ê¿êspi20.com — watching and writing

Now that fall has officially arrived, the leaves will be turning red, gold and orange in preparation for winter. Towns have thier fall festivals where apples and pecans, homemade crafts and food on a stick will be available to all. The air will have a crispness to it and birds will begin their migration south.

Along with the birds migrating south, there will be people migrating as well. As they pass through Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia on their way to Florida, they may seek out aPigeon Forge cabin rental.

Being able to stay in such a place is one of the benefits of migrating.Seeing the best of this lovely country, experiencing the charm of the South and enjoying al the conveniences make a Snow Bird’s flight one to repeat year after year.

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Nearly everyone I know has an occasional headache, but a few of my friends really suffer from migraine headaches. These headaches can debilitate a person as they are often disoriented and their vision can be affected in some instances. New medicines are making migraine sufferers’ lives a bit less painful.

A few years ago, the new drug for migraines were in two categories, abortive and preventive. Abortive medicinces stop or significantly reduce a migraine while preventive drugs aim at preventing a migraine all together.

New to this latter category is Botox for migraines.

A double blind study was performed by Stephen Silberstein, MD, of the Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine; Ninan Mathew, MD, of the Houston Headache Clinic; Joel Saper, MD, of the Michigan Head Pain & Neurological Institute; and Stephen Jenkins, MD, of Allergan, Inc. for the BOTOX Migraine Clinical Research Group. In the study, 123 patients with a history of two to eight moderate to severe migraine attacks per month were treated with Botox or a placebo. The patients treated with Botox reported

1. significantly fewer migraine attacks per month
2. reduced severity of migraine attacks
3. fewer days using abortive/rescue medications
4. fewer episodes of vomiting

Obviously, no therapy will work for all migraine sufferrers, but this study definitely gives hope that Botox injections are helpful as a preventive for a significant percentage of migraineurs. A word of caution - if you are considering Botox injections, please be sure that the doctor administering the treatment is experienced in its use. It’s your health. Don’t hesitate to ask how many times the doctor has administered Botox and the rate of success achieved.

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I had a real hard look at how I manage my time today. I’ve just come back from a week’s vacation and home to a messy house and crises everywhere.

I did not leave the house in a mess — I left it straightend up with laundry done and floors clean. My husband stayed home, so I came home to dusty, dirty floors, a pile of laundry and more to do than I could fit into one day.

I’ve always been one to make one trip for many tasks, so started off with pulling out the vac and getting that plugged in. Started a load of clothes in the washer, and vacuumed the living room and bedroom while that washed. By the time I finished that, the clothes were done and ready to go into the dryer and a second load started. Put the vac away and got out the carpet cleaner (man do I HATE carpeting!). Got the carpets cleaned while the clothes washed and dried. By the time the carpets were washed, the first load was dry, the second load clean and we did the shift from dyer to folding table and washer to dryer. — do you get my routine now?

By the end of the day, I needed a vacation from my vacation!

First day back at work was very similar. Work had piled up in my absence despite leaving much of it delegated to others, so my 30 minutes early in this morning was put to good use. 150 e-mails, 3 reports and 6 other tasks later, I’m almost caught up and it’s time for a meeting. No time for lunch today, though.

I hope tomorrow is more normal!

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When my mother turned 80, all 3 of us girls surprised her by turning up unannounced at her apartment to take her out for lunch.

We hadn’t seen each other in 30 years, so it was a big deal for us all to get together.

One of Mom’s neighbors came by while we were there and snapped some photos of us together. I’ve had one of them made into a “painting” on canvas and will frame it to give to her as an anniversary gift for her 85th birthday in November. I think she’ll be pretty pleased with it!

I used a company called “Canvas On Demand” which takes the photo and applies some tricks to it to make it look(and feel) like an oil painting on canvas. It’s stretched on a frame and set to you via Fed Ex in a VERY timely manner!

They had a lot of options to choose from and if I had gotten the picture I asked my nephew to send of my grandparents, I would have had them sepia tone that one to make a picture out of, but he never sent it and I’ve gotten tired of waiting for him to, so decided to use this one instead.

I love my “painting” and think Mom will, too!

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