This is may-juh! I hope people will continue to read the post below, I am loving the comments on favorite books.

BUT I couldn’t not post about this. I was unpacking my pharmacy stuff and reading the little forms. I noticed that the packaging for my Imitrex had changed, and it is now GENERIC! Fantastic, right? Right — especially because it carried over to the price. With my insurance, I paid only $2.25 for 9 pills. WOW.

There were days a few years ago (we had no pharmacy insurance at the time) when we’d seriously pay more than $20 PER PILL for triptans, including Imitrex. So we went from paying more than $20 per pill to $0.25. Literally.

This makes me happy largely because there are SO MANY other fantastic things I’d rather buy than pills. Just for starters, food. Or paying our rent. 

To follow is a very long list of books I read in 2008. One thing about this Headache, I have much more time for reading than I used to  — probably more time than most folks. I’m still not a *huge* reader, but I am sure enjoying it more than I used to! By making this list, I figure I can get a sense of what I tend towards, what I should read more of. Some of these books I wrote short reviews of on GoodReads. All in all, though, if I could recommend only a few books from this year, they would be The Life of Pi, The Secret Life of Bees, and A Thousand Splendid Suns.

If you want to read my opinion on these and many other books, why not add me as a friend on GoodReads? If I know you from the blog, or even if I don’t, introduce yourself and I’d love to see what you’re reading. 

1. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
2. The Problem of Pain
3. Cheaper by the Dozen
4. The Other Queen
5. The Book Thief
6. A Circle of Quiet (Crosswicks Journals, Book 1)
7. Everything is Illuminated
8. The Secret Life of Bees
9. Cat’s Cradle
10. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
11. All in my Head: An Epic Quest to Cure an Unrelenting, Totally Unreasonable, And Only Slightly Enlightening Headache
12. LIfe Disrupted: Getting Real About Chronic Illness in Your Twenties and Thirties
13. The Last Great Dance on Earth
14. Daughter of Fortune
15. Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self Esteem, and the Confidence Gap
16. Notwithstanding My Weakness
17. The Plague of Doves
18. A Love for Larkspur
19. Islands in the Stream
20. Living Well with Migraine Disease and Headaches: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell you… That You  Need to Know.
21. The Host
22. Love in the Time of Cholera
23. Blindsided: Lifting a Life Above Illness: A Reluctant Memoir
24. The Widow of the South
25. Whom the Lord Loveth: The Journey of Discipleship
26. The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation
27. Middlesex
28. My Name is Asher Lev
29. A Thousand Splendid Suns
30. New Moon
31. Myst: The Book of Ti’Ana
32. The Book of Atrus
33. Twilight
34. Snow Falling on Cedars (reread)
35. Nurse Matilda Goes to Town
36. The Poisonwood Bible
37. The Other Boelyn Girl
38. The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine
39. The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood
40. The Constant Princess
41. Wideacre
42. The Favored Child
43. Mistress of the Sun
44. Earthly Joys
45. Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
46. Breaking Dawn
47. The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music
48. I Want That!: How We All Became Shoppers
49. The Girl of His Dreams
50. The Book of D’ni
51. The Diagnosis
52. Meridon
53. Shoe Addicts Anonymous
54. Eclipse
55. Never Let Me Go
56. Judge Me Dear Reader
57. Water for Elephants
58. Reading Lolita in Tehran
59. The Five People You Meet in Heaven
60. Nurse Matilda
61. The Kite Runner
62. Life of Pi
63. The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (Crosswicks Journals Book 2)

There it is, my friends — what have you read that you like this year?

ready or not…

I just wanted to thank you all for reading here, and your continued interest in my exploits. I am really blessed to be able to spend time this holiday break with my family and Spencer’s family as well. Having a lot of my usual work and accomplishments disappear with the onset of The Headache, I have found more and more joy and meaning in spending time with those I love. I love my family — and I have the best inlaws ever.
More later — hopefully some pictures, too!

Let me tell you all about my appointment on Tuesday!

There was some snow in Salt Lake City on the way out, and I was glad we got out on time! Then we landed in Chicago, and I opted to have Panera Bread for lunch. Yum!! I wonder why there’re not in Utah?

