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Good Morning All;
I am "mostly" back to normal (whatever THAT is), with respect to my head.
I am still feeling so very tired and mush~brained from taking that Topamax. And I hope to heck that feeling goes away soon.
Half the time I don't even go from one rational thought to another.
Hey, Wanna ride bikes?
See?
hehehe
OK.
So it's not that bad, but heck, it sure seems that way...
Casey did bring me in for a shot on Tuesday. To the Oneida clinic to save a few dollars.
I do not have a standing order there, but thought I would try anyway. I have gone in there twice in the past two years for a shot. At least it is free there.
I had gotten in right away, an appointment with a physicians assistant (This, because my own doctor was off until Thursday).
The kindly nurse that checked me in got me into a dark and quiet room right away, took my blood pressure, and before she left, turned the lights off for me. Casey was also in the room with me...
The little lady PA came in; (with a loud mouth and an attitude to boot).
She asked me when my migraine had begun.
Pulling away from her loud voice I told her it had begun the day before at the eye doctor appointment I'd had.
She asked, "And so WHY didn't we hear from you then?"
Thinking perhaps she would take her cue from me and lower her tone, I quietly replied, "Because I never call right away. Sometimes they go away."
Thumbing through my chart, this Loud Little Rag asks me what I had taken for it.
**I told her I had taken hydrocodone when it had started because I had nothing else along with me when I was at the eye doctor. No relief there.
**I had taken the Maxalt when I got home. No relief. (And please recall from my other blog that I should not be taking the Maxalt along with the Paxil because of the possibility of dangerously high blood pressure~ I did NOT take the Paroxetine (Paxil) that night then)...
**I had tried the Ascomp. Little relief, but not lasting more than an hour.
The Loud Little Rag asks loudly have I ever seen a neurologist?
Yes.
When?
I tell her it was 4 years ago.
Who?
I think, and honestly cannot remember the lady doctors name.
I tell LLR that I cannot remember.
She demands to know why.
And I tell her that because when I had left that office on Riverside Drive, I had a voice mail waiting for me. My sister had just been diagnosed with a Grade Three, Stage IIIc Breast Cancer, and if she thought that one doctors name would be more important than that voice message then she was dead wrong.
She asked a few more questions. (Mostly Casey answered).
I told her quietly that she was being very, very, loud.
Sarcastically she replies, "Well, I am very, very, sorry."
Does she lower her voice?
Not one bit.
She then asked me about my panic attacks, proclaiming that she 'noticed' that I had these headaches after a panic episode...
Note that she has had her nose in my chart for all of about 4 minutes!
(Damn. She's good)!
Sorry. I refuse to speak with ANYone about my anxiety attacks, save for my own doctor...
(This pisses her off).
Oh well.
But, at any rate, my migraines do NOT follow, precede, or accompany my anxiety attacks.
These are two separate and distinct matters.
Twit.
(No. I did not say any of these nasty things out loud, though both Casey and myself grew hard pressed not to).
Pissed, she then asked me how often I went to the ER for my migraines.
I told her I never go there because I have no insurance.
At that point I have been up since midnight, fighting off this incredible nausea, wearing my little sunnies in my dark house.
I cannot go back to sleep because my brain even hurts with each breath I take, let alone try to sleep while there is WWIII going on inside my skull.
My guts are also joining in on the action because I had taken the Maxalt and guts do NOT like Maxalt. (Suffice it to say that with Maxalt, one needs absolutely NO fiber in their diet).
And this woman thinks she can make my day worse?
Sadly, yes she can.
And she did.
She left the room.
Returning with... a Maxalt!
WHAT???
I looked at her, (best I could with the xray light on), and told her no.
She was even more furious by then.
And I quietly throw out my last card...
"You ARE aware that Maxalt is contraindicated in persons taking Paroxetine, aren't you?"
She looked at me, madder than hell, and said, "I will tell Dr. Flood that you are refusing treatment."
Do what you have to do.
Yes, the story goes on some. And I am ever so thankful that Casey was there to answer questions when I didn't even want to hear that ladys voice any more. Didn't want to answer, and just wanted to die...
Suffice it to say that I was then offered some toradol.
The good doctor Flood that was there stated to Casey (after she'd hunted him down), that he "refuses to allow his patients to dictate their own course of treatment".
She showed him pointing out IN MY CHART, exactly HOW I had been treated both of those other times.
He dismissed her quite as one would a pest of a child.
Not even offering to treat my nausea.
Uh~Oh
By that time, Casey is more royally pissed than I am...
But I did end up leaving there, and within minutes being treated at the other place where I usually go. (No stupid, prying, or loud, and incessant questions asked either).
I believe that the simple act of human kindness that they show me there actually brought me close to tears.
Within minutes my nausea was brought under control, replaced by an annoying bit of heartburn.
The head takes a while longer to 'heal' and to stop hurting, but at the very least it was relieved much by the hypo.
In the meantime, Casey had scheduled me an appointment to go speak with my regular physician yesterday morning and to clue him in on how I was treated.
I managed to keep that appointment too.
Amazingly, he told me who to write to.
Now I have only one question...
What would YOU say to them?
Please let me know. I thank you in advance...
XOXO
Anne
Originally posted at Yahoo! 360 Friday February 22, 2008 - 07:49am (CST)
