Please excuse the delay with this latest blog update. This week was extremely rough healthwise (to put it mildly) - but it did create a bit of an "aha" moment with one of my coworkers that could be connected to my misophonia in a reverse way (with that, I mean, that my misophonia may have indirectly "triggered" something that happened to my body earlier this week).
I'll do my best to not write "TMI" here, but I felt it's important for you to have an idea of what happened and how major it was... (If you're squeamish, I'd suggest skipping to the next paragraph.) Monday morning when I woke up, I spent some time texting a close friend (several states away) to see how she was doing, since she recently had nose surgery. After spending some time catching-up with her and sharing a few laughs to start the day, I started to get ready for work and my nose decided to be empathetic with her nose. (Let's just say a gushing red fountain that came out of nowhere and leave it at that.) Mind you, right before I learned about misophonia last summer, I started having lesser nosebleeds - that behaved more like a runny nose - which I thought was due to my starting to train for a century ride (100-mile bike ride) after years of poor exercise habits. (IE: Little to none). After a couple of trips to my ENT, who could never see where they were coming from because they healed so fast, the dribbles only came once every couple of months. This time it was a doozy, worse than ever before!
Looking back, I must've appeared quite comical trying to pull a t-shirt over my head using only one hand while holding my nose with the other; but from that point on, it was not humorous at all. I won't go into any of the details after I got myself to the doctor's office, but the ordeal he put me through essentially knocked me down for the count for three days straight. Heck, even my teeth hurt afterwards... Not my gums... My teeth! I couldn't even sit up (let alone stand up) for longer than a minute before becoming light-headed.
I'll do my best to not write "TMI" here, but I felt it's important for you to have an idea of what happened and how major it was... (If you're squeamish, I'd suggest skipping to the next paragraph.) Monday morning when I woke up, I spent some time texting a close friend (several states away) to see how she was doing, since she recently had nose surgery. After spending some time catching-up with her and sharing a few laughs to start the day, I started to get ready for work and my nose decided to be empathetic with her nose. (Let's just say a gushing red fountain that came out of nowhere and leave it at that.) Mind you, right before I learned about misophonia last summer, I started having lesser nosebleeds - that behaved more like a runny nose - which I thought was due to my starting to train for a century ride (100-mile bike ride) after years of poor exercise habits. (IE: Little to none). After a couple of trips to my ENT, who could never see where they were coming from because they healed so fast, the dribbles only came once every couple of months. This time it was a doozy, worse than ever before!
Looking back, I must've appeared quite comical trying to pull a t-shirt over my head using only one hand while holding my nose with the other; but from that point on, it was not humorous at all. I won't go into any of the details after I got myself to the doctor's office, but the ordeal he put me through essentially knocked me down for the count for three days straight. Heck, even my teeth hurt afterwards... Not my gums... My teeth! I couldn't even sit up (let alone stand up) for longer than a minute before becoming light-headed.
How can you say "No" to that cutie? One drawback after leaving the doctor's office (as if the ordeal he put me through to fix my nose plumbing wasn't enough), was that after I got home from "Doctor Torture" (for lack of a more descriptive, but still "PG" rated, term), I couldn't cuddle up in my bed to recouperate because if my bird knew I was in the apartment and he couldn't see me, he would screech as loud as possible until I took him out of the cage. (He's such a momma's boy, always wanting to be on my shoulder.) Knowing how he'd react if he didn't see me, and wanting to be a little proactive with my recouperating environment, I tried taking him out to sit on my chest while I laid down on my bed. Unfortunately for me, I really couldn't get comfortable while laying on my back. I also think he could tell I wasn't feeling well because he kept trying to nuzzle up to the packed side of my nose. Ouch!
So, I brought him back to his cage and then stretched out on my couch on the other side of the room. It's not quite as soft and comfy as my bed, but at least he could see me, so he stayed quiet the entire time I took my (three-day) nap. Miracle of Miracles!
Anyway, today was my first day back at the office after that hellish ordeal. While telling one of my coworkers what happened, we talked about what may be causing my nosebleeds (since I never had them before moving to the Midwest). My coworker had an interesting thought... She said that nosebleeds are sometimes attributed to an increase in blood pressure. Funny... I seem to recall hearing something similar while half asleep on my couch listening to Doctor Oz this week. It really made me stop and think, especially knowing all the stress that people with misophonia go through on a daily basis. Misophonia "trigger-stress" is like a roller-coaster ride of adrenaline and, as mentioned in so many prior posts here, I've been constantly bombarded by more triggers in my current work environment than at any prior company where I've worked. I can only imagine what that roller-coaster ride must be doing to the rest of my body, on top of all the other stresses with which I'm dealing at work and even outside. (Would you believe I'm still dealing with that stupid car accident where the other woman hit my parked car with me inside it?)
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that misophonia caused my nosebleeds over the past year, but it was an interesting correlation to consider when you think about increased stress causing raised blood pressure which in turn can cause nosebleeds. In all honesty, I think mine have more to do with my using a ceiling fan over my bed while I slept - something that I've never had in any of my prior apartments. My eyes are very dry when I wake up in the middle of the night, so I can only imagine how dry my nose must be too.
On another note... Two good things did happen to me today. When I got to my office, I saw that my very own Cambridge Sound System Sonnet sound masking devices arrived. (Yay! I don't think I could've handled another week of unfiltered workplace triggers.) On top of that, I got a call this afternoon from the body shop saying my car is finally ready for me to pick up. (It's been in the shop for seven weeks! That's longer than I had driven the car before the accident occurred.) So, at least I can say I'm ending the week on a better note than when I started it.
Anyway, today was my first day back at the office after that hellish ordeal. While telling one of my coworkers what happened, we talked about what may be causing my nosebleeds (since I never had them before moving to the Midwest). My coworker had an interesting thought... She said that nosebleeds are sometimes attributed to an increase in blood pressure. Funny... I seem to recall hearing something similar while half asleep on my couch listening to Doctor Oz this week. It really made me stop and think, especially knowing all the stress that people with misophonia go through on a daily basis. Misophonia "trigger-stress" is like a roller-coaster ride of adrenaline and, as mentioned in so many prior posts here, I've been constantly bombarded by more triggers in my current work environment than at any prior company where I've worked. I can only imagine what that roller-coaster ride must be doing to the rest of my body, on top of all the other stresses with which I'm dealing at work and even outside. (Would you believe I'm still dealing with that stupid car accident where the other woman hit my parked car with me inside it?)
Now don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that misophonia caused my nosebleeds over the past year, but it was an interesting correlation to consider when you think about increased stress causing raised blood pressure which in turn can cause nosebleeds. In all honesty, I think mine have more to do with my using a ceiling fan over my bed while I slept - something that I've never had in any of my prior apartments. My eyes are very dry when I wake up in the middle of the night, so I can only imagine how dry my nose must be too.
On another note... Two good things did happen to me today. When I got to my office, I saw that my very own Cambridge Sound System Sonnet sound masking devices arrived. (Yay! I don't think I could've handled another week of unfiltered workplace triggers.) On top of that, I got a call this afternoon from the body shop saying my car is finally ready for me to pick up. (It's been in the shop for seven weeks! That's longer than I had driven the car before the accident occurred.) So, at least I can say I'm ending the week on a better note than when I started it.
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