Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Mystery Headaches: Part I
The fall of 2005 I found myself living in Agoura Hills, CA. I played hockey and went to the gym regularly, and on the days I wasn’t playing Ultimate Frisbee I worked as a substitute teacher. At the time my endurance greatly exceeded my income. Despite being in good physical shape I began a battle with what I first thought was an ear infection.
I remember my first time at the health clinic, the place where immigrants, day workers, and substitute teachers go to the doctor. I guess this is the closest thing we have to national healthcare in this country, and after my first visit I thought this place was great. I went in with no file on record, no phone call, and no appointment. I sat in the reception area for about four minutes and the receptionist apologized for my wait. I met with a doctor, had two kinds of drugs, and was out the door within fifteen minutes of the time I parked.
However, after a couple visits I was tired of being misdiagnosed with an ear infection. So I told the doctor my concerns, and added that I thought the symptoms got worse when I got water in my ear. With his medical expertise he responded, “Then try not to get water in your ear,” and sent me home with some more antibiotics. My warm feelings about the inexpensive health clinic began to dissipate.
Next I headed to the ears, nose and throat doctor. In case you didn’t know… that exists. I still had no money and no insurance, but I found people to be charitable when they became aware of that information. This time I had a competent doctor. He could not tell me the cause of my pain, but with some certainty concluded that it was unrelated to my ear. Now I knew it wasn't my ear, but after a few weeks the intense headache came back. At 3:30am one morning I sent out an e-mail to my medical friends that resulted in diagnosis of migraines.
I tried Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Codeine, and other drugs with no avail. So eventually I gave in and went to the neurologist. He gave me some additional sugar pills specifically designed for migraines. I didn’t care for Dr. Label much. He flippantly and unsympathetically concluded that I had migraines, and he smelled bad. He was confident that I had had migraines in the past and now they were just more severe. I simply needed to identify my triggers so I could minimize their occurrences. The first incident occurred when I was at a five-star resort in Florida, next to the pool reading a book and drinking ice water that was brought to me by a cute young girl. I wasn’t stressed. I didn’t have triggers.
I also didn’t know what else to do. I thought maybe I had some kind of brain aneurism or something. I remember wondering if there was a slight chance that I might die during one of my hockey games. I decided I would ask that question to the doctor during my next visit, but I would play all my games until then. I didn’t die.
Not only did he tell me death from hockey was unlikely he also told me getting a brain scan was unnecessary. However, nothing he had told me was working so I was getting desperate. My previous visit he even gave me medicine to inject into myself. None of the pills helped so we had to try something stronger. That medicine also didn’t do a damn thing to relieve the pain, but sticking a needle in your own ass does take you mind of it momentarily. I opted to cough up $1200 for the MRI.
The MRI report stated the following: My brain parenchyma is normal. There are no signal abnormalities, and there are no enhancing lesions. However, my vertebral arteries are somewhat tortuous, slightly displacing my medulla posteriorly and towards the right. This is of questionable significance.
This was the over-detailed way of saying I was fine. The summary added that my brain was "otherwise unremarkable." I would dare to disagree. They don’t even know me.
I remember my first time at the health clinic, the place where immigrants, day workers, and substitute teachers go to the doctor. I guess this is the closest thing we have to national healthcare in this country, and after my first visit I thought this place was great. I went in with no file on record, no phone call, and no appointment. I sat in the reception area for about four minutes and the receptionist apologized for my wait. I met with a doctor, had two kinds of drugs, and was out the door within fifteen minutes of the time I parked.
However, after a couple visits I was tired of being misdiagnosed with an ear infection. So I told the doctor my concerns, and added that I thought the symptoms got worse when I got water in my ear. With his medical expertise he responded, “Then try not to get water in your ear,” and sent me home with some more antibiotics. My warm feelings about the inexpensive health clinic began to dissipate.
Next I headed to the ears, nose and throat doctor. In case you didn’t know… that exists. I still had no money and no insurance, but I found people to be charitable when they became aware of that information. This time I had a competent doctor. He could not tell me the cause of my pain, but with some certainty concluded that it was unrelated to my ear. Now I knew it wasn't my ear, but after a few weeks the intense headache came back. At 3:30am one morning I sent out an e-mail to my medical friends that resulted in diagnosis of migraines.
I tried Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Codeine, and other drugs with no avail. So eventually I gave in and went to the neurologist. He gave me some additional sugar pills specifically designed for migraines. I didn’t care for Dr. Label much. He flippantly and unsympathetically concluded that I had migraines, and he smelled bad. He was confident that I had had migraines in the past and now they were just more severe. I simply needed to identify my triggers so I could minimize their occurrences. The first incident occurred when I was at a five-star resort in Florida, next to the pool reading a book and drinking ice water that was brought to me by a cute young girl. I wasn’t stressed. I didn’t have triggers.
