Headaches be gone?

At first I didn't think using the anti-depressant was working. My doctor prescribed 10mg (a person with depression would be taking about 200mg) So when I say low dose anti depressants, I mean low dose lol! But for the two weeks I took the 10mg I was getting a lot of headaches.

I then had an appointment with a neurologist that I last saw 2 years ago. She said to take two 10mg (thus 20mg) until they ran out and to pick up a new prescription of 25 mg. I'm still on the 20mg but so far so good. I've haven't had a headache in a few days! What my neurologist also told me (and said the same thing 2 years ago) is that my neck muscles are extremely extremely tight (and this appointment was at 1030 am!). Obviously I already knew this but seem to fail at doing something about it. blah.

So far the meds are helping and I will make an appointment with a chiropractor, since its been a year since I've seen one. I'm hoping that will help

Furthermore...

Bad News: I was having eye pain and blurriness and after going to the eye Dr, found out I have a scratch on my left cornea. No contacts for a few weeks and using regular eye lubricating drops to help it heal.

Good News: I'm kinda sorta getting a promotion at work! They're making me Senior staff (instead of Jr Staff) as one of the senior staff is pregnant. I kind of had a feeling about it, as they were clearly training me to take on more responsibility. I hope I can work hard enough to show them I can do it, I often make stupid mistakes. It makes me wonder if they think I can do it. 

A Clean House!

I know I haven't posted lately. I always feel like I should be writing about big important stuff then get intimidated. Oh well. This is my life. I'm an old married hag that gets excited about the littlest things....

What I do want to announce is that there is a new resident in our household... a Eureka Airspeed Pet!

Sometime last week the hubs was vacuuming and it somehow shorted out or something. There were sparks/smoke and the outlet now has burn marks. However, the old vacuum (a 17+ year old Eureka that the in-laws gave us 3 years ago after they upgraded) barely worked. I could vacuum over a wad of dog fur 10 times just for it to pick it up. For some reason in never occurred to us that never having to empty the bag = its not picking anything up when it should be. Guess we thought we just had a clean house.

So imagine our shock after going over just the living room with our new vacuum the whole container (it's bag-less) was filled!!!!!!!! You could hear the vacuum crackling as it picked up our dirt. We've lived in this apartment for almost a year. It literally seemed like we hadn't vacuumed for a year considering how well the new one works. Plus, the carpet looks brand new. Before it didn't look any different after we vacuumed.

so. that just made my week. 

Tonight I'm Starting Anti-Depressants...

for my headaches!

Two years ago I tried a low-dose anti-depressant for my headaches and it gave me chest pains so I immediately stopped. This is a different medication (but also a very low dose) so maybe it wont have the heartburn/heart attack side affect the other one did. Its weird that they'll use drugs known to treat a certain condition to treat a completely different problem. I've been in birth control for a long while for my headaches... but I recently switched types in order to lessen my chance of stroke and it no longer helps my headaches!

Furthermore tomorrow I'm going to make an appointment with a chiropractor. Chiropractics has actually helped me before so I'm hoping it will continue to help. Although maybe I should wait so I can see if the new medication actually helps? My nurse practitioner also suggested acupuncture. But I'll definitely see how meds and spine drs work before I go with needles (not that I'm afraid of needles... just its further down on the list of last resorts)! 

Vote for us!

I finally got around to submitting my wedding on The Knot's Real Weddings.

http://www.theknot.com/contests/my-real-wedding/photo/166057/traditional-jewish-wedding?b=staf?b=staf

There's a Birthday in the Dog House!

My beloved Scout turned 6 years old yesterday (January 4th)! I can not believe he is six years old, as it seems like only yesterday he was the little 12 week old I picked up at the airport!

We celebrated on his birthday by giving him extra walks, treats and attention. Today he went to work with me (where he played with other dogs!) and I gave him lots of bones at work, spent extra time with him because work was slow today and gave him a bath (which he did not see as a good thing on his birthday).

I wanted him to be nice and clean because Saturday is his birthday party! Russ and I have officially gone crazy since we are throwing our dog a birthday party. I've sort of always wanted to but this was 100% percent Russ' idea. I'm even baking him a cake!

There is more good news... 2012 is turning out great, hubby might be getting a new job where he'll earn more and I'm taking serious steps to starting my own business. Wish us luck!

More on dog Nutrition

While the BARF diet might not be everyone's choice (and its not mine either), this article makes a few good points...

http://www.offthegridnews.com/2012/01/02/eating-all-natural-for-your-dog/

There is a link in that article that leads to this:
http://www.dogfoodproject.com/index.php?page=badingredients
which describes ingredients in dog food

2012 Goals

Instead of having resolutions for the New Year, I have goals. That way if I accomplish my goals I can congratulate myself. If I resolved to do something different in the New Year, I'd fail immediately. Anyway, considering 2011 was so horrible I really hope 2012 is waaaay better. I'm hoping to take serious steps to insure that it will be instead of leaving it up to fate.

1) What I've already started and plan to continue throughout 2012 is take steps towards starting my own doggie daycare. There is something inside of me telling me I have to do it now, because our financial situation is so bleak.  This is something I've always wanted and I feel pretty confident in myself that it will be successful financially and make me happy (which is more important).

2) Take more steps to become a dog trainer. I started this last year but with my job situation it became too difficult, now that things are stable... now is the time!

3) Get back into agility with Scout

4) Take Scout on therapy dog visits.

5) Teach Scout to read and take him to the Library. (Did this one confuse you? I'm not joking!)

6) Deal with my health problems

7) Volunteer at the local animal shelter (possibly train dogs for them for practice?)

8) Get more involved with our synagogue. Go to sisterhood events, go to XYZ events, go to services more often!

For good measure here is how Scout rung in the new year. I imagine I didn't look too different considering I slept the whole time and hubby only woke me up to kiss me at midnight.