hoping eating would make the pain less.

This didn't work very well. I went back to sleep after eating only to wake up again later in the morning with the same issues from the last few days.

The crazy temperature changes and super moon earlier this week haven't been helping....

I saw a little bit of the super moon on Tuesday evening while on my way to a support group meeting. I didn't know it was a super moon until I saw the news report later that evening. When I saw the rather large yellow moon around 5:45pm and thought it was really cool, not knowing it was a super moon. I have my calendar marked for the next one.

Alternative Therapies

At the end of last year, I went for a cognitive and physical evaluation to determine what type of accommodations I would need in the event I start working again.  Some of the findings are below:

Restrictions: Right upper extremity weakness; decreased counterbalancing.  Decreased counterbalancing. Significantly below average hand grip strength.  Decreased tolerance to bending head secondary to occasional dizziness.  Gait dysfunction.

Suggested recommendations: Ergonomic chair, supportive walking shoes and more...

I take occasional breaks when volunteering. I notice I get more tired when processing information such as data entry in Microsoft Excel....This also happens when I'm organizing the food pantry closet at the other organization where I volunteer once or twice a month.

And of course, there's the occasional shunt and head pain issues. This week while volunteering, I the head & shunt pain was minimal.  The cold increasingly cold weather the last few days is causing throbbing and pain from my medical device.

Super Mario Brothers 3 from TV.

When home, to distract myself from the discomfort, I turn to the occasional escape through video games. I'm not talking about the classic edition console currently sold in stores. I mean the original 8 Bit system.

A digital vacation from chronic illness helps, along with art
( when I have the energy ) and reading.