Why would medical personnel be apathetic to a migraineurs' suffering?
I recently had knee-scope surgery and woke up with an extremely intense migraine the morning of the surgery(the kind that usually forces you to go to the ER). At the surgery center, my husband asked(politely) that I be taken back and be administered something to help with the migraine and make me more comfortable until surgery. He left me in the care of nurses who promised to look after me. For over an hour nothing was done as I continued to dry-heave over the side of the bed, not even given a pan in case it was needed. The IV-drip that was finally started later turned out not to be fast enough and I wasn't given the amount of fluids needed. Dehydration increases pain and renders medications less or even non-effective. Though it was obvious what was administered for nausea wasn't sufficient nothing else was done for me for another hour - when I couldn't bear it anymore I said I'd had enough and to get my husband because I was leaving. My intention was for him to take me to the ER. Apparently, THAT 'lit a fire' under someone's butt because within 10 minutes 2 people I hadn't seen previously, came out, discovered the mistake in the fluid flow and administered something else for the nausea. 10 minutes after that I was knocked out for surgery - I still had the migraine when I woke up, it had gone on too long. My husband was quite upset that he entrusted me to people to take care of me and instead my suffering was prolonged. My opinion is that they didn't give the anesthesiologist an accurate description of my condition and therefore it wasn't taken seriously and I paid the price for it. Please, what do you think?
Answer!!!! It is just a headache, silly. I was in the ER. with what appeared as a stroke the Doc wrote pain meds for the migraine.... haha it was not administered in the ER because they were transfering me to the stroke ward... they FORGOT to give it to me.
The migraine 4 hrs later was so bad that no matter how much dalatin w/atavan they gave me it was no help I was way beyond it. But I can one up ya...
I had my meds with me so the ER docs woould know what I was on. and they would not let me take my meds on time. They kept giving them to me 4 to 5 hours later then when I should be takinfg them. It was not the nuurses fault there it was the docs and how the hosp. gives meds. mornin, afternoon and evening. it so happened their evening was at 5 pm and mine is 9 pm.
I told my nurse that if I could not be given pain medication to releave the pain that was infliced upon me by the hospital, i was going to call a drug dealer... wow i got pain relief and my meds on time.
I also said if they could do nothing for my migraine, especially since my meds were in my bag, to stay out of my room until they could and i refused to allow anyone in. No test nothing. They were ignoring me so I ignored them.
I asked the one Nurse who came in and HIS mother and sister suffer from migraines so he understood,
So the answer is simple, we are not dying, gushing blood, limb falling off etc, our heads just hurt. end of concept for them. They don't SEE the injury so it can not HURT that bad.
Now if we go in with some obious trama and say the PAIN and STRESS have triggered my migraine then we will get seen faster and give better treatment.
I have actually REFUSED treatment and pain medication for my migraine in the ER by saying yes it has triggered my migraine but I don't want that treated at this time but if it becomes a issues i WILL let you know. Then I can't seem to get rid of the dang nurses asking about my head..... but if i am there for the head i am in the hallway with no one around.....
go figure.... they need to SEE the source of PAIN ....
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Lynn,
I think you're probably right that the correct information wasn't passed on to the anesthesiologist. It's also possible that he or she was in surgery and unavailable. IMO, another part of it was that the people taking care of you have no idea how severe a Migraine and its consequences can be.
I had a similar experience with a Migraine, but AFTER surgery. My primary care doc's office was across the street from the hospital. My husband got fed up and went and got my primary doc. When I had to have surgery again, I told the surgeon up front that I would not go into surgery until I saw my chart and saw that appropriate orders had been written in case of a Migraine.
If you ever have surgery again, I'd suggest talking with your surgeon before the day of surgery to be sure he puts orders on your chart in case of a Migraine.
I'm so sorry this happened to you.
Teri
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