posted
Even with how messed-up everything is, at least it sounds like your doctor is open to different possibilities and outside help. That, and his note to your work makes it sound to me like he's actually trying to work in your best interests. Some doctors seem to think that if they personally can't help you, you can't be helped.
Registered: Jul 2002
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Anyhow, I hope you get more of those "pain free" hours! You're a lot tougher than I am to suffer that crap 24/7.
Are you kidding? If I have a headache for more than an hour, I just want to kill myself. I could not handle what LOA is going through for more than a day or two before I go completely insane and shoot myself.
On a side note, shooting yourself is NOT an effective treatment...
But yeah, you're WAY tougher than me, I can't even fathom how you do it.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
As far as IV treatments are concerned, I've done some of them. They're wonderful to break severe actute symptoms in the hospital, however, the headache does always return. Usually after a good round of DHE though, it's at a lower pain level though.
We've stopped with the IV administration of it, for the most part, simply becase it's so expensive. (it's about $9K a night to be in the hospital for a total of 3 DHE injections in 24 hours through an IV line - not very cost effective, even with insurance) Before I was on the MAOI, I gave myself SHE injections at home as necessary for severe attacks. Most patients aren't allowed to do this, but my doctor trusts me, so its worked out well.
With the meds I'm on now, that's not an option.
The other IV drugs that are available for migraines are ineffective for me.
As for methadone and other potent slow release pain relievers, I won't go there. My doctor and I have a mutual agreement that as long as I am working away from home, I refuse to take anything like that. There's too high of a potential for a DUI or other legal action if I am involved in an accident while it's in my system, regardless of fault. I work in insurance, I've seen it happen to too many other people, and I won't make that same mistake. I won't even drive if there's a chance there's hydrocodone or oxycodone in my system at this point.
The muscle relaxers are a joke, as are most meds prescribed for sleep. There ARE effective meds I can take for sleep (Trazodone, specifically), but it interacts with the MAOI, so it's off limits. I didn't sleep last night either. I'm exhausted, but my brain just won't shut off.
As for the blacking out, it only happens in the middle of the night. As long as I don't get up and move around in the extreme middle of the night, I'm fine. It's very strange. I've had no other problems otherwise. It's not a blood pressure thing, because it tests normal when this is going on. It's not a medication thing, I don't think, because I take my meds at different times each night, yet the blacking out is the exact same time frame every night. It's just like this bizzare cycle of weirdness. My doctor is currently chalking it up to my migraines, just like all of my other weird symptoms... we'll figure it all out someday.
Now, I'm going to go bond with my financial analysis final. I'll tell you, if I DIDN'T already have daily migraines, this class would give them to me! Oy.
~Liz
-------------------- "You are anal twattypoo who has ruined my good mood" PsyLiam to TSN May 01,2006.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
The blacking out when getting up at night is called something specific - but basically it means that your peripheral blood pressure is too low and it's not getting blood to the head when you change your position quickly... (I think) I had it once when I got a nasty virus/flu... I felt so wrong - I wanted to vomit but I couldn't walk to the toilet - so I crawled... I couldn't stand upright... I think it was caused by the fever.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
quote:Originally posted by LOA: MAGNUM is a great resource.
Mental image of Tom Selleck as a cure for all ills...
Seriously though, blacking out thing sounds a bit nasty. Funny that it seems to happen at the exact same time each night too.
Lets hope it's just a 'thing', and thats all. As for the insomneia, I can sympathyse there. I can't remember the last time I got a propper nights sleep, but it's probably stress and an over active imagination. Oh well, I'll go have some horlicks, see if that works.
Feel better people. Nighty night.
-------------------- I have plenty of experience in biology. I bought a Tamagotchi in 1998... And... it's still alive.
Registered: Apr 2005
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-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted
Well, it finally happened last night - I got up to use the restroom, and I passed out twice. I'm bruised, battered, and my boyfriend wants me to wear long sleeved shirts so no one thinks he's been beating me
I did everything I could to avoid it... I sat up on the edge of the bed drinking water for 3 minutes before getting out of bed. Then I stood against the wall, holding it, for a good minute before I started moving, to make sure everything was okay. All seemed fine. So I began my trek.
I was about halfway to the bathroom (there are no walls to hold on to once I get around my bed, BTW) and I remember nothing else until I woke up on the floor halfway in the bathroom and halfway out. I had scrapes and bruises and a knot on my head from, I'm guessing, when I went down. Somehow I got through two doors along the way.
