Desperately, Desperate
By Stacey Servino on
September 16, 2009 (Wednesday)
Okay well let's start by saying that I was admitted to the hospital this past Friday and discharged on Monday. ( But only because I threatened to walk out). For a very persistant migraine that has disabled me for over 5 days straight. I am over medicated, over stressed, over exhausted and desperate for a root cause. I'm desperate for a reason, not a quick fix. I am still suffering, I took a FMLA from my job, as to not be in trouble for taking too much time off. I work full time as an Emergency Medical Technician within the 911 system in NYC! I know my job is a HUGE trigger and I am seriously considering dropping down to part time to reduce stress. I have 2 small children and suffer every day with pain. I am at the end of my rope here! My whole life, actually, My whole family's life revolves around my migraines!There has to be a better way! My doctor is great at the quick fix but does not seem all that interested in finding the cause. I made an appointment for tomorrow to meet with a new Neuro so wish me luck!
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by kglorioso
on September 23, 2009 at 12:20 AM
I'm with you. I have four children - their ages are 13, 9, 4 and 2. I'm tired of suffering as well. I feel like my triggers are endless. I feel like I'm saying "please don't do that Mommy has a headache" all day every day. These migraines really do have a way of controlling your life. I'm wishing you the best of luck.
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by migrainemike
on October 04, 2009 at 4:56 AM
I can only imagine how stressful your job is. One thing I would really suggest is trying out MBSR (Mindfullness Based Stress Reduction). I started a program for mindfulness stress reduction a month ago and so far I've cut my migraines to 25% of what they used to be.
I realize it's very early and my migraines come in cycles, but it has been very promising and has had the side effect of making me feel more relaxed and healthy.
A good starting point, if you are interested is the book "Full Catastrophe Living" by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
The other thing it's helped with is knowing my limits, there's an earlier blog post I made about this not long ago.
Whether this helps or not, I hope you're able to find some relief. I feel your pain.
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by Bethany
on November 22, 2009 at 6:30 PM
I can understand what you are going through. I have had migraines in the past but in Feb. I started a cycle that changed my life. On day 11 of this migraine I called the Dr. for some relief since nothing I had done had worked. I worked for a Dr. at a hospital and was sent to the ER for some blood work. My Dr. thought I had Spinal Menegitis. After a few gruelling hours a spinal tap, CT, MRI etc.... I was admitted. My Neurologist had the attitude of get rid of the migraine but let's not worry about why the migraines have seveloped or gotten worse. After 5 days of inpatient therapy I thought the cycle had been broken but I was mistaken. A few more trips to the ER then cross town to another hospital and 4 dys inpatient the same thing happens. Try to break the cycle but don't worry about the cause. Needless to say frustration is not the word for the way my husband & I were feeling. Unfortunately FMLA was not an option for me so I was fired for being undependable. Out of desperation to find the cause of these horrific migraines I went to a teaching hospital in St. Louis. There they actually looked into the cause but couldn't figure out the anything since everything looked fine. This time they were actually able the break the migraine cycle using the sme DHE meds the other hospitals has used but the used a different delivery method. They gave me 2 doses through an IV then inserted a Central line pick to deliver more over the next 2 days until the cycle was broken. I found out there that the DHE is like an acid to your veins and so after 2 doses through an IV it is not as effective hence the reason my veins kept "blowing" t the other hospitals. I was released headache free but still with out a cause for my migraines. The closest thing to an nswer I was given was sometimes when your body chemistry changes you develop migraines and will continue to have them until your body chemistry changes again. This answer was absolutely unacceptable to me. I knew there had something else going on that was causing this. When I got home I got on the internet and started looking up each one of my meds and migraine. It turned out the first one I looked up was YAZ. Teh first thing I came across was a blog from a woman who ws going throught the same thing I was. At this point I had been on Yaz for a year, so it never occured to anyone that I could be having an allergic reaction to it after that amount of time. Turns out when my body chemistry changed I became allergic to it and developed the most painful debillitating migraines I had ever expierienced. Needless to say I quit taking Yaz that day. My migraines are much less painful now and much farther between. I'm still looking into the cause of them but now I at least have a starting place. I have learned through all of this is you know your body better than anyone else does. ALWAYS- take a notebook and a person with you to right down ALL your symptoms, meds and names. I have found that writing it all out afterwards really helps me to remember things and put things together. Sometimes Drs. are playing detective, the truth is we have the most clues so you need to play detective too.
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