I’m too migrainey to brain properly today, so instead I give you some raver dudes dancing (?) to Yakety Sax. And, no, they weren’t really dancing to Yakety Sax, but I do kind of love the idea of vast fields full of people raving out to old novelty songs.
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Migraines must be in the air today, because I had a doozy of one earlier. Complete with auditory and visual hallucinations, phantom sensations, and superdeathpain. Thankfully, my abortive migraine meds worked and now I’m dealing with the Migraine Hangover.
Dave, I hope your migraine abates soon and you can get back to your most important work, the mocking of MRAs and their ilk. Hope everyone else is having a good evening as well!
I’m having a good afternoon – finish work in forty minutes or so.
That sounds one scary horrible migraine. Kitty hugs!
There are not many things that Yakety Sax can’t improve, but migraines and the MRBM are two pretty big ‘uns. Feel better soon, David!
I feel ya on the migraine. Feels like my brain is trying to rip it’s way out of my skull right now.
@LBT: I have to take occasional breaks from watching Star Trek eps from Next Gen onwards, because most of the time if the Enterprise is going to explode, Geordi doesn’t crawl in somewhere with a tool, he reroutes power.
Which is a cop out. It’s false action. Plus it gets boring when it’s not spaced out by a week so you forget it.
So far DS9 hasn’t been so bad. But it has juicy interpersonal conflicts to fill air time with, too.
“Industry, science, and technology! Big men putting screwdrivers into things, turning them, and adjusting them! Build your own atom storage box! Bringing you state of the art in soft-serve technology! Snap caps off any size jug, bottle, or jar! And it really really works.”
RE: Falconer
This seems an appropriate time to drop in the Voltaire song U.S.S. Make Shit Up. (Warning: you WILL be humming the chorus for hours afterward.)
David, when you read this it will hopefully be over. I totally empathize with you because I get them every once in a while and the last one landed me in hospital with iv and 3 different iv medications to get rid of it. It was so bad I thought my neck was going to explode. I thought it was a heart problem.
They do have good meds now to take the place of morphine. My ex had them more frequent than I did and my doc taught me how to do an intramuscular shot in the arse of Demerol. We had these glass ampules of Demerol in the house at all times.
Off topic: In other news I met my caseworker today (I’m getting home care now due to my injuries (rolled off bed onto broken glass, broke colar bone and some ribs, glass in my back) So twice a week these really great women come and help me bathe and keep house) My caseworker and I are talking about long term care since my spinal injury in the late 90’s has left me permanently disabled. She’s so beautiful and kind. She has gorgeous asian eyes (her dad is Japanese) and her eyes are ice blue. She’s stunning.
It’s hard to admit to myself that I need this kind of help long term but it’s just a fact I have to get used to. It’s a really challenging time of my life.
For Australians, Tylenol is Panadol. For unknown reasons the active ingredient has a different name in America, but it’s the same compound. Ibuprofen works better for migraines as it is anti-inflammatory as well as a pain reliever. Triptans are great. Not sure if you need a script in America, you do in Australia. If you have difficulty swallowing (also with migraines your stomach stops working as well do orally taken medications take longer to absorb) there is a sublingual medication called Maxalt. Works wonders. If you can’t get a script try Voltaren (Dicolfenac) 50mg which is just as efficacious as sumitriptan.
I’m not just a sex worker. I’m a pharmacy student 🙂
@Kim
Actually you described it better than I did lol!! the last one I had was actually after a debate with an MRA or anti-feminist or whatever. I could no longer read the screen and was out for the rest of the day, then woke up with the aftermath of it with that dull throbbing on the one side of your head.
That New Republic Article was horrid (actually, I find most of the New Republic’s articles to be deeply flawed; when they aren’t horrid).
The takeaway was, “The MRM is a legitimate movement, misguided in execution, but dealing with important issues; they need to be taken more seriously.”
The whole bit about “false rape” and how it ruins lives, and the associating of actual reports (between 2-8 percent: with no mention that this is the same rate as for other crimes) and then the “but most college students think the real rate is more like 50 percent”, as if this somehow calls the actual figures into question, and makes them somehow disreputable.
Also the failure to note that GWW and Paul Elam are different faces of the same cohort of MRM fellow travellers, etc.
Thanks everyone, for the supportive comments. Kiwi girl, I actually take supatriptan for my migraines, and they’re generally pretty effective, but the trouble is that the pills cause rebound headaches so I’m a bit wary about taking them, which means that sometimes I don’t catch the headaches in time, and when that happens I have I guess what you’d call half-strength migraines for like three or four days straight, which is more or less what happened this week. Half-strength migraines are a hell of a lot better than full-scale migraines, but are still no fun.
I take various other meds to try to control the migraines but right now they aren’t working all that well; I’ve been working with my doctor to find a better mix/dosage.
Anyway, the headache seems to be winding down. Should be back to normal tomorrow.
Can’t deal with that New Republic piece just yet. Ugh.
Hey David, sorry to hear about the rebound. My migraines fluctuate between emotional stress related and hormone related.
I hope you get better meds from the doctor. I hope you feel better soon.
