Snoskred Health

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My Aspie Limitations

14 Comments Posted on November 23, 2015November 21, 2015 by Snoskred

Last time I discussed My Aspie Super Powers. Every Aspie gets some super powers but with those super powers you also get some limitations. I’m still discovering what those are but today I want to talk about the ones I have found so far.

The Fake Struggle

There are some people in this world who are just fake and who tell lies 99% of the time. I’m not talking about little things, either. Here is an actual example. I had a team leader who would be so lovey dovey with people but the minute they left the room, she would grab her shovel of bitchery and dig into them.

In my personal life, I can avoid those people. When it comes to work, that is not always an option. I find it very difficult not to call these people out for their lies and fakeness. I also find it hard to pretend that I like them. I’m not good at being two faced. I don’t have a great poker face. I’m also a terrible liar.

I’m Done When I Say I’m Done

I had a huge argument with this one girl at work and I told her straight up to her face – we are not friends, I’m done with you, never speak to me again unless it is work related. After that argument, I only spoke to her if I had something work related to say. No hellos, no goodbyes, no chit chat.. She tried really hard to get me to chit chat with her and all she got from me was dead silence in return.

You would think that my silence would be a sign to her that I meant what I said.. apparently not. After 6 months of trying to get me to talk to her, I finally snapped and went off. No, I don’t want to hear about your life. I told you before – do not talk to me ever again unless it is work related. Believe me, after what she had done, she deserved this treatment from me. She finally got the message.

I Prefer Clear Lines

I hate having any kind of grey area in my life. I prefer yes or no, black or white, done or not done, will or won’t, can or can’t. Maybes are not a fun experience for me. If I say I am going, I am going unless there is a medical reason or my car breaks down. If I say no, I mean it and there will be no changing of my mind.

Sound Sensitivity

Along with Super Hearing comes the limitation of sound sensitivity. This limitation is truly bizarre because some sounds I will be perfectly fine with, and others make me want to drill holes into my skull without any anaesthetic just to drown that noise out. The worst part is – none of it makes actual sense – things are very contradictory.

If you were to park a car and leave the engine running outside my house, I will lose my ability to focus on my present task. It is almost like part of me wants to tune into that tasty white noise and really enjoy it. A car engine running would be considered white noise in most cases, and yet other forms of white noise like rain or a fan do not have that same effect on me.

Random and ongoing noises like a barking dog I find quite irritating, but I enjoy the sound of crickets at night or birds chirping. Running water is fine but a water drip will have me losing.my.shiznit. I can handle a ringing phone – you have to be ok with that in a call centre. But if there is a phone that rings and never gets answered, that irritates me.

One of the call centres had a phone that would ring when calls were waiting to be answered – at a low volume and a decent distance from me, that was fine – closer and/or at a higher volume it made me want to dead people. I’d have to turn it down or else I found it difficult to function.

Remember this post – Don’t Cross The Streams – I sometimes feel that way about sound streams. If I am having a serious conversation with someone, I prefer no other noise to be present so that I can focus on what we are saying. If music is playing, that is a “sound stream” my mind will try to focus on. I have to mentally work against it and this can be exhausting.

Light Sensitivity

Similar to the sound sensitivity, this limitation can be very contradictory. I do not like a light above my head 99% of the time, especially when watching television. I prefer for a light to be behind me. Lights in my peripheral vision can be very distracting and I might have to do something to fix it, like close a blind or turn off a light.

Bad Human Interactions

What is a bad human interaction? That will be different for everyone. For me, it is when someone misunderstands my meaning, or takes something I said in a way I did not mean it. Even if they listen to my explanation and accept what I have said, the interaction has sapped my strength a little. If they will not listen, I find it very frustrating – and in very occasional cases this can cause me to go into full on meltdown mode.

My Cup Is Full

Some of these issues mentioned are known as sensory sensitivity. All of these limitations can be tiring, sometimes exhausting. They are the kinds of things that fill up my “cup of human interaction” quickly. That cup is a much larger concept I want to talk about more next time.

