Friday, March 21, 2008
Tuesday night was horrible. I'd fought a migraine all day, for it only to get worse late in the evening. I woke my boyfriend up about 11:30pm to take me to the emergency room. I'm sure those reading this know that this is the last place we want to be with a migraine! TV blaring, children screaming, a 2,3,4? hour wait to see the doctor for 2 minutes. Anyway, we went. Waited 2.5 hours to get back to see the doctor. Another hour went by, and he shows up. Checks me out for maybe 30 seconds and leaves. The nurse comes in and says she's going to give me a shot. I asked what it was, ---now here, let me ask, is it just me or do ya'll think we should always be told what we're being given, without asking?! I believe that is our right! --- so she says it's Nubane. Now this worries me because it hasn't worked the past two times it has been given to me. But, in this moment, if I say anything, I'm a "drug-seeker" because I want something else. (Something that works, yes.) So I take the medicine and arrive home at 4am Wednesday morning. Wake up at 7am and my migraine is worse than before. It feels like the top of my head is being busted out from the inside! Now I'm stuck. My boyfriend is worn completely out from being up all night at the hospital, so he can't take me back. And there is no one else to call. So I lay in bed crying and praying all day and night Wednesday, and part of Thursday morning. Of course, I started my period, and it eased substantially. The point is that I'm mad because I had to lay in bed for hours and hours hurting, because I'm scared to say anything about what they give to me at the emergency room. I did it once before and my chart was noted that I was a drug-seeker requesting narcotics. What's the answer? Because I'm at my ropes end here. Doctors will not give me pain medication for 1) rebounds and 2) because there are so many people selling and misusing pain meds now. WHAT?! I'm not those people! And the only alternative I'm left with is going to the er when it gets so bad that I can't take anymore. What a life! I'm so sad and frustrated.
Tabby,
You need to have a good discussion with the doctor who treats your Migraines. Good Migraine care should consist of four parts:
1) Treatment identification and management
2) Preventive therapies if Migraines are frequent or especially severe.
3) Abortives to stop Migraine attacks and their symptoms. Also nausea meds if necessary.
4) Rescue medications to be use if abortives fail.
You said your doctor won't prescribe pain meds because of rebound potential. How often do you need them? When my Migraines were hitting almost daily, my doctor prescribed Imitrex to use two days a week and pain meds to use two other days a week. If I had more than 4 Migraine days, and I usually did, I had to just take something for nausea and try to sleep. That was to avoid rebound.
Has your doctor made suggestions other than the ER for such times?
Teri