Deviled by the wind

My dog and I are deviled by the wind. Our devilments differ but they have the wind in common. Take note that the word “the” is important. Were we deviled by wind that would be quite another matter, one of social indelicacy.

Molly is made anxious by the wind itself. I think that for her it is the sound it makes as it whooshes through the trees and whistles around the house (sometimes literally). It is the sound and the sense of disruption it conveys. Nothing makes her so anxious as a sound for which she can see no cause and, as W.O. Mitchell might put it, who has seen the wind?

The result is a dog that follows me from room to room in order to remain within a few feet of me. Sometimes, if I’m working in the kitchen, or if she sees I am settled at my desk working, she goes into the bathroom and simply stays there. Relative to all other rooms, in her canine mind, the bathroom is the furthest from the sound of the wind, the safest place to be.

She doesn’t like thunder either. I think, for her, they are the same thing – sounds for which there are no apparent causes.

I, on the other hand, am not bothered by the wind itself. I actually kind of like that temper tantrum-like commotion. What I am bothered by is what the wind is a consequence of: weather systems in collision and wrestling with one another until one cries, “Uncle!” and goes home.

I’m obsessed by weather, in this case wind, for good reason. Until I started taking medication, it often triggered seizures in me. At least, that was how I perceived it. I take Dilantin now (an anti-convulsant) and have had no seizures. There are days, however, when I feel “wonky” and I often say to friends, “This is a day I would have had a seizure.” More often than not, the weather has changed in some significant way. Yes, it changes every day but the changes aren’t always significant.

(By the way, as I type this the wind – which was blowing yesterday and continues today – is whistling and Molly is barking her head off.)

Every Canadian has an interest in weather. It’s a kind of national obligation, something beyond legalities that actually makes you a citizen. Mine, however, is of a particular kind.

That’s why a little over a year ago I started following MediClim, a web site and health alert system based on – you've got it – the weather. They describe it this way:

“MediClim® is a warning system that takes into account a multitude of weather parameters known to affect health, such as humidity, barometric pressure and temperature. MediClim® can warn people when they are most susceptible to flare ups from migraine, asthma, arthritis or heart disease. Users subscribe to receive emails that will alert them if specific weather conditions coming to their area may cause them a problem.”

Now, they don’t have any alert system for seizures or epilepsy. I don’t think weather is generally associated with epilepsy. But weather does seem to affect me in ways other than seizures, including bones and muscles that can ache or be sore for no good reason. So I’ve been getting email alerts for arthritis and migraine for over a year just to see what they might show me. (I should point out that I don’t have problems with migraines.)

While it’s anecdotal, and possibly all something I’ve dreamed up in my head, I have noticed a few things. The arthritis alerts are usually associated with weather changes and particularly low pressure (rain days, fog days, snow days). The migraine alerts appear to be associated with high pressure days, or weather changes as high pressure systems move in.

Of course, I’ve no idea what I’m talking about but I think you can see that I have something of an obsession with it. The reason is pretty simple. I want to know why I feel sluggish some days and hugely energetic on others. There are days when my creativity and productivity are off the chart and others when it seems I can’t get anything done. Just a few days ago I experienced one of the latter. When I mentioned it to people, quite a few said something similar. They had a headache. Their stomach was a bit upset. They felt dull-witted.

I’m not alone. But prior to the anti-convulsant, I also had the worry of a possible seizure. Believe me, they are not pleasant and the aura that precedes them is one of the most bizarre experiences you can have.

It appears I’ve rambled quite a distance from what began as little something about me, my dog and the wind. Well, it’s Friday and these things happen.

If you’re at all interested in MediClim, this is their site. And this is their blog. According to the site, I’ve been using it for one year and one week.

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