Previous posts in this series – I was diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, then we talked about My Aspie Super Powers.

Asperger Syndrome

Don’t Cross The Streams

8 Comments Posted on November 18, 2015November 10, 2015 by Snoskred

Egon : There’s something very important I forgot to tell you.

Venkman : What?

Egon : Don’t cross the streams.

Venkman : Why?

Egon : It would be bad.

Venkman : I’m fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean bad?

Egon : Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.

Spengler : Total Protonic Reversal.

Venkman : Right, that’s bad. Ok, important safety tip. Thanks Egon.

(Quotes from the movie Ghostbusters)

Asperger Syndrome, movies

My Aspie Super Powers

11 Comments Posted on October 19, 2015September 22, 2015 by Snoskred

Number Memory

This is a strange phenomenon which was incredibly handy for call centre work. When I see a number and it is a number I have called before, I know instantly who that number belongs to. It is kind of like inbuilt caller ID.

We had a computer switchboard and when someone dialed out to a number, you could see the number they were calling. For most people that is where it would end, but me, I knew they were calling the ranger for X council, or the emergency contact for X client. I would not be able to recite that same number from memory though – if you asked me the number for X ranger I would have to go and look it up like everyone else.

Just to give you an idea of how epic this super power is, we had over a thousand clients and about 50-60 councils that we took calls for and I would recognise 95% of outgoing numbers other operators called. Even if I had only called the number once myself. I cannot tell you *how* I do this. It just happens magically.

In addition, any clients and customers who called in regularly from a mobile, I knew who was calling before I answered. I’d do the greeting and then say Hi Name without taking a breath, and they would always be like.. how did you know it was me? I’d joke and say I was psychic and would they like next weeks lotto numbers.. :)

Numberplate Memory

Similar to inbuilt caller ID, I would only have to see the numberplate of a friend or family member once to remember that is their vehicle. Oddly, I know all the numberplates for Volkswagen Polos in the Shoalhaven, and when I see one driving, I can tell you where I normally see it parked. I guess this would be inbuilt number plate ID.

Filing Cabinet Mind

In the call centre, I could be on the phone with someone having a conversation but at the same time, my mind was hearing *all* the other conversations going on around me and filing those details away in case I needed them. One of my roles was to follow up on the calls other people had taken, so this super power was truly incredible for me – I never needed to read the log to see what had happened, I already knew.

This happens when I am out and about in the world as well – I can be having a conversation with someone in a coffee shop and I am hearing every other conversation and filing those nuggets away. It is subconscious and unconscious, I do not know I am doing it until my mind pulls out those nuggets when I need them.

Filing Cabinet Of Bitchery

At the same time I was filing all those conversations, if two staff members were having a conversation about another staff member, that would be filed away in my cabinet too, except my mind would replay that conversation to me later as a surprise to myself when things were quiet. It did not matter how far away the conversation would be – if it was in the same room and people were whispering, I still got it. This leads us to –

Super Hearing

One reason I like to use my cordless headset around the house – I can hear every noise both outside and inside loudly and clearly in my head. If a bird is tweeting, I hear it. If there is a jet flying thousands of feet above, I hear it. Leaves rustling on the concrete, I hear it.

My headset blocks a lot of that extra noise out – in fact it does too good a job – The Other Half can sneak up on me when I am wearing it. Sometimes I’ll wear it with no sound at all, just to block out all those uninteresting and unnecessary noises. Some of the noises irritate me enormously and if I don’t put my headset on, I will just sit there and be annoyed about that noise. Like a running engine that isn’t going anywhere, or a dog barking constantly.

Video In My Head

If I have seen a video clip for a song, I will always see that video clip in my mind when the song plays. If I have seen a movie, I can replay it in my head without any need for DVDs or a TV screen. My memory for lines is better than any actor could dream of – I can tell you specific lines for a movie I saw once 20 years ago. Not all the lines, usually just the ones I most enjoyed or loved.

