Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Not just rich... Beanie Rich!

I was recently mindlessly browsing the Facebook and a post caught my eye with an idiotic title suggesting that "if you have one of these 11 beanie babies you can retire now". I must have been avoiding doing actual work because I clicked through and crunched the numbers. If I had all of them and could sell them at the prices the inflated prices and EBay/Amazon didn't take their cut... I would have only 150 thousand dollars and couldn't possibly retire. Sounds like a Pump-and-Dump scam to me. But it got me to thinking.... so I brought out my Beanie Baby collection. Yeah, I have a whole collection! Back in the late 90s when they were all the rage I noticed the pattern that if they had "hard parts" like pincers, beaks, horns, etc, they were not collected as aggressively so they became rare. This collection method seems to have worked as my paltry beanie-stash contained 2 of the 11 on the list. Hooray! Good thing Allison wasn't too interested in them the last time I brought them out.

So, can I retire for a month or two at least? The two should fetch $3500. Let us check the Electronical Bay of Auctions to see for what price they are actually selling:
Mystic the Unicorn (with the Iridescent Horn & Yarn Mane) goes for $5.00 NOT $1,000. Oh well.
Claude the Crab (with the "error" on the hang-tag) goes for $4.00 NOT $2,500. Dad Gummit.

So, no I can't retire or even pay for my Fat Tuesday meal tonight at Popeye's. The BBs were only a few bucks each back in the day so I'm just going to give them to my daughter. Any she doesn't want can go into a Beanie Baby geocache. That way I get a few smiles out of it ... and hyperbole spewing bloggers and the EBay listings that feed on them don't get a cent. Yeah, Babies!

Wednesday, February 01, 2017

Pain in the Brain 2016

Question: What rhymes with couch and hurts like hell? Answer: OUCH.

I'm a few months late in writing this but BLTN as they post. Only two years after my 2014 cluster headache cycle I started a new one in 2016. This time around I fully documented every headache in an online calendar log. I started with the Auras in early May and by the end of the month was having at least a minor episode nearly every day. The onset of the cycle was likely expedited by the pressure/sleep and stress changes involved in a trip out west. This cycle was a little strange in that they headaches skipped tuesdays for the first month and then were not as long or as painful as I expected. Unfortunately by late July I was having them every day. August saw many days with multiple occurrences and a few dreaded waking eye-graines. The pain continued into September and faded out over about four weeks into early October. So May through October with 2 and a half months at full blast. This was a few weeks longer than the previous cycle and very painful. Since I started really documenting these each cycle has been longer. This is not a sustainable happiness model.

The good news is that these are now mainstream. Google has special results for when you search for them. They are considered Common and the pharmaceutical industry is standing by ready and willing to push me into a heroin addiction whenever I'm ready to offer up a co-pay. They may be willing to substitute a cancer causing steroid. Hooray! Ok, so yeah, the bad news is that nobody has figured out what the deal is with these as of yet but mainstream awareness just may prove useful. Can an awareness ribbon be far behind? We'll have to pick a color. I recommend something dark that doesn't strobe and kick off a headache for anyone actively in a cluster cycle.

Some links that give me hope:
  • Clusterbusters.org - Somewhat new website that offers something of a support group and has info on clinical trials. I joined the patient registry and will be following them closely.

  • Clusters are now well documented in the International Classifications for Headache Disorders... so where is our Awareness Ribbon already?!

  • The disorder now has its very own ICD9 code. Once insurance companies recognize a disorder proactive pharma/nutraceuticals soon follow. Money talks!

  • The top 5 links under Cluster Headache all seem to have been updated in the last year.
Until some solid science comes up with a preventative I'll just keep stomping up and down the steps and doing pushups at the first hint of an aura. Adrenaline still works for me which is a blessing. I will leave you with a fun quote:
Experts have suggested that cluster headache may be the most painful condition known to medical science.
Well, at least I don't have THAT kind of cluster headache! [attribution]