I feel really fortunate in that all I struggle with hormonally is acne. Seeing my friends with hormonal migraines breaks my heart. They’re just debilitating.
@hookergal
I’m glad you told me that Tylenol = Panadol. In the This American Life show they were referring to it as acetaminophen, and I didn’t realise paracetamol was just another name for it.
One of my favourite things I discovered lately is 24 hour Zantac. I get heartburn fairly frequently, and it makes me so miserable. It makes my jaw ache for some reason. But Zantac seems to totally stop it.
Also, my cat just walked across my bf’s computer, to where he’s sitting, stepping on the power button and turning it off in the process. Definitely a case of “pay attention to meeee.”
Hope you’re better soon, David. Migraines are horrible.
That NR article, oy. It gave the MRM way too much credit, but the comments are hilarious. Bunch of the usual suspects acting like the titty-babies they are.
My wife and I are both ‘lucky’ migraine sufferers. I have one very specific trigger (I’m a hardcore caffeine addict, and if I’m not careful to self-medicate, there will be consequences), but the pain and the nausea are both usually manageable, so long as I can get a Super Gulp or similar monstrosity in time.
My wife actually gets what her doctors call “migraines without pain”–she’ll get the stars in her vision, and a dizziness, but no actual pain.
I get sinus headaches once or twice a year that drop me to the floor and leave me totally incapable for a day or two. Those are fun*.
Re: painkillers, side effects, somebody told me recently that ibuprofen in contra-indicated for folks with bursitis because it dries out the bursa sacs. I haven’t been able to find any source that confirms that, though, leaving me wondering if it’s just another wonderful piece of internet lore floating around.
It’s not terribly important to me right now–exercise and stretching has my bursitis under control. But I’d like to know for sure.
I get that “migraines without pain” thing from time to time – sparkling lights (usually to the left side of my vision) and wooziness, including nausea. It’s not as bad as the full-on migraines, which I only get two to three times a year now. Used to get them regularly and it made me want to curl into a tiny ball and cease to exist. Meds helped, but I mostly needed silence, darkness and to lie as still as possible.
David, still sending good thoughts your way. Feel better!
Looking at what bothers me (again) about the NR piece: It promotes the “false middle”.
The real rates of false accusations of rape are between 2-8 percent. (based on the number of reported rapes, divided by those reports which turn out to be false). It’s a concrete figure.
When they say, “but lots of people think as many as 50 percent to be false” they imply the real number is higher.
Then they toss in the fable of, “any rape accusation destroys a man’s life” and don’t spend a moment of time looking at the facts of the MRM claims. In short the entire piece serves to give the MRM credibility. It’s a textbook example of bad reporting.
There’s so much fail in that TNR piece, I don’t even know where to start, and then the comments are just a cesspit. I love how they start out (barely) saying that it’s just about balancing feminism with equality and then goes down from there to “stfu, you hairy, ugly lesbians!”
Maureen Johnson and Jessica Valenti had an interesting exchange with Matchar on Twitter. https://twitter.com/JessicaValenti/status/439039384462303232 Matchar doesn’t get it, though, and keeps saying that the criticism of her piece is unfair.
Anyone know how to export a pdf or something of a convo like this without just screenshotting multiples and clipping it together later?
@ pecunium
I just read that article and completely agree with your assessment. To suggest that the MRM brings any legitimate issues to the table is outrageous. How do you just ignore their misogyny that pervades everything they write and think? Just because you might find a small kernel of truth somewhere doesn’t make the other 99.99999% of it irrelevant, and they sure as hell aren’t doing anything useful to address these issues.
This part really angered me:
The MRM’s tirades and hijinks certainly don’t meaningfully add to the debate surrounding the way we handle sexual assault. But to totally ignore the issues that they raise does not further a productive conversation. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to talk about these issues in progressive or feminist circles, where discussions of sexual assault prevention can quickly degenerate into angry hyperbole and name-calling.
what. the. fuck? I just don’t even . . .
Dave, have you thought about Botox injections? I started getting them after a four month long migraine that was so bad I was hallucinating constantly and could barely speak. Now I have about 7 migraines a month (with preventative meds and abortive meds (sumatriptan, Maxalt, and fioricet). I know that 7 would be too many migraines for most people, but for me 7 is so much fewer and better.
Botox is the only thing that killed that months long migraine and has helped me not be so miserable because of migraines. I know it’s not the best thing for everyone, but since it sounds like they’re a chronic issue for you, maybe Botox could help?
*am not Botox shill, I just love it because it’s kinda given me my life back
Also, the false rape statistic when it’s examined further demonstrates that most women that falsely accuse to do for reasons OTHER than trying to destroy someone’s life, most of the time they never name an individual and describe their rape in very stereotypical ways based on common beliefs in how rape “happens”. Typically they do it because they have other issues they are dealing with and going to the police provides them with access to people that pay attention to them and care for their well-being. Yeah, it’s not a great way to go about it, but I think it speaks to deeper societal problems than just women are sneaky conniving bitches seeking to destroy men or keep their dirty little secrets from coming out. And people that think these women need to be punished severely because they are ruining lives do not care one iota that these people need help that they are clearly not getting (which would also act as a preventative measure).