Ninja Focus

My ability to focus on what I am doing and shut all distractions out while simultaneously filing all those nuggets of information away plus noting who everyone else is calling is pretty amazing. The only thing that can break that Ninja focus is an unexpected sound stream like music, a barking dog or someone whistling. When those things happen, my mind wants to focus in on those noises and forget what I am focused on. I find it really difficult to work if music is playing, yet I have no problem working with a multitude of voices having different conversations around me.

These are just a few of the super powers I have been given – there are more. A lot of them are inbuilt and not something I would notice.

There are some limitations that Aspergers puts on me, and I’ll talk about those next time.

About Snoskred, Asperger Syndrome

Snoskred Mania

7 Comments Posted on October 12, 2015September 27, 2015 by Snoskred

When all the trouble happened at work in June 2014, I was having a lot of trouble sleeping. My doctor prescribed me a new antidepressant that would help me sleep at night. Did it ever. I’d be out for a solid 12 hours and still have trouble waking up.

I’d got to a better place mentally thanks to the drug and my psychologist, but this drug was starting to hinder instead of help, so my new lady doctor and I sat down and talked it through.

We planned out exactly how we would do the drug change-over – I would take half doses for 4 nights, then stop that drug. We’d wait a solid two weeks in between, then start on the new drug which I have already taken before. She did not write me a script for the new drug as I was not quite ready to go through the process yet.

When I was ready, my doctor was taking a few days off, so I had to see another doctor. No problem, I thought. All I need is a script for the new thing, this should not take long. Hahahhahahaha yeah that jinx thing happened again. This doctor was not familiar with the drug I was on, and spent 20 minutes reading about it and telling me wrong and irrelevant information, even though I told her I just wanted the script because I had already talked it through with the other doctor and I knew how to stop taking it.

Then she charged me almost $100 for an extra long session. Is it my fault she knew nothing? I think not. I will not be going back to see her any time soon. Not once did that idiot doctor mention any withdrawal symptoms to be aware of.

So, I discontinued the old drug. Everything seemed perfectly fine the first two days, but then things got very weird indeed.

If you imagine my mind as a large railway station, for over a year there had only been one train on the tracks at a time. Now it was like 300 trains, some slow trains, some express trains, some crashing into each other, some derailing off the tracks.. some there one minute and totally vanishing the next minute. Thoughts were coming at me faster than I could process them or write them down.

It felt like there was “An Explosion Of Snoskred”.

I wrote 20 LONG blog posts in the space of a few hours, and had ideas for 100 more spilling out as a surprise to myself. My OCD which had been mostly dormant sprang to life. I suddenly felt like I had to clean all the things RIGHT NOW but every time my hands got slightly dirty I had to stop and wash them which severely impeded my progress. I began checking the doors at least three times a day to make sure they were all locked.

I could not sleep more than 7.5 hours. When I woke up, it was like being slapped in the face with a bucket of cold water instead of swimming up very slowly through water. Bang, awake. While on the drug my dreams had been detailed, very real, and I could remember them the next day.

Now when I woke up, they vanished like thin wisps of fairy floss in a strong breeze, I could not catch them but I stretched very hard trying to grasp them and the more I stretched the more I knew I never would manage to remember what had happened. I knew they had happened and they felt super important, like I needed to remember them.

I got a lot of shiznit done, fast.. it was fantastic, I’m not going to lie. This went on for four days.. Then I began to wonder.. was this possibly a side effect of stopping that drug? I googled.. and it turns out one of the possible withdrawal symptoms is Mania. I’m not a doctor *but* I am pretty sure that is what I had. Had is the right word because it just a distant memory now.

The good part is, much of the great stuff remains. 7.5 hours is the max sleep I can have. Waking up is like flicking a switch. I’m exercising 6 days a week for 33 minutes – 3km exactly. I’m inspired to write and do more.

