Candy Meacham

Two or Three weeks ago, I went back in time to the Town where I was born and raised, lived until the age of 18.  I left and have never returned.  And I haven’t spent much time thinking about it since then.  But an article in Orion Magazine, Jan. Feb. 2011, “Colonization of Kern County” by Jeremy Miller brought me “home” again with an abrupt yank.  I grew up in the desert oil fields of Taft, California, and my father was an engineer working in the industry.  Miller’s article details the vast destruction the oil industry has wrought in the area.  http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6047/

Steam extraction of heavy crude oil

Continue reading “Full Circle”

Talking about migraine disease

How do I do it?  I can only address this topic with a look back ……….  It has been a long process for me to admit than I have severe chronic migraine and that it affects my life on a daily basis.  Now, at the age of 66, I am (usually) very frank about how I’m feeling at any given time.  I don’t broadcast it unless I’m feeling bad and can’t make it to work or to some other commitment because I don’t want it to enter into every conversation, but I don’t hesitate to explain if the need arises. Continue reading “Coming out of the closet”

On Vacation w/ Hypersensitivity intact –

My husband and I are on vacation, a road trip in our new/ old van from Washington State to Calif. to see our son in Santa Cruz and make numerous stops and side trips including one to Taft, a little California town in the remote, desert oil fields where I was born and reared.  I haven’t been back since age 19, so it should be quite interesting – and about 100 degrees.

Motorcycle art in Moss Landing

First stop was Portland to hook up with my husband who was attending his 50th high school reunion, his only one ever.  He drove down a couple of days earlier.  I went down on the train, and we stayed at the hone of old friends.  Next stop, a beautiful forest service campground 4 mi outside of Shasta, Calif.  We made it the following day to our kids’ sweet little condo in beautiful Santa Cruz.  We’re on our 3rd day here, comfortable, and I’m finally returning to what passes for some sense of equilibrium for me.  

Continue reading “My left foot”

Keeping my Head Above Water, swimming in the Methow River

For me, keeping my head above water with migraine doesn’t mean just keeping up w/ household tasks and chores.  It means choosing which things are most important in my life and figuring out how I can “show up.”  The chores that don’t get done are always waiting for me when I’m ready or my kind husband steps up to the plate.

Continue reading “Head above water”

How much does it cost?  Simple question, no?  And it deserves an answer.  But try asking when you go for a medical procedure or heaven forbid, if you end up in the hospital.  No one can answer it and very often they’re surprised when you ask.

Cost-of-care questions are a  no-no

Continue reading “$ How much?”

Wednesday, beginning at 8:00 am in the morning, my heart was electrified, probed and poked until it did it’s odd, unsettling, rhythmic thing of sending out extra errant beats.  Then that little wild piece of me was forever silenced, cauterized.

Image of ablation of my heart.

Continue reading “Heart of my heart”

Today is July 5th.  Where I live in the far northwest corner of the Pacific Northwest, we say summer begins after the 4th of July.  Today was the first beautiful, sunny, summer day and I’m content though not headache free.  I just feel more optimistic when the clouds lift and the temperature finally warms up enough to put on my sandals “permanently” until October.  I plan, but it doesn’t always go my way, and I try to leave things loose enough to always have a back-up plan.

Last summer my husband and I went on a road trip from Washington State to Santa Cruz, Calif. to see my youngest son.  We did a side trip to Crater Lake in Ore., which is at about 8,000 feet.  We camped in chilly 40 degree night-time temperatures and headed down the mountain the following morning.  The elevation dropped quickly and temperatures began to rise rapidly.  My head began to throb, and soon I knew I didn’t have it in me to deal with cooking and camping in our van.  We headed to the nearest motel in Redding.   Continue reading “Here Comes Summer!”

It is my second week of inpatient hospitalization through the Michigan Headache and Neurological Institute (MHNI).  http://www.mhni.com/     I have daily, refractory migraines, which just keep getting worse.  They have affected my family life, my work in a big way, decreased my circle of friends, changed my retirement plans and much more.  Migraine runs in the family, and unfortunately, I’ve passed this nasty disease on to my (now) 35-year-old son.  The hospital was a huge step for me.  I’ve never been in one except to birth my 2 children, and that is, of course, quite different.

One of the many things that finally drove me to MHNI was that I began to realize I could no longer deal with numbers, a side effect of some medications.  I couldn’t make change, add my hours correctly on my request-for-leave form, not to mention subtract, multiply or divide.  I became afraid that my teaching skills were slipping and it was, therefore, affecting my students and their learning.

Continue reading “In the Hospital”

June 23, 2012

I’ve had migraines for as long as I can member.

They started in childhood and have gotten worse over the years especially since pregnancy with my second child.  They say that migraines tend to fade away as you get older, after menopause.  Not mine.  They just got worse.  Now I’m on a variety of preventative medications with a variety of desirable and undesirable side effects which partially control my headaches.  I just returned a month ago from an inpatient hospitalization through the Michigan Headache and Neurological Institute.  More later about that.  I now recognize what I have resisted for many years:  I have migraine (I knew that) disease, which is a difficult, lonely chronic disorder.

Continue reading “Art trumps migraine”