what happened in November

Before we go very much further on, it's important to get everyone caught up on what happened at the end of last year with my health. Most of you who follow me on facebook already know this, but since some of you don't, let's make sure we all know what's going on.

So, towards the end of October (Oct 24 - according to my records) I began having a migraine, which wasn't unusual. I tried my usual remedies. Imitrix, my prescribed migraine abortive, plus Aleve. Then the next day when it had come back again, I took more Aleve. That's usually about the max I like to treat my migraines - they say not to take meds more than 2-3 times a week so as not to risk medication overuse headaches. And my Imitrix is only effective at the beginning of a migraine, so that was over and done with. So, not much more I could do with medication. After that, it's just the rest, dark room, ice packs, etc. The longest my migraines had lasted up to this point was I think 6 days or something so.....

I waited.
Having a migraine pretty much aggravates the Trigeminal Neuralgia pain so everything just hurts worse and I'm no good for anything. In bed. Eye Exploding. Hammer pounding on the side of my head. Needles jabbing my face. Everything.
I hit 6 days. 7 Days. We're talking constant migraine. No relief. No break. 8 days.

I decided at this point I needed to go see a Dr. This was waaay too long to have a migraine. Surely they could give me something to "break" it.  Right???
He gave me a shot of morphine, toradol and phenergen. I came home and slept blissfully for about 18 hrs.

Then I woke up and the migraine came back again.
You've got to be kidding me.
Day 10. Day 11.

Day 13 I went to the InstaCare because I couldn't get in with my Dr. and I didn't know the Instacare can't give narcotics. Darnit. So they gave me shots of Toradol, Benadryl, phenergen, and Decadron.  This didn't do a darn thing.

The next day, I called my Pain Management Dr (although he'd never done anything for me), and my neurologist, and my primary care Dr, telling them I'd had a migraine for 14 days and asking if I should go to the ER or what I should do because I couldn't handle the pain and I couldn't get it to stop. Anyway, they all agreed that the ER might be a good idea at this point. So I got Zac to come home and take me to the ER. I just needed the pain to stop. I thought I was going to go crazy.

So, at the ER they didn't even really know what to do (so frustrating). There's no magic bullet to make it go away, they said, especially since I'd already tried so many things.  But they ended up giving me an IV of Bendadryl, Toradol, Morphine and Haldol. Also giving me oxygen.  The haldol was the only thing I hadn't already tried. It's a powerful anti-psychotic and it made me feel really weird, kinda floaty, detached and I didn't really like it at all. I don't think I'd want to take it again.  I think it helped the pain for the next day. I was pretty out of it and slept most of the day. I just felt really shaky and weird, mostly. But by the day after that, the migraine came back again.  So that was day 16.

During all this time, of course, I'd been asking everyone I knew for any advice or help to get rid of this awful pain and everyone was throwing advice at me. Here, go see my chiropractor! Have you tried this? You should go see this Dr, he's fabulous with headaches! Have you tried acupuncture? Hey, my cousin's sister's daughter saw this Dr and he did this thing and she never had migraines again, you should do that too!
And I admit, I was at a point where I was willing to try about anything!  I was so desperate. Truly, truly desperate. But, I was also completely incapacitated by pain. I hardly moved, at all.  It just hurt to move. So it was a difficult thing to balance wanting to get more help and barely being able to survive.

But, on Mon Nov 11 I called my neurologist again to tell her I really needed some help. I'd had the migraine for 19 days. And her assistant (who handles all the phone calls) was so insensitive and rude to me. Basically told me there was nothing else they could do, I just needed to take the medicine prescribed to me, blah, blah blah. And I kinda lost it and broke down sobbing over the phone. And she says, well do you want me to leave another message for the Dr or something?  And I just said, No!! I think I'm going to find another Dr who will actually help me!!
And, so I fired my neurologist.

So that day I found a new neurologist. And I had a friend who got me in with her Dr who was supposed to be really good at treating migraines (I actually thought he was a migraine specialist, but he's actually an integrative medicine Dr). And I did make an appt with another friend's chiropractor, because I decided I might as well give it a shot. I needed to get rid of this migraine and I was willing to do anything, from any angle, to do it.

The next day I saw the Integrative Med Dr and he took 9 vials of blood to test for a whole bunch of stuff.
And the day after that I saw my new neurologist Dr G. and he was concerned about my sleep and wanted me to start on a migraine diet and go to bed much earlier and get a sleep study done. And that night I went to a workshop for the Rezzimax vibration tool that I ordered is supposed to help headaches (and helped my friend with TN). He did a hands on technique on me called intra-oral masseter and pterygoid release on the jaw joint in my mouth which was extremely painful but is also supposed to be very effective in knocking out headaches. But that didn't work for me either.

At any rate, that migraine lasted for 22 days. Thereabouts. And I had a couple days break before it started up again. So does that really even count? I have no idea.
But it was pretty much hell. And I gained about 10 pounds in that month's time because I barely moved at all and it was so so horrible.
I'll tell the rest of the story with what's happened with those Drs (and more) in another post. Phew!