Don’t let us for one minute kid ourselves. I might not be sitting here typing this today if not for those drugs. I needed them to get through a bad situation. As I said in this post – Needing to take antidepressants is not a sign of weakness! It is a fact of chemistry.

depression

Asperger Syndrome – Being Diagnosed

23 Comments Posted on September 21, 2015September 19, 2015 by Snoskred

I have not really talked a lot about my Asperger Syndrome diagnosis here on the blog. I want to talk a little more about it and also about the journey I am taking – looking back at life happenings through a new filter and seeing how almost everything that has occurred in my life has been tied up with Aspergers – and how things make a lot more sense to me now. I’ve decided to schedule one post a month on this topic for the foreseeable future.

Today I thought I would share a little bit about exactly how my diagnosis came about, before going back in time to explore past events through the glasses of the diagnosis. There are some parts I am a little foggy about, so I ask you in advance to forgive me those.

I was diagnosed in 2009 by a wonderful psychologist that I was seeing for depression and anxiety. I was telling her about a visit by my nephews – one of whom has mild autism – and how that nephew and I had played lego together. I said something like –

So we talked about it and we decided to sort out all the blocks into groups because that would make it easier to build things. We grouped together the blocks with 2 dots, 4 dots, 6 dots, 8 dots, etc. Then I wanted to build a house but my nephew said “Auntie, you always want to build houses. Why don’t we try to build something else?” And we build this enormous lego boat with a tower on top.

My psychologist asked me if I always had sorted the blocks before doing any building. I said yes, because I liked to be able to reach out and grab the right sized block that I needed rather than having to look through a box or pile of lego. That, put together with the fact that we do have more than one family member with autism, plus some other things she had observed in me during our time together, was the thing that made her hand me a brochure about Asperger Syndrome.

It was almost the end of the session, so she handed it to me and asked me to take it home and read through the various “symptoms” and put a tick next to any that I felt applied to me. The next session I handed it back to her and there were quite a few ticks. So she gave me a diagnostic test of some kind – I forget what the name of it was now.

It turned out that I was on the “Autism Spectrum” as they call it. It is really difficult to find a good list of symptoms like she had handed me on the web but here are a couple that are fairly decent – here and here. Here are some online tests that you can do.

In many ways being diagnosed was an enormous relief because it told me that there were good and reasonable reasons for things that had happened to me in the past – times where I had thought I was the problem and times when I had been told my personality was a problem for other people. I’ve been looking back at those times with my present psychologist and making a new sense out of them.

Being an Aspie is not all bad though it does present some serious challenges for me. I have some brilliant things that I like to call my Aspie superpowers. That is what I will talk about in my next post on this subject. :)

About Snoskred, Asperger Syndrome

Trouble Brewing @ Lumosity

41 Comments Posted on September 7, 2015September 6, 2015 by Snoskred

I may need some kind of intervention, because I can’t stop playing this game on Lumosity. I’ve been a member there since 2012 and I enjoy the brain training. I can tell you that it has improved my brain, in particular my maths and memory.

So what is Trouble Brewing all about? Making coffee. It is a divided attention time management game. It helps with multi-tasking and in general I was already pretty good at that to begin with considering that was what I did 6 hours a day 4-5 days a week in my last job. But this game has me challenged and pushing myself continually to get to the next level.

To begin with, it is all fun and games and relatively easy because the coffee making machine and the orders are all on the same page.

As you progress, the order screen and the coffee machine screen separate a little. You’ll have a couple of machines on the order screen, then a screen with more machines. Like this –

But when you reach level 9, a terrible happens. You now have one order screen in the middle, and two separate coffee machine screens. Like this –

The order screen

Cafe screen one

Cafe screen two – you can see the coffee level indicator is telling me that cups are nearly full on the other screen. Each level you have to fill more orders but the time does not increase – at least it hasn’t yet. 40 cups in two minutes on level 9.. that is a lot of orders to fill in two minutes!

