My Face Hurts & I'm Mad

There are times when my glasses hurt my face. It's not their fault & they fit me the way they should. Remember, Dr #1 had me check them four hundred seventy-seven times. They do, by necessity, have to sit on my face and my face lives on my head. And my stupid head has hurt about 80% of the month of June. So far. We could break the streak & change the percentage, my head & I, but we do not have that friendly of a relationship. 

Also by necessity I took a shower today and washed my hair. Not liking the feel of wet hair on me while I'm trying to get dry & put on dry clothing, I put my hair up in a towel. My head did not appreciate this and launched a full frontal retaliation that had me sitting on the pile of clean clothes that is my closet floor. (Yes, Lil Miss Azzi, my darling 6 yr old niece, I understand that your mama folds her clothes.) 

I'm envious of people who can regularly wear glasses and towels on their heads. Heads should not retaliate against such simple things - I've never even given it a hangover the ungrateful wretch. AND I have been hydrating and hydrating and hydrating to make sure the topamax doesn't do blah blah blah to my blah blah blah blahs. 

100 mg of imitrex brought the 8 on the pain scale to a 4 & that's pretty normal. Plus it's all I can take for 3 days. I'd like today to be over now & I'd like to say a big F U I freaking hate you right now to whatever unknown mechanism in the brain causes migraines. F U. 

Well, you're a quandary, aren't you?

Let's just get this out of the way right now. Yes, yes, I am. I am not the kind of patient that comes into the doctor's office, says three simple sentences, gets a few sentences of feedback and goes on her merry way - problem solved. I also am not the kind of patient that is going to just hear what a doctor says and think of it as I would scripture. (Did you hear? Doctors are people, too. Just like you and me.) It seems to annoy some of those with letters after their names but I want them to speak to me like I understand what they're saying - and if I have a question, I want them to answer it.

Twice in my adult life I've had chronic hives that defied explanation. At least I had doctors that looked for explanations both times. I haven't been as lucky in my current chronic health situation. The first hive episode lasted just short of a year from what I can recall. It was before I was pregnant with Tanner and he's 21. The allergist I saw did tons of tests and was so perplexed. The hives just wouldn't go away. Misery. The second hive episode was worse. It lasted longer. Approximately from the time I weaned Kaleb until I got pregnant with Tate. So 4-ish years of daily hives. Again, tests. Again, perplexed doctors. It was during this time that I was first diagnosed with migraines. It was also during this time that I first started discussing autoimmune diseases with doctors. The most obvious issue was with my thyroid. According to my doctor, my immune system was attacking my thyroid and the antibody that they were testing showed up at 600 times the normal level. "I've never seen anything like it." Not the last time I would hear that phrase. 

I get hives sometimes. My immune system is still attacking my poor thyroid though not at such a ridiculous level. I think that there is probably some correlation to my migraines. Currently, however, I can't even get my doctor to agree that my thyroid requires treatment so I'm kind of stuck on that issue. 

Back to the migraines: The first treatment plan for someone with migraines is usually a triptan. Imitrex, maxalt, etc. I was given a rx for imitrex first I think. I can take it 3 days a week. Normal people don't have a migraine every day, they have one once a month or once in a blue moon so this restriction isn't a problem. If you have one EVERY SINGLE DAY - it's a problem. I asked Dr #1 (I'm going to have to label these people because I start switching soon.) about this problem several times. His answers were vague and not helpful. Looking back, I think it is because he didn't believe that I had pain as frequently as I was saying. His other suggestions were: loosen my glasses because they were too tight, drink more water, drink less water, loosen my glasses because they were too tight, go to the eye doctor to check my prescription (I informed him several times it was a brand new rx), drink more water. 

Following all of this, Dr #1 prescribed a medication usually used to treat high blood pressure which is sometimes used to prevent migraines. Since no one really knows what causes migraines, no one really knows why it works - being a chronic migraineur is like participating in a giant drug trial. Since my blood pressure is low already, I wondered if this was a good idea but he said we would watch it. 90/60 is what it was running most of the time. When I was in the ER once & it was 80/50, there were some very concerned nurses. Dr #1 made a couple of crucial mistakes. One, he prescribed an increased dose of a triptan for me while I was on this med that made the pharmacist's head almost explode. She was so upset by the potential drug interaction, she was speechless at first when I came up for the consult. Two, I told him that I continued to have pain every day & he suggested a few separate times that we increase the dose of the blood pressure med. UMMMM, NO! I think 80/50 is low enough. I reminded him how low my blood pressure was & he would mumble "oh, oh, ya...maybe not a good idea...." but in another conversation or email, suggest it AGAIN. Excuse me, sir, ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION AT ALL? I'm trying to survive here. 

Did I say a couple of crucial mistakes? There's actually more than a couple because there's the time he diagnosed me with a chronic condition but didn't tell me and the time I yelled at him on the phone.... tune in next time for Laura loses her temper.... it actually doesn't happen as often as you think.