In any case, then it was off to my doctor’s appointment — we started off with my lab results. It turns out that my Tegretol (anti-seizure med) levels are good! Additionally, my liver and kidneys are doing great. It was a relief to hear that - I get these things checked every 6 months or so b/c I’m on the Tegretol. Still, it is one of those in-the-back-of-my-mind worries - that the insane amount of pills I’m taking (that aren’t working) will damage my insides. So hearing that things are in good working order made me happy. And so my doctor upped the dosage of the two pills that *do* help a little bit - the Tegretol and the Baclofen (muscle relaxant) - in hopes that maybe a higher dosage will help more.

I asked him about the back pain and mentioned the dull aching headache that I now have at the back of my head. Unfortunately, my head was hurting a lot and I didn’t remember to get an answer. So I’m trying to get an appointment with my primary physician here to get something started - physical therapy, maybe? I’m hoping there will be some exercises I could do to strengthen my muscles.

So it was a good appointment, and the real fun started when I left the doctor’s office. It started snowing hard, and what should’ve been a 20-40 minute cab ride to the airport turned into 2 and 1/2 hours. Seriously. It was stop and go traffic, and just slush everywhere. Staying in your own lane you were pretty much ok, but trying to change lanes was perilous. And for some reason my driver liked to drive as quickly as possible towards the next car… which resulted in a lot of spinning tires and my wondering if we were going to be able to stop in time.

A few observations from my trip:

• If you are ever looking to corral the most wheelchairs in one place — I recommend looking at the gate leaving for Orlando. That was serious, ya’ll.
• Also? Did you know that the Buffalo Bills cheerleaders are called Buffalo Jills? Cute, right?
• Cab drivers could be getaway drivers — maybe they are. My first cab driver was hilarious; what is your first reaction when the people in front of you start slowing down? Me, I slow down as well. My cab driver, however looks to another lane to try and speed up. Awesome.

That is all.

Lucky me, I got another little bloggy award! I just need to try and stick these cute things on my sidebar. That’d be nice, right?

In any case, I got this from my friend Caryn over at The Book Lady! She’s a writer, as well as an amazing photographer. I have been reading her blog for a few years now, just about as long as I’ve been blogging. Check her out if you haven’t already!

And now it’s time for me to pass it along — I’m meant to pass it on to seven other deserving bloggers. Without further ado:

• my sister Gretchen at Richard & Gretchen — helps to keep me updated while we’re living a little further apart!
• my sister Sarah at Mothering on the Edge, most especially for posting pictures of my nephew and nieces
• my SIL  Julie at Osh Kosh Chronicles — also most especially for posting pictures of my super cute niece and nephew
• Mary at Owlhaven, who I also have been reading forever. Her blog has lots of frugal ideas, and I love hearing about her family.
• Karen at Shama-lama Mama — someone I’ve started reading rather recently, whose perspective I’ve really enjoyed. Also, her kids are really adorable.
• The Pink Chihuahua Princess, who I love and who has been absent from the blogosphere for a little while…I am hoping it’s because she’s found love (the human kind, she already had lots of love from her cute doggies!)
• Magically Mama; a friend of a friend whose writing I have really enjoyed. I’m not much of a writer, but I think I can appreciate good writing when I see it.

There it is friends — if you were looking for more blogs to read, you got ‘em! Great women who I admire and whose blogs I LOVE!

Please pass on the blog love by putting the badge of honor on your sites and awarding it to seven other deserving bloggers.

Now for a short update on me - I am definitely over any and every random bug I’ve picked up. Thank heavens! The back pain (and resulting tension headache) that I’d attributed to the flu has stuck around. Unfortunately. I don’t know why, and can’t think of anything I’ve changed. Sadly, this hasn’t replaced the daily migraines, it just joined the party. I’m flying out to Chicago this week, and I’ll ask my headache doc about it. I’m guessing I’ll head to some physical therapy and see what I can do. Really wishing this hadn’t started up, or that I could figure out how to fix it on my own - no more doctors, no more pills, no more appointments! Keep your fingers crossed for me that this will have a quick resolution!

On the 3rd I wrote that I was feeling much better. I’d gotten over my cold/whatever it was. Then yesterday (the 4th), I came down with the flu. It was horrible. The worst part was probably the nausea, followed closely by the additional headache again. What’s up with that? I’m starting to get better (again) today. Knock on wood.