At the end of the game you get to see your score and your top 5 scores.

As I write this on the 16th of August, I am stuck on level 9. It is my hope that one day soon all the stars will align and the moon will smile on me and I’ll do everything in exactly the right way in order to pass this level and move to level 10.

Update – 05/09/2015

FINALLY!!!!! This is the day the stars aligned and the moon loved me enough to let me complete all 40 orders in 2 minutes. I’m still having trouble believing I finally got past level 9.

Playing this game so much has made me better at the other divided attention *and* memory games because this game uses memory to remember what orders need to be filled. This week I got top scores in Train of Thought and Star Search, plus a memory game where items wash up on a beach and you have to pick ones you have not picked on previous waves. I’m thinking it might be worth focusing in on one particular game for a week at a time and seeing how much I can improve.

Obviously Lumosity have not paid me anything to say this – in fact I have paid them in order to play the games. Nearly two years ago I bought the family plan – it runs out in November, then it is every man for themselves. You can likely find free brain training games on the web, if you look for them. I love the convenience, record keeping, encouragement, and the happy and positive vibe of Lumosity. I’m not sure how much the basic plan costs over there but I know I’ll be signing up for it again.

Over to you –

Do you brain train? :)

exercise, Gaming, Lumosity, time management

Anxiety Level: High

9 Comments Posted on June 27, 2015June 27, 2015 by Snoskred

I have just taken my first Valium in nearly a year.

I think the last time was around the 16th of July 2014, for work related reasons. Since I left work I really have not had much to stress me, until today.

When it comes to medication for anxiety, I feel much the same as Abbey Bartlet from The West Wing –

Do you know what this lifestyle does to the body? The minute your system senses stress it releases a hormone that constricts the blood vessels, contracts the heart muscles, stimulates the adrenal gland.

You stay in this state for not a hundredth of the time that you and I have existed like this and the vessels begin to shred. The heart permanently constricts. The intestines, the immune system, shut down. Relieving those conditions is the one responsible course of action I can take.

One of my biggest fears in life is The Other Half using power tools. Some of them I’m good with, like cordless drills. But anything that involves the potential for terrible injury, I am very fearful of those things.

There are good reasons to be fearful of these powerful items. The immediate story that comes to my mind is that of Gayle Shann which was on Australian Story – they just did an update on it in the last few weeks.. She survived but was terribly injured, losing one arm and the arm that was left has not regained any movement at all.

We’re going to have some concrete laid in weeks ahead, between the house and the “man cave” and to cover the gravel driveway. But before that can be done, The Other Half needs to dig a few trenches, one for the power to the shed, and a couple of drainage trenches.

So, until the ditch digger is returned, I will be under some stress. Fortunately for me, the Valium is starting to kick in, and rather than sit here curled in a stressed ball all day, I think I can get up and do the vacuuming and some other indoor jobs I have planned.

And that is a good thing – both for my mind, and my body. :)

A small technical note – the blog might go down for an hour or so later today, hopefully not, but the servers are in the man cave and the power will need to be turned off and reconnected.

fears, Home

Depression Notes

12 Comments Posted on May 29, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

I get quite angry at people who say “You don’t need drugs, you just need to cheer up” to someone with depression.. :) This is why some people refuse to take any anti-depressants at all, instead choosing to pretend nothing is wrong and falling deeper and deeper into that dark depression hole.

Would they say to a diabetic “You don’t need insulin. Just tell your pancreas to harden up and behave properly.”

Would they say to someone who received an organ transplant “You don’t need to take those anti-rejection drugs. Just tell your body that you accept the organ and everything will be just fine.”

Would they say to someone with high blood pressure “Just do some yoga, remove yourself from stressful situations, eat less salt. You don’t need to take drugs for this.”

Do they refuse to take paracetamol when they have a headache, too? Are they living a totally drug free life? When I ask these know-it-alls these questions, the answer to *all* of these questions above is NO.

