Headaches...not awesome

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To add to the list of trial and error, I suffered from extremely horrible headaches for a long time.  I could barely drive to doctors appointments, and most times my husband had to take off work to take me.  I was on some strong medications that barely worked, most just took the edge off.  I saw doctor after doctor and most were convinced it was stress from my recent delivery of my son.  I tried everything they told me, went to massages (best doctors advice yet!), took medications, de-stressed, etc etc and nothing helped.  I knew they were wrong, but sometimes you just have to go through the motions they tell you.

courtesy Mount Sinai

We went through every possibility it seemed...nerve damage, stress, sinus issues, tension headaches, chronic migraines, even tumors in my head.  The CT scans showed nothing.  Finally, after to talking to my mom one day, she mentioned she had gone through the same thing of doctors and it ended up being sinus issues.  She had to have surgery for it.  I told her that they already ruled sinus issues out.  She asked if I had been specifically to an ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat doctor).  I told her no and she urged me to book an appointment.  I did.  The doctor looked up my nose, did some preliminary tests in his office and looked at my previous CT scans.

One of the preliminary tests was that he shoved (yes, shoved I think would be the right word) some numbing medication all the way up as far as he could go.  He said if the numbing medication worked, he knew what the issue was. 5 minutes later, barely any headache.  He smiled, said hmmmm, turned and looked at my CT scans and said ahhhhh! It turns out that the passages in the sides of my nose were all wonky (yes, medical term) and my septum was deviated.  So on top of my sinus' being plugged, the passages on the side of my nose were creating pressure points against my septum and creating the headaches.  AHA! BINGO!

A few weeks later I was in surgery for some nose correction surgery.  (He offered to revamp my nose if I wanted, in which I was slightly offended, I like my nose!)  Anyways, after 8 weeks of horrible recovery...headache was gone! Yeah, long recovery... The first days are the worst because they shove draining stuff up your nose and have to leave it there for the first few days.  After that though, the recovery is a bit better.  I was on bed rest for 2 weeks since I had 2 small children (one of which was still only a few months old).  Minus the guilt of having to shuffle my kids off from place to place, recovery wasn't too bad.

I'm including an info-graphic about headaches I found.  I think it was pretty helpful and can give some good information.

What are your experiences with headaches? Anything that could help others?

Family and Legacy

You know when you're watching one YouTube video and you click on another, which leads you to another? Well, I was doing that and ran across an awesome and special video.  It's all about the power of love and families.  I truly do think families are so important and the legacy that can be passed on because of love.  No matter where we are in life, we were came from, who our parents are, etc, what we do in our life now really matters.  If you have grown up in a strong family with a strong family bond, then keep that going! If you haven't, then it is definitely something to aspire to.  These bonds and families that we create here will continue with us in the next life.  Watching this video puts it all into perspective, enjoy!

Star Wars Boy Valentines

So as my search for Valentine's for my little 18 month old came up dry I decided it was time to just make my own.  I loved some Star Wars themed valentines I saw on Pinterest, but nothing that really struck my fancy.  So, why not just make my own.  I mean, I already had cardstock and a printer.  I knew I wanted to use glow sticks as light sabers, so all I had to do was find some free clip art online.

And, in case things have gotten crazy and finding Valentine's has not been prosperous for you either, please feel free to download my templates below.  (please do link back to me if you put this on your site or pinterest boards)

                          

FYI: As you will notice in the picture, there isn't a light saber.  To get the effect, use a box cuter or scissors to cut a slit above the light saber handle.  In Obi's pic, you can't really see a hand or anything on the left hand side, so just cut a slit right below his sleeve.  Lastly, insert glow stick. I've also seen pixie sticks used if that sounds like a more suitable to fun option for you.  I ended up at http://www.disneyclips.com/imagesnewb6/starwars.html  

They have some free clipart on their site that you can easily download and use.

And since I am a proud mama, this post would not be complete without an awesome picture of my boy holding his valentines to give out!

