I've had migraines all my life. I might as well say all my life because they started when I was 5 years old and who really remembers much before they're 5?
When I was a teenager, I remember people saying that I had migraines due to menstruation or because it ran on the paternal side of my family. My mother rarely even gets a headache and my maternal grandmother has never had a headache a day in her life. Well, so she says. These days she has advanced dementia, so we take what she says with a grain of salt.
When I was 17 though, I had my first TIA, Trans Ischemia Attack; which is a minor stroke. I remember waking up one morning and it felt like my tongue was 4 inches thick in my mouth. I called my mother at work and [my mother always thought I was a hypochondriac] told her my tongue felt really thick and now my left side was going numb too. Since she felt I was making this up, she told me to call my dad and have him come get me. My mom should have learned a from her mistake a few years earlier when she made me sit through dinner with a purple/black swollen wrist; which in turn was broken. Regardless...I was having my first TIA.
I would go on to have 3 more TIA's; all of which didn't require rehab. My neurologist couldn't figure out why these were happening other than the fact of my heart pumping too much blood to my brain, the main artery constricting and cutting off the circulation which caused the TIA.
Now that I have Lupus, the migraines are worse. It's not even the migraines, because if I don't have a migraine, I'm damned to have a headache on the day I don't have a migraine. I can't win!
According to my neurologist, if you have 15 or more migraines monthly you're considered a chronic migraine sufferer. Well, it just so happened that I was tracking mine and in December 2011 I had 28, January 2012 24, February 20!
This was becoming a huge problem and I wasn't able to function on most days.
Pop this pill for that, pop this pill for that. Oh sure, vicodin for this pain, but it didn't work. It gave me constipation but it didn't take my migraine away. I was starting to doubt any of my migraine meds were working.
I kept in close contact with my neurologist and gave him updates to my condition. He'd increase this does, or take away that med. Nothing seemed to work.
I finally gave in and tried to call his office to make an appointment. I can't take this pain anymore and I need to function!
I told the receptionist how frequent my migraine are, that they have been making me vomit this week and go numb and I need something soon; either a Monday, Wednesday or Friday morning. She replied with, "I can get you in on April 20th". Today's date is March 7th, I can't wait that long. I felt like asking if she heard what was going on with me, but I knew I had to keep my cool. I then asked if she could put me on the cancellation list. She replied with "you need to have an appointment in order for me to put you on the cancellation list". REALLY??? I asked for her to leave a message for the nurse to call me. Naturally I had to repeat everything I already told her. Did I expect anything else?
I'm being referred to the Diamond Headache Clinic!
When I was a teenager, I remember people saying that I had migraines due to menstruation or because it ran on the paternal side of my family. My mother rarely even gets a headache and my maternal grandmother has never had a headache a day in her life. Well, so she says. These days she has advanced dementia, so we take what she says with a grain of salt.
When I was 17 though, I had my first TIA, Trans Ischemia Attack; which is a minor stroke. I remember waking up one morning and it felt like my tongue was 4 inches thick in my mouth. I called my mother at work and [my mother always thought I was a hypochondriac] told her my tongue felt really thick and now my left side was going numb too. Since she felt I was making this up, she told me to call my dad and have him come get me. My mom should have learned a from her mistake a few years earlier when she made me sit through dinner with a purple/black swollen wrist; which in turn was broken. Regardless...I was having my first TIA.
I would go on to have 3 more TIA's; all of which didn't require rehab. My neurologist couldn't figure out why these were happening other than the fact of my heart pumping too much blood to my brain, the main artery constricting and cutting off the circulation which caused the TIA.
Now that I have Lupus, the migraines are worse. It's not even the migraines, because if I don't have a migraine, I'm damned to have a headache on the day I don't have a migraine. I can't win!
According to my neurologist, if you have 15 or more migraines monthly you're considered a chronic migraine sufferer. Well, it just so happened that I was tracking mine and in December 2011 I had 28, January 2012 24, February 20!
This was becoming a huge problem and I wasn't able to function on most days.
Pop this pill for that, pop this pill for that. Oh sure, vicodin for this pain, but it didn't work. It gave me constipation but it didn't take my migraine away. I was starting to doubt any of my migraine meds were working.
I kept in close contact with my neurologist and gave him updates to my condition. He'd increase this does, or take away that med. Nothing seemed to work.
I finally gave in and tried to call his office to make an appointment. I can't take this pain anymore and I need to function!
I told the receptionist how frequent my migraine are, that they have been making me vomit this week and go numb and I need something soon; either a Monday, Wednesday or Friday morning. She replied with, "I can get you in on April 20th". Today's date is March 7th, I can't wait that long. I felt like asking if she heard what was going on with me, but I knew I had to keep my cool. I then asked if she could put me on the cancellation list. She replied with "you need to have an appointment in order for me to put you on the cancellation list". REALLY??? I asked for her to leave a message for the nurse to call me. Naturally I had to repeat everything I already told her. Did I expect anything else?
I'm being referred to the Diamond Headache Clinic!
No comments:
Post a Comment