Sunday, February 19, 2023

the weekend

Many people both adults and children who live with a chronic illness, unruly medical device and/or chronic pain have various symptoms they deal with daily. I'm just one of many. 

Sounds are bothering me this weekend. I had to put on noise canceling headphones because the sound of cabinet doors closing and radio was hurting my right ear. Since my injuries in 2014, I have some tone issues with that ear as it was bleeding after my injuries.  

I took pain reliever in the morning, it reduced my symptoms. They were still lingering even after taking medication. 

 The rest of the day I still had:

Pain behind both eyes.

Noises from behind my right eye. 

Nausea

Pain from the distal catheter in my head and pain from moving my head from side to side.

Pressure in my forehead.

 And my left leg crossed over my right leg while I was in the kitchen. I was able to catch myself and avoided landing on the kitchen floor. 

Music helped me yesterday and a today to distract me..I'm still waiting for that Powerline Album...



Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Themes

Last month in January, I had the following:

Pain behind my right eye (where I had strabismus surgery) I was told the pain I feel behind one eye or both is not from the surgery I had in 2015. Rather, it's from the internal injuries I had. I also had pain in front of my eye. Felt like a needle was being pushed into it. This is the same pain I've experienced at the top of my head sometimes.

My shunt making self adjustments with a side of nausea.  This is better than when it was beeping in 2015 and 2016...I haven't heard any sounds from my shunt since then.

Scissoring issue with my right leg crossing over my left. I didn't fall - I was able to catch myself in time. This is random, as I've mentioned before and happened this morning when I went to turn on a lamp. 

Hearing sounds from behind my right eye. I was told this wasn't from my surgery, it's from in the injuries I had. 

Right eye drifting issues.

Sometimes pain reliever it helps, other times it doesn't. Depends on where the pain is coming from. 

One thing which makes me smile  with all this chronic pain nonsense is the soundtrack to Ducktales which encompasses music from both the television series and the nes game Ducktales (1990).

Let's not forget how awesome the music is from Chrono Trigger (1995) 

Nintendo therapy with Starfox (1993) was unsuccessful last week - I was having drifting eye and eye focusing issues. You have the point of view of the pilot in this game and there are times when objects are flying towards you quickly plus you have to save your teammates while being attacked by enemies. I was having visual sensory overload - Doesn't usually happen for me with Starfox and I blame atmospheric pressure and brain damage.

I did make a second attempt the following week and only had one game over and was successful in finishing the game on level 1.  Of course, this second attempt made me think of a song by Aaliyah.

I'm just one of many people with a shunt, I have my own coping mechanisms.  Many children, adults and their families live with chronic pain and chronic illness. Everyone has their own way of coping with this and dealing with pain management.