I had my visit to the doctor on Wednesday. I'm going to the hospital as soon as a bed opens up. Until then, I'm in limbo. I can't go home, because as soon as the bed opens up, I need to be here that day. So here I am.
I'm actually having a great time. I have no choice but to take vacation days from work while I wait, so I figure, what the hell - I'll turn it into a vacation. Michigan Kossacks rock!
Here's the scoop on what happened at the clinic. If you are a fellow headache sufferer or you know someone who gets headaches, you might find this especially interesting. I have a hunch once I get out of the hospital I am going to be a walking headache encyclopedia.
It was an interesting day Wednesday, but very exciting. I got there at 7:15, registered, and waited. Then at 8 I saw an RN who took a complete history. It took a LONG time to convince everyone that I have no meds, no allergies, no past injury, no problems on my problem list, no significant past medical or surgical history - I JUST have headaches. They had to ask everything like 10 different ways. Any allergies? No. Any latex allergy? No. Food allergy? No. Allergy to contrast? No. Med allergies?... What does NO ALLERGIES mean?
After that hour, they got all of the new patients (6 people) into an hour long educational thing. Basically they said the migraines affect women more often than men (we had 5 girls and a guy in the room), and they are thought to be genetic. They said migraines are due to a chemical imbalance in the brain and that is what they are going to treat for me.
They also talked about triggers. Some people have their headaches triggered by foods, smells, light, or other things. For some people, it's not just one trigger but several. For example, maybe you are OK with noise, lights, cheese, and wine... but if you go to a party and there is all of that at once, you get a migraine. My trigger is flickering lights.
Then I went back to see the doctor, and I found out that my insurance refused to pay for all of the labs I was supposed to get that day. Oops. The doctor did a complete neuro exam and of course found nothing. I am a 100% healthy and normal person - I just get headaches! By this time they had already decided I was headed to the hospital, and the doc told the nurse what IVs to give me when I got there.
The doctor was amazing. He's the first person who has known what to do with me - and cared enough to actually really try. I really like my neuro doc at home, but she basically threw up her arms. She tried a few meds that were shots in the dark, and then sent me here. I respect that she knew when it was time to send me to an expert instead of trying and trying without success if she wasn't capable of helping me.
The doctor also pointed out that my headaches came on JUST ABOUT THE RIGHT TIME, considering that they started around age 14/15 (I'm not really sure when, but for SURE all the way through high school). I always wondered why I had a normal childhood and then all of a sudden - WHAM! - daily headaches! Well, if they are related to estrogen or something, then there's the answer.
He diagnosed me with "chronic migraines." That's the first diagnosis I've ever had. In over a decade.
After the doctor saw me, I went out for lunch, came back, and waited around for a while chatting with the other patients in the waiting room and with their family members.
One girl was in a car accident and she's had headaches ever since. They've been getting worse. She was so thin, and her headaches last for a week or so when she gets them, and they make her throw up everything she eats or drinks. She'll be my hospital buddy.
Another girl had only one headache, but it came on mysteriously on a very bad day when she was stressed and her room mate was burning incense and other things happened to trigger it, and she's had the headache for three months.
Last, I had a visit with a psychiatrist or psychologist, I don't know the difference between the two. Whatever he was, this guy was a pain in the butt. Again - normal person, just have headaches. Hard to believe. Wasn't molested. Two parents, married for 30+ years, still married. Never had suicidal thoughts. Never cut myself. Never was depressed.
Do I have anxiety? Well, yes I do, thank you. I get nervous about walking into new places because they might have a TV on and I will get a headache. I have anxiety that my headaches are making it very difficult to do my job at work. I have anxiety that I'm taking up all of my sick leave and vacation days to spend them at a hospital. Do I have anxiety that isn't related to my headaches? No.
The last thing I did was talk to the girl who controls the admissions to the hospital. I was 9th in line at that point for going to the hospital. There are 18 total beds in the unit. Given that patients stay an average of 2 weeks in the hospital, math tells me that approximately 1-2 people are discharged per day, and I'll probably be waiting around for a good week to get in. As of today, I am 7th in the line... so long as no one really sick shows up and needs to cut in front of me.
One last note about my impending hospital admission... they don't ask your insurance to approve it until a bed becomes available. The reason is that in the past, they got insurance approval for a patient before a bed was available and then after 2-3 days of waiting, the insurance said "Well, if it was really important, the patient wouldn't need to wait." - and they retracted their approval.
My insurance has ONE GUY (named Gary) who can approve my hospitalization. He works weekdays only, and he is mostly available in the mornings. If a bed opens up on a weekend, then there will be nobody there to approve me. So assuming I won't get in today - and I won't - then I can't go until Monday.
Meanwhile, while they keep me waiting, I'm depleting Marriott points, vacation days, sick days, and money. Also, I've got 3 friends who are watching my cats, and every day I am here is another day they are doing me a huge favor. It's a little stressful but I feel so lucky just to be here that I'm not that upset. If I let myself be bothered by it, I wouldn't change anything. So, if I can't change it, I might as well let it go and not worry about it.
That's about it. I'm just hanging out. Tuesday we had a Kossack meetup and about 13 people showed up. Wednesday I saw Detroit's fireworks and Thursday I had a nice time hanging out downtown Ann Arbor. Thursday night I hung out with Pico, who is one of the coolest Kossacks on the planet. It felt like YK all over again. Saturday I'm going to meet another Kossack for coffee.
I love Kossacks. Being a part of this community is like having family everywhere I go. Thanks to everyone here for being an important part of my life. Let's keep working to improve the healthcare situation in this country. Everyone should be as lucky as me. In the richest country in the world, healthcare should be our birthright, not a priviledge.