Category Archives: Blog

4. Life Is A Journey, But This Is A Trip: What Goes Around, Goes Around and Around: On Vertigo

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  You’ve read a lot about my health challenges and I am moving closer to answers. I have had this since I was a child: vertigo, the feeling of dizziness, allegedly due to “sinus” but now I am convinced it is part of migraine syndrome. The feeling of spinning is horrible and thankfully, the violent spins I have perceived, are not common, but when they happen they are extremely disconcerting, frightening. They are like nothing I have ever felt before. However, lately, on and off over years, I have been feeling unbalanced. Not quite right. I walk and feel like … Continue reading →

3. Life Is a Journey, But This Is a Trip: Better Oily Than Late

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The possibilities of health benefits and cures are propelling people to more natural products.  If people see results, Big Pharma will be on the run. And that’s OK with me. It’s time for change, it’s time to get away from mass produced pills; some of our meds are imported from India and China. Some have been recalled. The farther the source of medications, the more uneasy I get. We’ve seen what has happened in China with melamine in baby formula, for example. Or fish being farmed in fetid water in India. (I cringe when in the Fairway Market and see … Continue reading →

2. Life Is A Journey, But This Is A Trip: Medical Marijuana vs. CBD Oil

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  Where there’s hope vape there’s hope.   The trial process. Mouse-over the photos for the captions. I hope you watched the video I posted in my previous blog. I purchased the Charotte’s Web Plus oil from ThriveMarket.com. I tried a dropper-dose and found it was strong stuff. Mind you, there is no THC in it, this is hemp oil, but I felt it for about 10 hours. I purchased the Charlotte’s Web Vape (pre-loaded) from MedTechHealthCare.com. The vape is strong as well and kicked-in quickly. I am still experimenting with doses and applications, ways and means. I am happy to report that … Continue reading →

1. Life Is A Journey, But This Is A Trip: Medical Marijuana

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That is not me, folks. I wouldn’t smoke cigarettes. I am on another journey in hopes of dealing with and managing ocular migraine. There are a couple of things going on so I will fill you in and perhaps you will find some information meaningful and pertinent for you or someone you know. In my quest to obliterate my migraines I have learned a good deal: they are not just headaches. They are unjust headaches which can manifest as: head pain (which, luckily I don’t deal with often and my lifelong headaches, since childhood, have diminished over the years from … Continue reading →

Vacation is Here: Gone Fishin’

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Wishing everyone a happy few weeks. It’s time to take a break. Heading up to some old familiar places which contribute to comfort and the feeling of a home-away-from-home. Seeing some migraine changes for the better on some new meds. Report to follow. Hoping to get some nice photos and share them with you. For now, everyone be happy and healthy. I’ll write when I can.

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139. Mother-Daughter Journey: The Flood

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  Here we go again, folks! And a Happy Monday to ya. I called my mother early this morning to alert her that a nurse was coming to see her for a six month review by her managed long term care. The phone rang, and rang. And rang. And then I heard my mother’s unsteady voice. “Speak up, I can’t hear you.” “Hello! Hello! Hello!!!” “It’s Me, MOMMMMM.” “Speak up! Is that you?” (sound of buttons being pushed). Beeps. She responds to me. “I had a terrible night,” the tale begins. “I didn’t sleep! A pipe broke and there was … Continue reading →

Creativity Takes Courage

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I finally had some time to go through my camera roll and see what needed to be edited. I came across two photographs of a display in The Jewish Museum, which were taken last March. The story below is extremely moving and the photograph is even more so. As a collector and creator of charms and charm bracelets, this was something to behold. Imagine the circumstances. Imagine the need to create. Imagine how creativity can keep one going. Imagine how this was made. Imagine.         Bracelet. Terezín (Theresienstadt), Czech Republic, 1941-43. Brass: cut-out; porcelain; cord. The Jewish … Continue reading →

138. Mother-Daughter Journey: I Want To Tell You

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  It’s been time for a new post for a while; to continue with the story about my mother I am happy to say that I have had a break for a few weeks and it was wonderful. The illusion was that all was well. The reality was that all was well. The undercurrent was disbelief. Was she stable? Would it stay like this. Underneath it all I had my doubts. What does one expect from a one hundred plus year old person? Yet, I have heard of other elderly people who had it even more together than my mother. … Continue reading →

What Just Freaking Happened? leading to …137. Mother-Daughter Journey

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  This has been a wacky few weeks. As I mentioned, I was giving an on-line iPhone photography course (they call it a workshop, but the amount of time and work that went into it could have gotten me tenure at a university) so I was on-line posting and creating and helping, and researching. And migraining. It was an awful month for migraines, just about a daily event of one kind or another, and I do think I mentioned about the violent vertigo attack; these scare the crap out of me. I try to live, if I can in between … Continue reading →

Migraine Redux: The Shape Shifter

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I usually don’t post when I get an attack but I think that it might give a non-sufferer an inkling into what happens. Yesterday was a day of freedom. On those days I have the fantasy that I will never have a day of migraine again. Wrong. This morning after breakfast I went to my studio to work on a project. Everything was fine. And then: My eyes wouldn’t converge; The room began to spin and I thought, “OK breathe, you’ve got this. Stare at your finger.” I did. It got worse, I was in free flight from a rocket … Continue reading →

Migraine Relief?

