Feeling overburdened in The View from the Terrace

I’m feeling overburdened at the moment. There seem to be too many things to cope with at once. I’ve always been a person who likes to deal with one thing at a time, but,of course, life isn’t like that.

I’ve had a bad run of migraines lately. I was in my usual pattern of waking with them around 3 times a week until Monday of last week. That was the day I finally decided to try taking the beta blockers that the GP had given me. I had held off until then in case there were side effects as I was pretty busy. Last week I had nothing on apart from a duty at my voluntary job on Thursday. I took the first beta blocker on Monday evening as this was suggested, rather than in the morning, in case they made me dizzy. Within a half hour I was developing a bad migraine. I almost never start migraines in the late evening. It got really bad, so I took one of my migraine meds and went to bed.

In the morning I didn’t feel good. The migraine had gone but I felt fuzzy. It wasn’t just the left over effects of the migraine med, it was different, I couldn’t concentrate on anything. I checked my blood pressure to see if the beta blockers were working and it was a little lower but I was a bit concerned that my heart rate had dropped to 55. According to the internet this is classed as below normal. The fuzziness continued all day and I also had less energy and was feeling a bit depressed. I do sometimes feel a bit low in the mornings but I am always fine in an hour or two, this didn’t wear off, then in the evening I began to develop another bad migraine. I had to take another migraine med so I decided not to take another beta blocker until I felt normal again. The next day I felt back to my old self so I am sure it was the beta blocker. Since than I have reverted to my usual pattern of waking up with migraines but have only had one day free. This does happen occasionally but I am really nervous of taking the beta blockers again. Apart from bringing down my blood pressure one of the reasons for trying them was to help reduce the migraines and I don’t need to feel more tired and depressed. My blood pressure was starting to drop anyway before I took any of them and that has continued. It does go up sometimes but always comes back down to an acceptable level. I’m starting to wish I hadn’t spoken to the GP about it as I think I want to leave things as they are for now.

When I saw him he was concerned at the number of migraine meds I am taking. He thinks I may have something called Medication Overdose Headache where the medication is actually making the headaches more frequent. I am aware of this condition and have researched it. I really don’t think I fit the pattern. My migraines went from one a fortnight to three a week 30 years ago quite suddenly and have stayed that way. I wasn’t taking that much medication then, only about two a month. I think I have some sort of problem with my neck that may be triggering them, but I have tried so many things over the years that I really wish they would leave me alone. If I don’t take the meds my life isn’t worth living anyway. I’m almost 72 and would rather just live day by day pain free whenever possible.

And now my tooth has been playing up again. It’s the one that was root filled about 3 times last year. It never totally settled and now it’s getting more sore. I already had a booked appointment for a dental check up yesterday. She told me that it may be because it has a slight crack in the enamel and it is getting reinfected. This time it lasted 6 months so I am reluctant to lose it now but but my dentist feels there is no point in her root filling it again. She said she could refer me to a specialist who may be able to do a better job because they have better instruments but it would cost £600. She said he would look at the x ray and then see me and tell me if he thought he could do it. If that was the case there would be a very high chance of success. I told her to go ahead with the referral but I am wondering if I should spend that much money on treatment. It’s not a front one but I am already missing one on that side. The other thing that’s worrying is that I will have to wait about 6 weeks for an appointment. If it gets worse like last time I don’t think I could. Maybe if that happens my own dentist could do something temporarily, I should have asked her. Hubby thinks it is an awful lot of money. He would just have the tooth out.

Chris called round today and I told him about my tooth. I said that after losing the front one 2 years ago and now this I am worried that I might start having more trouble with my teeth and may start losing them. He said, ‘You probably will, Mum, it’s because you are getting old,’ which was just what I needed to hear.

We have also been having trouble with the TV for several weeks. It was starting to break up at times, especially when the weather was bad Then we lost all channels but the BBC ones. I wasn’t too bothered as most things I like are on BBC anyway After a big storm last week the TV wouldn’t show any channels, now it gets everything but BBC! Tony tried connecting the aerial to his TV and it worked OK so when we were in town yesterday we went to buy a new TV. I had already chosen one from their website but Hubby allowed himself to be sold a bigger, more expensive one. It’s OK to spend money on bigger TVs but a waste to spend it on dental treatment. They didn’t have the one he wanted in stock but will have it in a few days. They could have delivered it on Friday for a £10 charge or the following Friday free. Hubby insisted we wait until the following Friday to save the £10!

Now today my laptop charger is playing up. Half the time it won’t charge unless you hold it in. Without the laptop I won’t be able to watch any of my favourite programmes. I have ordered a new charger from Amazon which will come by Monday, hopefully soon. Right now the charger is working but this morning it was driving me mad. I hope it is a faulty charger and not the connection on the laptop.

I wish I could just relax and life could be normal for a bit. When I am ill the TV helps me to unwind, if there’s nothing on I go on the laptop. If the charger packs up I can’t do either. I was about to book a short break for us in April and start looking at a trip to London in June but I’m not sure if I will be well enough for the April trip if the tooth doesn’t settle and the money is going down, well it will be after I’ve paid for the dental treatment. Then there is also another big repair for the house that needs doing. I was about to sort that too. The hall has been getting very damp. We are not sure what is causing it. There is a hole in the flower bed just outside the front door. If you fill it in the hole is there again the next day. It goes down about a foot. It is right next to the outlet pipe from the toilet and I have a horrible feeling that pipe has a leak and the soil is getting into it. We have to sort it soon or there could be a blockage. I do hope it’s not leakage from the toilet outlet pipe that’s getting into the hall. We are not sure if this is a plumbing or a builder’s job but it sounds expensive as I think a new outlet pipe is needed.

It never rains but it pours, as my mother used to say, and it is pouring right now, metaphorically and literally!

Last updated March 14, 2019