written on July 26, 2014
Something odd happened last night, a Friday night. I was at home taking care of the kids, making them dinner to be precise, when I bent over to pick something up off the floor and all of a sudden a migraine started. This is weird for a couple of reasons, the main one being my migraines up til now have all been dialysis-related. They always start while I’m sitting in the dialysis chair, about two hours into my dialysis session. I can feel the pain start in the middle of my head and begin to slowly creep towards my eyes and the center of my forehead. Last night I merely bent down to pick something up and it started. I ended up taking one of my new migraine pills about an hour later – the pain was coming fast and furious at that point. Unfortunately, the migraine medication (Frovatriptan) didn’t kick in at all. I ended up falling asleep sometime after 10 and the headache was still there every time I woke to use the bathroom. When the alarm went off at 4:30 am for dialysis, I had to stay in bed another ten minutes just to let the pain subside a little before I got dressed.
So my first thought last night was, what the hell? My blood pressure was high, as usual. I tested it around 9 pm and it was 174/104. I tested it five minutes later and it was 164/101. Is it true that my headaches are caused by the high blood pressure? Am I going to start getting migraines on days I don’t dialyze? Please say no. It’s one thing to lose most of a day because I dialyzed in the morning; it’s another to start losing days just because of high blood pressure.
When I say losing days, I mean that on days when a migraine takes hold, it usually takes 4-6 hours for the pain to go away enough that I can function (my migraines are starting to make me very sensitive to bright lights and loud sounds, so when I have one, I can barely go outside without the pain getting worse from the sun and I can’t listen to anything loud). Then once the pain medication kicks in, I get drowsy and feel the need to sleep. Of course when I fall asleep while a migraine is still going, I usually wake up in more pain. For some reason sleep does not relieve my migraines – such a bummer! So all told, if I take my pain meds at 9 am (when I get home from dialysis), I’m pretty much unable to function until after 3 in the afternoon. Turns out it’s good that I’m on disability (still not being paid for it…yet).
I have the extra complication of the pain meds themselves. My doctor prescribed a new one for me this week – Frova. The one I had been taking before is rizatriptan. They’re both in the family of drugs called triptans, but you can’t take them together (bad for the heart). One problem with these drugs is that you’re not supposed to take them with uncontrolled high blood pressure (which is considered any blood pressure above the normal level of 140/90). Hmm, that seems to encompass my blood pressure. You’re also not supposed to take them too often because they have this crazy side effect of sometimes causing more headaches. Definitely something I don’t want or need in my life.
I took my first Frova on Thursday and it worked after about an hour. The nice thing was it took away my sensitivity to light and sound. But the pain of the migraine never faded completely. It definitely lessened, which is good.
The rizatriptan takes the pain away completely, after like 3 or 4 hours, but it doesn’t touch the sensitivity. So I have two drugs, each of which does something good for me, neither of which can be taken with the other and both of which could in time create an environment where my body will start creating migraines just so I can use more medications to fight the migraines. Um, does anyone see a problem with both of these drugs? Or is it just me?
I’m starting to think western medicine isn’t all that people say it is. I’m definitely coming to the realization that a lot of doctors I’ve come across (and by no means am I saying every doctor in America fits in this generalization, because they don’t) aren’t interested in treating the disease, they’re only interested in treating the symptoms. Now there could be many reasons for this – insurance companies that won’t pay to treat diseases, a lack of time or interest in actually figuring out what’s wrong with someone, or possibly a shortage of knowledge in knowing how to diagnose someone. I think a lot of it does have to do with insurance companies not wanting to shell out money for something they don’t think exists. The more I research things online, the more I’m starting to think that most of the problems with healthcare in America have to do with the insurance companies. How is it that these companies managed to amass so much power and control over the very industry that should be designed to help people? The fact that insurance companies can dictate what is or is not covered in a health care plan is ridiculous to me. Health insurance should be there to cover you in case you have medical issues, regardless of what those issues are. If the point of an insurance company is to help you out in your time of need, then why is it that they have the ability to tell doctors and hospitals that they’re not going to pay for bills that they deem aren't medically necessary? Of all the aspects of the healthcare industry we should change, I think we should get the insurance companies out of the healthcare decision-making process.
I digress – this entry is supposed to be about my migraines, not whether or not insurance companies are our friends.
The fact that no one at the dialysis center wants to treat my high blood pressure, or my migraines for that matter, make me think that the insurance companies have somehow gotten involved in the dialysis process and told everyone that if they do patient care outside of some “norm” that’s been established, they won’t cover it. This is why the nurses and techs swear by whatever orders are in the computer. They rarely want to vary from what the doctor has “ordered” for me. Will they get in trouble for doing so? Why aren’t my opinions on what I think is good for me heeded? I know I’m not a doctor, but I know my body far better than anyone I’ll ever meet; it’s my body, I live with it everyday. And I feel very confident in knowing how I feel before, during and after any kind of health-related issue.
I’m far more interested in trying different things to get the blood pressure and migraines under control. Because living with both is really not a good way to live. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to convince anyone at this dialysis center that these two things are negatively affecting my day-to-day life and routine. Maybe this means I should change dialysis center?
I’ve been thinking it’s a good idea. Then I think about all the headaches it’s going to cause to get my records transferred, and new orders created. They may not be migraine headaches, but they’re headaches I’d prefer not to deal with if I can avoid it. Sometimes the path of least resistance is maintaining the status quo. The truth is, life is too short to live this way. If I can see that, why can’t the medical professionals I’m trusting to take care of me?