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I am sitting here with vision loss on one side: my daily ocular migraine. Call from Cushing Neurological: My headache doctor is putting in for the new drug. Being that I have tried all kinds of drugs, machines, glasses, computer screens, meditation, Chinese herbs (bleh) acupuncture, therapeutic massage, Botox, biofeedback, neurofeedback. I am game. When I was a small child crying in pain with headaches, spinning from vertigo, unable to eat, my mother was told I had a “sinus condition.” Well, I likely did, but migraine was the culprit. I was a 5-year old trying to play and be a … Continue reading →

Need A Laugh?

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    Hello, all, and a happy Monday to you. I have been missing in action, I apologize! Into the second week of a photography workshop I am giving (and loving it). A friend directed me to the following Saturday Night Live segment. I think you will enjoy this. Maybe I should get an Alexa for my mother, and rename it Moishe. I just need the “uh huh, uh huh, uh huh factor, and the ability to turn down the thermostat when the heat is on—in JUNE!

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On Passion

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  I am a member of an on-line group via facebook where the members, who live all over the world, have studied iPhone Photography. We have decided to carry on. In doing so, we work in teams and bring a monthly workshop to the group. I volunteered and in January began thinking about what I wanted to do. The group is largely based on group validations, some constructive criticism, and ego. We all want to be good, we all want to be recognized, but when learning a craft, there is more. We have to explore those who have come before … Continue reading →

An Interesting Article on Migraine and a First Hand Experience

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This is the latest issue of New York Magazine; I’ve been reading it for years. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I don’t know why I still subscribe, but I always enjoy doing the crossword puzzle. Yesterday, my day wasn’t great: I thought I felt well, but as I was doing some work, my eyes stopped converging and I felt a vertigo attack coming on. Some of the vertigo attacks have been beyond awful. Thankfully, I have only experienced horrendous seasickness attacks from that kind once. I have had severe vertigo at the dining room table, at my desk, away from … Continue reading →

Memorial Day Migraine

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  Out of the blue, vertigo began: this is vestibular migraine. Not my worst episode at all, thankfully , and it will eventually pass, and I will feel better, until the next time. The signal: my eyes can’t converge. Each one sees something else. Focusing on one point can help as long as this isn’t a major attack. What I call a “major” attack is the feeling that I am hurtling through space in a twirling, tossing space capsule on a full stomach, a high fever, and my eyes feel like they don’t belong to me. There will be a … Continue reading →

136. Mother-Daughter Journey: Don’t Cry Over Soup: An Allegory

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Friends, yes I know it has been a while. I began a blog earlier and then deleted it, it didn’t feel appropriate; I felt guilty. But guilt is part of the problem. I enjoyed a quiet hiatus. I enjoyed it too much, perhaps. But peace has its price in my case. At this stage of the game, having such an elderly parent, the phone could ring at any time of the day or night. The ringing phone makes me cringe. The caller Id can be even worse: if I see my mother’s name appear I hold my breath. This kind … Continue reading →

135. Mother-Daughter Journey: Cutting Through Red Tape: This Is How We do It

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  Get this: The Medicaid office that requested “missing” forms instructs them to be mailed in to the office. They do not use fax. The medical office associated with my mother’s doctor, that was asked to kindly fill out a form and send it in to Medicaid, uses fax but does not mail in forms. Thus, the medical office is sending the form to me (wait, that doesn’t make sense) so I can send it to Medicaid. I must be Through The Looking Glass. I will not question. And know I know why so many things I asked to be … Continue reading →

134: Mother-Daughter Journey: When The Culprit is Paper

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Here we are on the “back-to-normal” paper-chase … I called eligibility and sent an email. I called the service provider: nothing came down the pike to show the coverage had ended. I called HRA in Brooklyn. Couldn’t get through … busy for hours. Finally got through. The phone system said the case number was incorrect. Ten minutes later I was connected to a live agent. The case number went through. Go figure. He started to give me lip: if it didn’t go through, why are you giving it to me. (To show you the system sucks) And what was the … Continue reading →

133. Mother-Daughter Journey: From Photography to Ancestry, and Back to the Fight

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    Well, friends, it has been quiet, strangely quiet and my mother has been back to her previous, more stable “old-self.” I was on the phone less and basking in the knowledge that things seemed to be going smoothly, that the supplier of Ensure took it upon itself to trust that my mother’s benefits were reinstated and they sent over three boxes, reinforcing me to believe that all was cool. So, I began to relax and trust in the Universe. I got very involved in my monthly iPhotography group, Macro, and, I began preparing a workshop I will be … Continue reading →