Dr. Seuss inspired bedroom

So my husband and I decided that Dr. Seuss would be the perfect decor for our little girl's room.  This has been her room decor since she was about a month old.  We had so much fun decorating this room, and since we used some decals, it wasn't too bad of a project.  We had such an investment in it as she was our first child, that every brush stroke we made was tons of fun.  We are both pretty creative, but I wouldn't say we have immense drawing skills, so we did what we could and then let decals do the rest!

We started with the hills.  I didn't really lay this out ahead of time, I just used my brush and drew some hills on the wall.  I went back and then filled them in.  The trees we did by stencil.  We looked up the Dr. Seuss trees online and used a piece of cardboard as a stencil.  We just used the top of the tree and then drew in our own trunks.  The trees we painted with bright Dr. Seuss colors.

After the hills and trees were done we next worked on the clouds.  We used a piece of cardboard to make a stencil for the clouds as well.

Next, we ordered the Dr. Seuss decals you see.  Before we stuck them around the room, we cut them up and taped them with painters tape around to see if we liked the placement.  When we got the placement we liked, we just stuck them around the room per the given directions.

Lastly we found the Dr. Seuss quote decal online.  It usually comes as a paragraph clump, but we cut it up word by word and placed it in our pre-painted yellow swirl.  Lastly, to get the perfect kids book look, we took black permanent marker and outlined our hills, trees, clouds, and yellow swirl.

Our little one loves this room! When she was first learning to talk, she would point at the different characters and we would teach her who they were.  She loved relating them to her Dr. Seuss books.  To make the room even better her Nana gave her some Dr. Seuss stuffed animals that we also placed around the room... you can see the fish up on her curtain rod and the elephant on her bed :)

Lastly, her bedding was the easiest part! It's a new baby bedding set from Target. We thought the large circles and polka dots were a perfect neutral accent to the room, without taking all the decor overboard.

She still loves her room, but is already begging for a princess theme!

If you could design the perfect room for your kids, what would it be and why?

Lidocaine (Lidoderm) Patches Review

So one of the many things I tried during this bout of chronic pain was the Lidoderm patch, which is basically a patch you put on your skin containing lidocaine.  Pretty simple and straightforward, right? Well, it was, and so will this review be!

At the beginning of this bout, when we were unsure of what exactly was going on, there was a short stint in which the hypothesis was nerve pain due to problems from my recent surgery.  At the time, it seemed like a good hypothesis, even though in the end it proved to be invalid.

To cut right down to it, they did work, just not for my type of pain.  Therefore, if your pain is superficial, or more on the surface, then these should work for you! (But, just like any other type of medication, there is always the risk that your body just won't let it work.)

Photo courtesy of lidoderm.com

What I did like about these patches is that they would go right to the source of your problem, without having to be under narcotic influence, or even have some of the other effects that strong pain medications can put on your body.  What's great also, is that you can wear the patch for 12 hours at a time.  This is the longest most types of medications work.  So you wear  patch for 12 hours on and 12 hours off.  Even when the patch is off, just like normal lidocaine, the effects of the numbing last longer.

I love this little graphic to the right that shows how it works. I have always been a visual learner, so it kinds puts it into beter perspective, don't you think?

Overall, this was a great alternative, and it would be something I will keep in mind for future reference.  I wonder if it would work well for broken bones, or serious underlying damage.  In any case, these Lidoderm patches are something that should be on your radar to take and consult with your doctor.

Have you ever used these patches or something similar? What alternatives have you found to be great for handling consistent pain?

Here is some info that will be important to know: 
First and foremost, like I have said before, I am NOT a doctor, and will never claim to be.  These are just my awesome experiences :)
You should not use this product if you are sensitive to local anesthetics such as lidocaine, or to any of the other ingredients in LIDODERM®.
Even a used LIDODERM® patch contains a large amount of lidocaine. A small child or pet could suffer serious adverse effects from chewing or swallowing a new or used LIDODERM® patch. Store and dispose of patches out of the reach of children, pets and others. Never reuse a patch.LIDODERM® patches should be worn for no more than 12 hours a day. Applying the patches for a longer time or using more than 3 patches could cause serious reactions.