What’s really ironic about that is I actually got the flu shot this year! About a month ago, so I’m pretty sure this isn’t a reaction to it.  

My Christmas shopping is nearly done! I’m in the home stretch now! And our little tree is up, but has no lights. That’s a story for another day. Maybe we’ll decorate it tonight? My fingers are crossed.

Well I’m feeling much better. Thanks for your get-well wishes. The real bummer part of this cold was when I had an extra headache - like a sinus-y tension thing. UGH. The thing about life is, even when you think it’s bad, it can always get worse!

Sorry, that sounds awfully down-er. Didn’t mean it that way, just that you’ve got to keep your head up.

A few weeks ago, I won a set of Christmas cards from Bloggy Giveaways. If you don’t read Bloggy Giveaways, you are missing out. Check that place out. So I won these beautiful cards from Megan’s Custom Cards. If you haven’t ordered your Christmas cards, I think you should check her out. Check her out anyways, because she does all kinds of cards and photo announcements.

So here’s our card -

We used the Gentle Branch design. Last year we sent out a picture of the two of us with the Christmas cards. But I figure we haven’t changed much, so this year we aren’t sending a picture of us. When we have kids, I’ll be all over that. But the picture we used is one Spencer took of a nativity scene.

Thanksgiving was wonderful - the next day (yesterday) I woke up sick. My husband has definitely got a cold, but somehow when he gave it to me it seems more like a flu - aching muscles and all that. Also for some reason, I get lots of canker sores when I’m sick. Weird *and* unappreciated.

Can’t wait for this to pass - get back to dealing only with migraines.

**updated to add** — the recipes! I said I’d tell you how they turned out! This one (the pumpkin butter) was great - all around delicious. The sweet potatoes were GREAT, a big hit. The caramel apple pie was too sweet to me. Spencer thought so too. Next time I would use about half as much caramel on top. All in all, a good showing!

Today I am baking in preparation for Thanksgiving tomorrow! I love to bake, and don’t often have an excuse to do it. Today it’s Pioneer Woman’s Apple Caramel Pie - it *looks* delicious, I’ll be sure to report back about the actual taste soon! I’m also trying her pumpkin butter, we’ll see how it goes over. Additionally, I’m cooking dinner — one of the favorites around here, Martha’s Mac & Cheese (with ham).

And then I was surfing my blogs, reading what’s new. And it turns out that Deb at Weathering Migraine Storms gave me the Lemonade Award!

The Lemonade Award is given to blogs demonstrating an attitude of gratitude. I’m surprised to find myself receiving this, to be honest. I find that I’m not grateful enough for all that I have — and that I complain far too much. If nothing else, it will help me to remember gratitude in my daily life.

1. Wind Lost

2. Inner Dorothy

And now for the obligatory ‘what I’m thankful for’ section of this entry. It really is a good exercise for me.

• My husband - his kindness and willingness to help me as I’m waylaid by migraines.
• My family - the family I grew up with, and the family Spencer grew up with. Both have been incredibly supportive and loving through the difficulties that these migraines have created.
• Being able to afford good health care. This is dumb luck, and really I think it matters a lot more than it should.
• Music - that is can wake up my soul and help it to breathe again, even after I stay away so long. Nothing could take the place that music has in my life - I can’t wait to get back to practicing and playing and teaching someday.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

Today I went (with my husband) to a boutique. My friend had some crafts being shown in the boutique, and I wanted to go and support her.

I met a woman there who also had frequent and delibitating migraines. We talked for a while, but I didn’t learn as much as I’d have liked to about her migraine history. In any case, she currently goes every 6-8 weeks for Botox treatments. And as she said, ‘You couldn’t have found a happier customer.’

So that was useful, because I have quite a few headache/migraine friends online, but most of them are either in the same boat I am, or have found some kind of ’solution’ and are working to maintain far fewer migraines. But I don’t know anyone who has had a lot of relief from Botox.

She has — it was great to hear about it, and give it some more thought. Of course Botox has been on my list of things to try. It manages to find its way to the bottom of the list because it costs so much and insurance doesn’t cover it. But she pays less than I thought it cost, and has had SUCH postive results.

Maybe it’s time to move Botox up the list?