I also didn’t know what else to do. I thought maybe I had some kind of brain aneurism or something. I remember wondering if there was a slight chance that I might die during one of my hockey games. I decided I would ask that question to the doctor during my next visit, but I would play all my games until then. I didn’t die.
Not only did he tell me death from hockey was unlikely he also told me getting a brain scan was unnecessary. However, nothing he had told me was working so I was getting desperate. My previous visit he even gave me medicine to inject into myself. None of the pills helped so we had to try something stronger. That medicine also didn’t do a damn thing to relieve the pain, but sticking a needle in your own ass does take you mind of it momentarily. I opted to cough up $1200 for the MRI.
The MRI report stated the following: My brain parenchyma is normal. There are no signal abnormalities, and there are no enhancing lesions. However, my vertebral arteries are somewhat tortuous, slightly displacing my medulla posteriorly and towards the right. This is of questionable significance.
This was the over-detailed way of saying I was fine. The summary added that my brain was "otherwise unremarkable." I would dare to disagree. They don’t even know me.
Thought of the Week
I heard a guy on the radio today say that with regards to steroids we can safely conclude that baseball is self-policing itself.
He then added that that comment may have come from the department of redundancy department.
He then added that that comment may have come from the department of redundancy department.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Weighing in on Steroids
I’ve heard the argument, with regards to steroids, that maybe we should just let the players all take whatever they want. Then it will be a level playing field. What would be wrong with that?
That is a reasonable argument. Also, I think it isn’t far from what was happening in baseball.
I’ve said this analogy several times now. If during a test to my students I said to them, “You all know the rules. I’m going to be back in fifteen minutes.” Then I left the room. If I found that 80% of my students cheated how could I blame them? They are competing on the same curve as the person sitting next to them. If the vast majority of the competition was taking advantage of an edge wouldn’t you too? I wouldn’t blame the 80%; I would blame me for not enforcing policy better.
I don’t blame the players for using steroids in a time when there was no penalty against it. So stop blaming them. Blame Major League Baseball. We recently found out A-rod did roids too. Many people were shocked, because they wanted the golden boy to pass up the villain Barry Bonds on the all-time homerun list. I wasn’t shocked, nor should anybody have been shocked. If the teacher isn’t in the room most of the kids will cheat.
I’m happy about Manny’s suspension. Baseball has policies in place now to keep players from using steroids. If someone breaks a rule, there should be consequences. Now Manny is out for 50 games. Good. We have rules in place against performance-enhancing drugs. Now, if the rules are broken the rule-breaker should be punished.
Stop calling Bonds a cheater. They all took steroids and he was just that much better than everyone else while he was on them. That’s why he became the game’s villain. If you want to bash Bonds, fine. Rip him for being an egotistical, selfish, inconsiderate asshole, not for being an amazing ballplayer that happened to use steroids too. *
Now tell the players to stop taking illegal performance enhancing drugs; the teacher is in the room.
*Click here for a good Bonds-bashing '06 article without critizing the steroid use.
That is a reasonable argument. Also, I think it isn’t far from what was happening in baseball.
I’ve said this analogy several times now. If during a test to my students I said to them, “You all know the rules. I’m going to be back in fifteen minutes.” Then I left the room. If I found that 80% of my students cheated how could I blame them? They are competing on the same curve as the person sitting next to them. If the vast majority of the competition was taking advantage of an edge wouldn’t you too? I wouldn’t blame the 80%; I would blame me for not enforcing policy better.
I don’t blame the players for using steroids in a time when there was no penalty against it. So stop blaming them. Blame Major League Baseball. We recently found out A-rod did roids too. Many people were shocked, because they wanted the golden boy to pass up the villain Barry Bonds on the all-time homerun list. I wasn’t shocked, nor should anybody have been shocked. If the teacher isn’t in the room most of the kids will cheat.
I’m happy about Manny’s suspension. Baseball has policies in place now to keep players from using steroids. If someone breaks a rule, there should be consequences. Now Manny is out for 50 games. Good. We have rules in place against performance-enhancing drugs. Now, if the rules are broken the rule-breaker should be punished.
Stop calling Bonds a cheater. They all took steroids and he was just that much better than everyone else while he was on them. That’s why he became the game’s villain. If you want to bash Bonds, fine. Rip him for being an egotistical, selfish, inconsiderate asshole, not for being an amazing ballplayer that happened to use steroids too. *
Now tell the players to stop taking illegal performance enhancing drugs; the teacher is in the room.
*Click here for a good Bonds-bashing '06 article without critizing the steroid use.
Thought of the Week
You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.
--Yogi Berra
--Yogi Berra
Saturday, May 9, 2009
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