~ Fall in the Dining Room ~

Good morning Friends,

I hope every has a fun and spooky Halloween.

I apparently decided to dress up as a woman with a Light & Sound Sensitive Migraine. I’ve never been one of these before and I don’t intend to ever be one again.

WOW! and OUCH! I have had a “headache” since Sunday. And I am no stranger to migraines. I have had them for years. But never like that. My migraine experiences have always been extremely visual with no pain. I think I prefer those after the last 2 days.

My very first migraine happened in Florida in 2002 on vacation in the car on our way to Universal Studios. I went completely blind. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced in my life up to that point. Of course my health has deteriorated since then, but at that point it was the worst. I could not explain to Mr. Primcat what was going on other than my vision was greying out and it went into a pin point until it went completely black. It was terrifying and I was hysterical. Mr. Primcat was freaking out asking what to do. So much drama in the car that day. lol.

My blindness stayed that way for what was about 5 minutes. I thought it was more like 2 hours but hubby confirmed it was a much shorter period. When it faded we went back to the condo and I slept the rest of the day. The next day I was ok, but terrified to drive myself for fear of blacking out again.

When I got home 2 days later I went to the Dr. and they immediately said they thought I had MS, as your vision is the first to go. I really wish they would not have done that to me as it was pretty much the scariest thing I’ve been told. Being told MS was worse than even when I was told I had Crohn’s disease.

After 2 weeks of testing, and brain scans and blood work they determined it was not MS and I finally got to a neurologist that diagnosed complicated migraines that can not be treated with conventional migraine drugs. My migraines are backwards to what those drugs treat.

He also confirmed that the “pantyhose filled with prisms” that I often saw swimming in my vision  were aura’s,  the most common symptom of a migraine.

Ever seen the panty hose aura? Nope? Well here’s what it basically looks like, though it’s different for everyone.

http://www.knownjohnson.com/?p=73

Mine is very similar to that and other than the one time of complete blindness aura’s are my only symptom. Obviously a crappy symptom that can debilitate you, but better than pain any day. I get them about once a week or so I just wait it out just like you do a headache.

This time, I had no aura. Just a headache that came into my forehead on Sunday and I couldn’t shake it. Kept telling Shane I felt “weird”. All day Sunday I pained away and all day Monday it stuck with me. By mid afternoon I was eating cold pills thinking I had a sinus thing. And then it got dark. And I flipped on my phone… and I felt like the light was drilling into my brain. What the heck? OUCH!

I had to go to Kohl’s because I had a coupon that was expiring last night and Mr. Primcat desperately needed new shoes and I desperately needed some new winter shirts to fit my now +40 pounds expanding waistline. Nothing from last winter fits me. I mean nothing! Ugh! So even though I felt like a train wreck we got into the jeep. And the first set of headlights that popped over the hill about took me out. And I realized what was happening.

Light and sound Migraine.

Mr. Primcat quickly asked if I wanted to turn around and I said no because I was not about to waste a 20% off coupon on things we both had to have. So he hands me my sunglasses. Wow. My man is seriously a genius. Off we went to Kohls. We very quickly grabbed what we needed and then headed over to Meijers where I bought some migraine formula aspirin and then headed home where I proceeded to wear my sunglasses in a dark house the rest of the night.

Today it is still with me but not as bad. I’m sitting here in my office with the lights off and it’s bearable. ( I’m sure it will be the drama talk of the day. Why does Carmen have her lights off? Is Carmen here, her lights are off? What's wrong Carmen? Are you ok? Why are your lights off?) I’m half tempted to put up a sign.  “Carmen has a massive migraine with light and sound sensitivity and is leaving the lights off so she can stay at work.” lol) 

And I won’t hesitate to go grab my sunglasses again if it gets worse. That would REALLY give them something to talk about!

For those of you that suffer from this often… you need a big squishy hug. I don’t know how I would have functioned if it had been even one iota worse. OUCHIE for sure.


Ok… moving on. Today we are taking a trip into the dining room. Last Sunday we did a tour through the kitchen. If you missed it back up 2 days. :) You MUST see Fall in the kitchen. It’s my fav! Lets go into the dining room!




Why are there door on the dining room you ask? Because my cats are bad little kittehs and break my stoneware. BAD! So we built doors. And I love how they look. You can read about them here:

http://primcats.blogspot.com/2010/12/dining-room-doors.html

And here:

http://primcats.blogspot.com/2010/12/doors-are-done.html

Lets go in…



Out the window… Hello Ghosties. I am sad these need to come down now.





Here’s my centerpiece with my new Goodwill Turkey and pumpkins my Stepmom got me.




A little bittersweet finishes it off.




My amazing dresser!



Candy corns and Frankenstein head by Angie.




A Tulip Sconce I picked up at the Goodwill.





Pewter. Every single piece of this came from the Goodwill.





Ahhhhh… my folkart. Favorite!



Autumn touches on the goodwill hutch.





My goodwill feather tree all falled up.



With Goodwill ornaments!



My $2.99 goodwill crock stand filled with Goodwill crocks!



Witchy poo!






Gobble Gobble. Love this goodwill turkey!



Goodwill buffet, goodwill pewter, Goodwill bowls, goodwill wall art, goodwill lamp. Basically all goodwill… except the folkart.







Gobble gobble.



Bittersweet.



Artsy, fartsy photography.



My craigslist chandelier covered in bittersweet.





That’s it folks. You have basically seen the whole house. We live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath ranch. My other 2 bedrooms are my my messy prim craft/extra decor’ room and the computer / cat box room. If I ever get my Prim Craft room clean I’ll show it to you. It’s never clean. Don’t count on it. LOL!

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats