Migraines Suck

The journal entry type thing I am about to write happened yesterday, May 3, 2023, which happened to be my mother's birthday too.

Around 4:30 in the morning, I woke up with a headache. That's pretty normal for me due to my medicine and epilepsy having lasting effects even without having a seizure in just over two weeks. I took a prescription migraine medicine that is as needed, hoping to prevent it from getting worse. That didn't work and symptoms progressed, starting with blurry vision and some light sensitivity. Those suck but can happen with my head hurting that bad. I turned off my light, laying in bed with no lights. No phone, no TV, no computer, couldn't read a book either.

Around 10 am, I took Excedrin migraine. That almost always helps my head pain and any other symptoms. Yesterday was just different because it didn't help anything. By that point, there were more symptoms. I had, along with the previous two, sound sensitivity and more brain fog than normal. Brain fog is common due to my seizures and struggles with mental health. By that point, I had already called my neurologist's office and was waiting for a nurse to call me back to get her advice.

At roughly 10:30, the scariest, most unusual symptom I have ever had hit me like a ton of bricks... The left side of my face was numb and tingling along with a somewhat numb left arm. At that point, I started crying and called the neurologist's office again, hoping to get a nurse's advice right away. They were busy but the receptionist sent another message to the nurse's station for me.

At 11:52 am (I checked to see what the exact time was), the nurse called and asked what was going on. I told her everything. She had the same fear as me, that it might be a stroke (because of numbness, tingling, and weakness). She suggested what I imagined she would... go to the emergency room.

I had a quick lunch before calling though (since I was hungry and am very limited because of the modified Atkin's diet, less than 20 grams of net carbs a day). It was about 12:30 when I called. By the time we were at the hospital, it was almost 1 pm. That is mainly because they did a basic neurological exam before even leaving my driveway. It was stuff like comparing sensations on each side of my body, following their finger with only my eyes, and looking at my pupils with a bright light for potential differences between the two. They had a feeling wasn't a stroke but I was still terrified.

In the emergency room, the doctor said that I would be seeing the neurology team to determine the best course of action. The first person I saw was a neurology resident, who wanted information about my seizures (epileptic and non-epileptic) and how my normal headaches and migraines are. I told her everything that I could remember, which was a decent amount (surprisingly).

Not long after she spoke to me and did the same stuff the paramedics did for the basic neurological exam, I was brought for a CT scan of my brain. The scan came back normal in comparison to previous scans, so I was given a "migraine cocktail" for the pain. The migraine cocktail was three IV medicines: Benadryl, paracetamol, and something that I can't remember the name of. The migraine cocktail helped a lot but also made me fall asleep because of the Benadryl.

I found out a little later that the neurology team wanted me to stay overnight to have an MRI and MRV (which shows vessels in the brain) since no one could do it because of the time. I ended up declining because they already determined it was a migraine, so why bother with extra scans?

They basically told me, "Fine but it is against medical advice." I said, "Okay," and signed the AMA form. I left the hospital at about 8 pm, after receiving discharge paperwork.

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If you read my decently lengthed rant, thank you. I needed to vent and writing helps that. I usually do poetry so if you're a poetry fan, subscribing would mean a lot to me.