With depression, sometimes the chemicals in your brain are out of whack, and no amount of pushing, hoping, thinking positive, praying to deities, cheering up, or pulling ones socks up and hardening up is going to fix that.

It is important for people with depression to know that it is ok to take the drugs their doctor prescribes. If their doctor feels those drugs are required, then THEY ARE REQUIRED. All busybodies and armchair doctors, step off, and drink a nice big cup of shut up. It is not your place to say anything.

Needing to take antidepressants is not a sign of weakness!

It is a fact of chemistry.

We are really lucky in Australia that people can see their doctor and ask to be put on a mental health plan, which allows them up to 10 sessions with a psychologist bulk billed on medicare.

I left most of this as a comment on this post recently – How to help the depressed person – but I felt it was important to post it here on my blog as well.

I’ve been seeing more and more bloggers speaking up about depression lately which is a wonderful thing because it is so important that people who are suffering from depression know that they are not alone in feeling that way. One that stood out in my mind is this one from Leslie Beslie – I’m functioning so I must not be depressed.

I have a friend who has a son with a kidney transplant. She’s talked to me about how terrified she is that at some point during his teenage years, her son will want to “rebel” and stop taking the drugs that are keeping him alive. She grew up as a diabetic, and she did go through a phase where she felt like that about her insulin injections.

She’s done everything she can to teach her son those drugs are not an optional extra, that the anti-rejection drugs are essential to his very survival here on this earth.

The sooner people can think the same of antidepressants – that they are not an optional extra for many depressed people. That taking those drugs when prescribed by a doctor is essential for their survival here on the planet – the better for everyone.

That’s my opinion, anyway. :)

Angry Snoskred, Annoyed Snoskred, depression, life lessons

My Pain Plan

8 Comments Posted on May 18, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

From back to front –

white tablets = paracetamol – red capsules = ibuprofen – orange tablets = aspirin

As someone who has suffered from Migraines for as long as I can recall, it is super important to me that I have a good pain management plan..

When I was younger it was actually easier to get the stronger drugs like Panadeine Forte than it is now. Because of that ease I would tend to default to the strongest drug I had as soon as I got the headache. These days, there are two problems with the plan of take the strongest drug I happen to own.

1. The more often you take a strong drug, the less effective it tends to be.

2. I want to save those now more difficult to get stronger drugs for occasions when I truly need them.

Nowadays, if I take two Panadeine Forte, within about 30 minutes, I can’t feel my head, arms or legs at all. It is like I am a torso floating on a fluffy cloud. That state of being is not especially conducive to getting shiznit done. :) But it does certainly get rid of the headache quite effectively.

Believe me, actually trying to do anything in that torso floating on a cloud state will result in An Incident Occuring. It is bad enough trying to coordinate a walk to the bathroom, let alone doing anything useful.

My doctor and I sat down a couple of years ago to work out a new plan, and I was surprised to find out that this plan works for me. Here’s what I do now when I feel a headache coming on.

Stage 1

I begin by taking paracetamol and ibuprofen together but it *must* be taken with a cup of strong tea (two teabags of Australian Afternoon) or coffee, and a block of dark chocolate. I like 70% plus and find it to be more effective.

Chocolate always makes me feel better but the caffeine in the tea or coffee and chocolate helps the drugs to work faster. That is why they sell panadol with caffeine though it is obscenely expensive at around $8.99 for 40 tablets so I prefer to keep that purely for my handbag and emergencies when I could not get a cup of caffeine to go with my tablets.

If it feels like it is going to be a bad headache I will take three kinds of tablets together – paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin but I usually take the paracetamol first with coffee/tea and make sure to have eaten at least a bowl of cereal before taking the other drugs. This is because two of the three drugs are not good on an empty stomach.

I can tell the difference between a headache that requires two drugs vs one that requires three drugs. The worst headache I tend to get is a hormone related migraine and that is always a three drug headache. Those headaches always appear on a specific day and so I know approximately when to expect them.