When I tried to get up, I made it upright with no problems and then suddenly I lost control of my body. I remember very little of it - just snapshot images here and there - grabbing the counter, screaming - reaching for the doorknob when I couldn't hold on to the counter - pushing away from the bathtub so I wouldn't hit my head on it as I went down, and I remember the feeling of my head bouncing off of the floor when I went down.
That time things didn't "grey out" - I just went down. No control of my body. I don't know how long I was out, but when I woke up, I couldn't get up at all without getting dizzy, so I ended up having to crawl back to my room.
I look like I've been beaten with a club. I can hardly walk, because I think I fractured my tailbone, and I have three seperate knots on my head.
I'm heading to minor emergency when they open for xrays of my ass to see how bad it is.
And I'm calling my Neuro on Monday because I can't be passing out like that - I'm scared to death.
My boyfriend, who normally would have heard it all from the bedroom, was asleep on the couch tonight because he fell asleep there after talking on the phone to his cousin late, so he didn't even know. He feels awful that he wasn't there to help me.
It'll be fine though... I'm tough.
Anyway, that's the update.
I couldn't sleep after midnight, either. So I'm tired. Not that I sleep much, anyway. But try sleeping after being attacked by your own bathroom - no good!
I've gotta get dressed for work now. I'm going to try to put in a few hours before minor emergency opens and then I'll go for xrays. Joy.
~LOA
-------------------- "You are anal twattypoo who has ruined my good mood" PsyLiam to TSN May 01,2006.
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
Orthostatic hypotension (hypo meaning below - low blood pressure) also known as postural hypotension...
I think that is what I had when I got that bad fever once. Basically I couldn't stand upright - especially when I wanted to go to the toilet at night... I literally had to grasp the floor and crawl on the ground. It was very frightening.
Maybe it's this new medication?
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
quote:Originally posted by LOA: Well, it finally happened last night - I got up to use the restroom, and I passed out twice. I'm bruised, battered, and my boyfriend wants me to wear long sleeved shirts so no one thinks he's been beating me ~LOA
Maybe he'll buy you a leather collar and cuffs, so everyone will think you enjoy being beaten...
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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So my tailbone wasn't fractured, just severely bruised. The ER doc said it would take 3-4 weeks to stop hurting. I thought he was full of it, but he must be right seeing that I STILL hurt if I try to sit/stand/go up down stairs. I have to sit on a donut, and the only place that's comfortable is on our loveseat, so I can lay on the donut with my legs up over the edge. Even the full size couch is not comfy, and my bed is completely unacceptable. Pleh.
I also have passed out several times since then. During the day. Once while driving. So I don't drive anymore at all. Don't worry, no one/thing was injured. I was on the freeway at 70mph, and somehow ended up in a ditch, right side up, with no damage or injuries. Miracle.
We're in the process of pulling me off of my second med because my doc feels that it must be med related, since there are no other indications of a neurological issue (stroke, anyeurysm, etc).
My vision has gone nuts on me - double and blurred vision - I have had to change the fonts on my computer to be forced set to 30 point to see them at all. I can't read anything smaller, so books and such are out of the picture. My boyfriend has to read my medication lables to me so I know which pill bottle is which at night, since so many of my pills look alike right now.
Also, my insomnia has gone completely nutsos on me. In the last 7 days, I've slept now 10 hours. 3 nights, I didn't sleep at all. No day time naps any day. And the nights I did sleep, one of them was 4 hours, but every other night was VERY minimal. I just can't fall asleep or stay asleep, but not for lack of trying.
I'm also having these bizzare electric shock feelings that go through my body - seriously, it feels JUST like how it felt when I WAS electrically shocked in high school. They just pass through my whole body in a quick single wave, and I convulse, and anything on my lap is bucked off (my laptop once) and anything I'm holding is literally thrown to the floor in the process. Totally weird.
So we're trying to get to the bottom of it. But everything checks out fine. So we're trying to get these meds out of me, one at a time, as fast as possible. Hopefully that will resolve it.
My gut feeling tells me there's something else going on though... I didn't feel that way until the "shocks" started. I see my Neuro again tomorrow, and I'll talk to him, but I'm getting concerned.
I haven't worked in over a week, either, BTW. The computer software at work does not have the option to increase the font size, so I can't work until tech support either figures out how to fix it, or they can get me a magnified monitor. It's killing me. As bad as everything sounds, I FEEL well about 90% of the day. I mean, I can't see right, but I still feel decent enough. Sitting at home, unable to drive, is killing me. I just want to work.
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