Auto - Oh for heaven's sakes. My neurologist sends me for a heart test and you're telling me to drink more water?? Now I think I've heard everything. (I say as I sit here drinking my dandelion tea.)

SRS - I'm glad you found the articles helpful. I think it's worth talking to the doctors about. My GP likes to hear what I come up with. My neurologist was eager to find out if I had a P.F.O. when he knew that I'd been diagnosed with a heart murmur as a child. All of this is a very new way of looking at migraines, I think. I'm also on prophylactics. The one you talked about worked really well for a couple of months, then totally lost its effectiveness, so I've been switched to something else, which is helping a little bit. It's a journey, and the landscape keeps changing. It must be even more difficult when you are trying to interpret someone else's symptoms. All the best!

Donuel - You're so right. There's the before, the during, and the after. Like a sandwich. I'm in the process of trying to make myself into a different kind of sandwich. Instead of teaching, I am working from a home office, and I am really excited about some projects I am now able to work on, which had previously been on the back burner. By working at home, I have more control over my time and energy output. It's great in a lot of ways. I hope you can find some ways to turn it around for yourself so you don't feel so much the weight of the wasted time. (a phrase I have used many a time!)

~b.w.