Three drug headaches are usually once a month happenings at most and they start from the moment I wake up, which is the reason for the cereal.

I’ll then wait to see what happens – if the headache goes away, epic win. If not, it is time for..

Stage 2

If the headache does not go away, I need to start thinking about what might be causing it. The two main causes for me are sinus and hormones. If it is sinus, I might try a couple of cold and flu tablets next but I need to wait at least 4 hours as those have paracetamol in them as well as pseudo-ephedrine and codeine phosphate.

If it is hormones, then it is time to bring out the big guns – I have 3 choices at this point.

1. A headache tablet with some codeine phosphate eg Nurofen Plus or Mersyndol Forte. This will be the choice if the headache is not too bad. However if we have got to this point chances are the headache is pretty bad and these drugs won’t help much.

2. Panadeine Forte which is paracetamol with a stronger codeine phosphate. Taking this drug means it is bedtime, at least for a couple of hours, because it does tend to knock me out or at least make me feel like I am floating with no arms and legs attached.

3. A Maxalt Wafer. These are not cheap at $11 per wafer. However they do work fast and if I am feeling any nausea this is a good option because it melts under the tongue and I don’t have to worry about keeping the drugs I took down. These do work very well for me, but they are a last resort due to their price tag.

Stage 3

Getting to this stage is pretty rare but it does happen from time to time – if a headache is not resolved by stages one and two, then I need to get a shot from a doctor or to head off to hospital. It has been a long time since this stage was needed thanks to the careful pain planning my doctor and I worked out together. :)

Nausea

When I was growing up, from age 15-17 I had nausea and dizziness on a daily basis for a couple of years. It was dreadful and we are still not sure what caused that, though there is a suspicion it may have been hormonal. I lived on Stemetil for those two years which is an anti-nausea drug.

Now the drug of choice for nausea is Maxolon. It is rare that I have to use them now. In fact it has been a couple of years since I last got a script for it, but I just used up my last tablet and I have a doctors appointment this week, so I will be asking for a new script.

Ocular Migraines

Have you ever had a kaleidoscope appear in your field of vision? I have. It is Not Optimal at all. It makes it impossible to read, drive, watch tv, basically, to see in general. These are called an Ocular Migraine – once again we have zero idea what causes this for me.

About 45 minutes after the kaleidoscope arrives, the headache sets in. And this is a terrible headache, a Panadeine Forte right off the bat headache.

However, the happy news is, after many experiences and trying out different things I have made a discovery. If I take paracetamol and ibuprofen with coffee or tea and chocolate at the moment the kaleidoscope appears, the headache does not arrive anymore. I have to go and lie down with a flannel over my eyes until the kaleidoscope goes away, but that is nothing compared to having to suffer through the headache that would always arrive.

Over to you –

How do you manage pain?

Do you suffer from migraines at all?

health

The Catching

3 Comments Posted on April 3, 2015June 1, 2015 by Snoskred

We have a bit of a rodent issue in our yard. Some people would say that chooks and rodents go hand in hand – in our case we have two very elderly people who live at the back of our block and their block is completely overgrown, full of weeds and rodents. If we can’t fix that, it is very unlikely we are going to fix the rodent issues on our own.

If you go out there at night, you can hear the rodents scampering and squeaking on what was once a tennis court belonging to the elderly people but is now an overgrown mess..

Traps do not work for these creatures, either because they are way too smart or they don’t like what we’re putting in them. Usually peanut butter has worked for us in the past. Maybe we’ll give cheese a try.

However the other half bought an ultrasonic pest controller which might be stopping the rodents from going near the traps at all.

What we are catching instead – without even trying – is some very poisonous arachnids. And here I will put a read more for those who do not like eight legged creature tales to come as a surprise. Click through to read a fascinating yet terrifying story.
Continue reading →

animals, Chickens, fears, Home, spider