I’m Fat and Happy!

When I wrote about my ongoing battle with migraines a few months ago, I was so touched and grateful for the support and suggestions everyone gave me. It gave me the determination to keep slogging away at finding some relief. Seriously, I made a list of all of the ideas and suggestions in the comments, determined to check them all off if needed before I gave up and just lived with the pain.

I am happy to report that Doctor V, the migraine specialist/neurologist I started seeing, was able to help me. He put me on a new medication and I have not had a migraine since the first week after the appointment.

Doctor V was an odd duck who dictated his notes on our meeting as we spoke. Once I got used to his style, I was comforted by his confidence and directness. I was ready to sign up for nearly anything at that point.

He listened to me and talked into his dictation machine (who still does that?) as I gave him the list of different medications I had tried over the years, and what I was currently taking. He matter of factly told me, or rather his recorder, that I would be discontinuing  all current meds and starting a new one that “would fix me right up.”

That scared me to death. I was convinced that I was addicted for life to the Ambien CR and the Effexor XR I was taking. My internal medicine doctor even told me so. The same internal medicine doctor who had prescribed them to me in the first place.

Effexor is an anti-depressant which is used off-label for migraine prevention. I don’t really like taking medicine so I tried to stop taking it a few times, but I would get a bizarre feeling of vertigo and tons o’fun brain zaps.  The Ambien? If I didn’t take it I couldn’t sleep a wink. Not one wink.

Even though I was terrified of how hard getting off these (admittedly useless) meds would be, I agreed to try. The first two nights were pretty bad, but by the third night I slept a little bit. I now sleep through the night just fine, even better than before the Ambien. Go figure. I never had any of those awful withdrawal effects from the Effexor.

The magical Doctor V drug is a low dosage of Pamelor, an old-fashioned anti-depressant that works like a charm on migraines. I go in this week for the first follow-up with Doctor V and I may just kiss him on the mouth. That’ll give him something to dictate.

And now for the second reason for this post. My ass. It runneth over. The weight gain, my god, the weight gain! I didn’t notice it at first, it being the holidays and all. Also, I had been on a three-month cheesecake eating binge. Normally, that wouldn’t matter much since I have always had the metabolism of a goat. I can eat pretty much anything I want and not gain weight. Yeah, it pisses people off all the time.

When I weighed myself again, long after the holidays were over, I could no longer deny the truth. I have put on a solid 15 pounds since I started taking Pamelor. I can no longer wear any of my cute jeans. The baggy boyfriend jeans I recently bought fit perfectly. Sigh. So not the point of boyfriend jeans.

I tried getting into my skinny jeans the other day for kicks. I was able to get them buttoned, but it resulted in the worst muffin top I had ever seen – more like a soufflé top, if I’m being honest. I looked ridiculous.

I’m very happy my head doesn’t hurt, but I’m fat. I’m not complaining, I’m just sayin’.

Tagged as: fat, headaches, muffin top