You Learn Something New Every Day

 

So I apparently experienced something delightful called a "migraine aura". I was minding my own business, finishing up drinking coffee in the morning, and I suddenly had this truly weird visual sensation. No headache, no dizziness- nothing!- except this entirely original phenomenon that there was a disco ball's worth of odd, colorful, geometric shapes dancing in my visual field. It looked sort of like the fringe on the piece above. Hard to describe, but like overlapping translucent shifting shapes. I think the fact that they were geometric was the strangest part. All of this only lasted a couple of minutes and then it was gone.

While I thought it was a singular experience, I thought maybe it had occurred because I had some like sleep goobers in my eyes or I had looked at the window where it was much brighter and the light had scrambled my brain and eyes for a minute. I actually forgot about it for a week.

Then I had a second episode in the middle of last Sunday afternoon. Bango! I'm feeding Robin the Good and Lo! The little geometric visitors were back!! This picture captured from the Internet is actually close to what I "saw". I decided I'd better make an appointment with my eye doctors as it was really odd and pretty alarming. Once? Okay... but twice? My eyes or brain was onto something, and I've known several people who had retinal detachments so yikes!

I played phone tag with the doctor's office on Monday (gave them my cell and they called the home phone, unbeknownst to me!). But in the meantime, my sister Cathy said it sounded like migraine aura and I have to admit that was a more attractive alternative to brain tumors and retinal detachments. And the pictures and description sounded accurate. Although I've never had a migraine in my life!

So the doctors (all three of them waltzing around in my head and behind my eyes) confirmed my sister's diagnosis. They said it was unusual for it to only last a couple of minutes- typically it's more like 15 or 20minutes. (*1) They asked if I'd been hit in the head. No. Have I had sleep disturbances. Yes. Was I under any stress?!?!!??! To which I blurted out, "Half the country in under stress!!! Things have gone crazeee and who can sleep or feel normal??!?!?!" The young doctor who was administering to me at that point laughed and agreed there was plenty to be stressing about. At least he understood!!

So I'm fine; which is a good thing to be assured that you're not nuts- the whole world is nuts. I'm also really, really glad that I got the aura minus the migraine!! And- I realize this is going to sound really peculiar, but the colors and shapes and general aesthetic of the episode was kinda cool. Like if you have some weird visual anomaly or medical sensation, make it look good! (*2)

(*1.) At which I informed my doctor that if it had lasted that long, I'd probably be screaming!!! I mean it was creepy enough for only a minute or two.

(*2) And I will amend here that I actually have consciously reduced my exposure to the news and "him". We watched part of that interminable address to the Congress last night but I half watched. And we turned it off and I got a good night's sleep!! I think I need a week of sleeeeeeep! 

Vaccinated I am!

 

Yay! I am fully vaccinated and I'm glad. Not that I feel like I/we can let our mutual guards down; there are variants, unknowns and stupid behaviors out there! But I do feel much better knowing that I will probably not get as sick or die and I can actually begin to see family and friends who are also on the vaccination train. And not a moment to soon.

And speaking of feeling better, thank you for asking. While my second dose experience wasn't as bad as some, I didn't feel like my typical chipper self. Many friends had reported semi-debilitating second shot side effects from Moderna including (but not limited to) 36 hours of general awfulness to lying in bed drooling for ten hours. I suffered a mild headache, some body aches and chills and spent the day in bed doing crossword puzzles and reading our most recent New Yorker from cover to cover. (*1) Not bad and certainly worth the end result: protection against a truly nasty virus!

And here's a bonus picture:

This is a detail shot of the Rhododendron lurking under that bedspread in my last blog posting. The central section is rewarding my vigilance with lovely pinky-purple flowers and the rest will probably come out today, as it's warm and sunny. On with the spring!
 

(*1) So at one point, when I had ventured outside to check on the horses and allow Robin the Good a brief respite from attending to me, I debated walking to the mailbox to retrieve the previous day's mail. We do have a very long driveway but I was game. I got to our peach tree and realized that if I were to proceed further, I would most likely not make it back. I saw me in a pathetic, crumpled, damp heap, awaiting discovery by a passing Good Samaritan. I retreated to bed!