taking triptans, so many choices

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Good morning and happy Monday!  How was your weekend?  Our weekend started with a trip to the beach with Honey.  Talk about a happy dog – there is just something about the sand between her paws that she just loves!

Honey at the beach

Honey at the beach

Honey at the beach

Our weekend ended with chicken fajitas (minus the shells) in celebration of Cinco de Mayo.

Chicken Fajitas

And, this morning it’s raining, which for me means the onset of a migraine.  This also got me thinking about a few questions: what triptan or triptans do you take and have you tried various kinds?  Do you alternate triptans or stick with the same one?

I have tried what I feel like is a million different triptans.  Zomig.  Relpax.  Imitrex.  Frova.  Maxalt.  And, I have tried different forms of triptans – pill, shot, nasal spray, chewable tablet.  These are only the triptans I have tried.  There are several others I haven’t tried - Amerge, Naramig, Axert, Almogran and others.  After trying several different triptans, I cannot definitively say that I found “the one that works for me.”  I think it is difficult to pinpoint which triptan works best because different migraines have different severity levels and different duration – so how can you tell if it’s the migraine that was worse or the triptan that didn’t work as well?  To combat this struggle, I haven’t ruled out any triptans.  I maintain a prescription for more than one triptan.  For example, currently I use Zomig and Maxalt – sometimes Zomig and sometimes Maxalt.

The caution with triptans, however, is getting stuck in a triptan-induced headache from taking too many triptans.  When taking triptans and struggling with migraines, it is easy to keep taking triptan after triptan looking for relief.  Before you know it, you can end up in a headache cycle that is no longer a migraine, but rather, it’s a headache induced by triptans.  Ask your doctor for more information, and be cautious to only take the prescribed dosage.

What about you – what do you think about Triptans?  How do you utilize triptans in your migraine care?

quick trip: San Francisco

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Over the weekend, it was time for a quick trip!  Do you ever take quick trips?  mini vacations?  We can’t really get away for a long vacation right now or any anytime in the near future, but as an alternative to keep our sanity, we decided it was time for a one-night quick trip to San Francisco.

San Fran

The trip was filled with a lot of walking.  On Saturday, we arrived at our hotel before check-in, dropped our bags, and headed out for a walk to the Ferry Building and Farmer’s Market.

Palace Hotel

Ferry Building

Farmer's Mkt

After filling our stomach’s at the Farmer’s Market, we decided to walk it off with a walk up to Coit Tower and a few pictures along the way.

SF

Coit Tower

climb to Coit Tower

climb to Coit Tower

Where we had been before we started our climb to Coit Tower:

climb to Coit Tower

And where we ended up at the top:

climb to Coit Tower

from the top of Coit Tower

from the top of Coit Tower

from the top of Coit Tower

Then, we started our walk back down the other side and into North Beach, where we grabbed some much-needed food and drinks!

SF

Sunday was more of a lazy day.  Slept in, explored the city a little more and headed home to Laguna in the early evening.  A great quick trip.

What about you – do you ever take “quick trips”?

Have you been to San Francisco?  Did you like it?

Greek Style Meat Balls (paleo friendly)

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Happy hump day friends!  Is it just me or does this week seem to be dragging on forever?  I keep thinking it must be Friday by now, but alas, it is still not Friday!  Speaking of Fridays, last Friday something great arrived in my mailbox.  A Cooking Light magazine.  Unfortunately, I don’t subscribe to this magazine.  Fortunately, the previous tenant did subscribe to this magazine and didn’t have her mail forwarded.  So, last Saturday morning I took a browse through the magazine and was inspired by an idea for “Mini Greek-Style Meat Loaves.”

 

Greek Style Meat Balls

So, I decided to test out the recipe myself and “paleo-ize” it a little.  I did the usual – instead of 1/3 cup bread crumbs, substitute coconut flour + almond flour and voila, juicy meat balls that are both paleo and gluten-free.  And of course, I didn’t have several of the ingredients, so I made my own recipe with a little of this and that:

  • 10 ounces ground sirloin; 
  • 5 ounces ground lamb; 
  • 1/3 cup coconut flour; 
  • 1/3 cup almond flour; 
  • 1/3 cup chopped red onion;
  • approx. 1 Tablespoon fresh mint;
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt; 
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning; 
  • 1 Tablespoon minced garlic; 
  • 1/4 cup chopped, fresh red pepper; and
  • 1/4 cup egg whites. 

Greek Style Meat Balls

To make the meat balls:

  • Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees.
  • In a large bowl, combine the sirloin, lamb, almond flour, coconut flour and red onion.  Mix until consistent.
  • Then stir in the egg, mint, salt, Italian seasoning, garlic and red pepper, to meat mixture.
  • Once thoroughly combined, roll evenly sized balls and place into sprayed muffin tins.
  • Bake at 450 degrees for 7 minutes.  Turn to boil on high for 3 additional minutes.  Remove from oven, cool and voila!

To serve:

To serve with your meatballs, you might consider a mozzarella and tomato salad, topped with pesto and bacon, which MMB ate with his dinner.

Greek Style Meat Balls

Alternatively, Cooking Light suggests a great little salad that I ate with my dinner: 1 Tablespoon lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, tossed together with thinly-sliced cucumbers over a bed of arugula.

Greek Style Meat Balls

If your diet allows dairy, try Cooking Light’s great sauce with your meat balls: Combine 2 parts plain fat-free Greek yogurt, 1 part feta cheese, lemon juice and fresh mint.  Blend together (or toss in a food processor) and you have a great dipping sauce for your meat balls!    

Greek Style Meat Balls

And, there’s your dinner!  Hope you enjoy and alter to suite your dietary needs!