Just a quick "stop by" to share something with ya'll but first off, congratulations to Astern! I want to stress to everyone on here, who's on pain medication or any other kind (especially that which contains Tylenol) that is particularly hard on the liver to get bloodwork regularly, particularly check the liver enzymes. While I'm not on any narcotic pain med, and my daily dosage of Zanaflex is way below what can be taken on a daily basis, I have an inherited tendency (from both sides of my family) for high cholesterol and very high triglyerides so I've been on Lipitor for several years and also another medication for the triglycerides. My PCP always had me come in every 3 mos. for bloodwork. I went in the first part of January and a couple of days later her nurse called me, flippin' out, asking what all kinds of meds I was taking because my liver enzymes were dangerously elevated. And when she told me the numbers, I was flippin' out too. She sent me to a gastroenterologist and he immediately suspected the cholesterol meds. He took me off of them and I had to redo bloodwork in a month and they were even higher. I saw my endocrinologist 3 wks. later and he repeated them and they're finally coming down but are still too high. I saw another gastro today who's a professor of medicine at UT med school in Houston. He basically agrees with the first gastro that I will probably not be able to take statin drugs again. I've been tested for every imaginable liver problem there is and they've all been normal except for the liver enzymes. So now I'll be repeating bloodwork once a month to make sure they continue to go down, otherwise I may have to have a liver biopsy to see what kind of damage there may be. I will not be going back on statins whether they say I can or not. If any of you are on them, educate yourself about them- let me say, what I've learned has been a real eye opener. So, don't neglect your bloodwork, thinking you can skip it this time. In Aug. of last year, mine was just fine. I was supposed to go back in Nov. but with the holidays, I got busy and put it off. So, in just 5 months, mine was BAD. If you take anything that might be the least little bit liver toxic- keep an eye on it.

One more thing before I go- I want to share an article that I found very interesting. Maybe some of you have already seen it. My mother sent me the clipping from her paper but it was from "USA Weekend" and I was able to find it on the internet. It's titled "Migraine sufferers have thick brain area." I don't remember what's allowed here as far as posting links so I'll let Jo or another mod change this is they want to but if you go to usaweekend.com and search for that title, you should be able to bring it up.