My Migraine Battle: On The Forefront

A Visit From the Migraine Fairy

I think today is as good a time as any to talk about Migraine First Aid and Treatment. People always ask me, "How do you know when to go to the ER for your migraine?" Most migraneurs will tell you that they'd rather have their entire upper jaw removed by a dental student, before they'd go to the ER for rescuing. Shocking, isn't it? Well, it wouldn't be shocking to you if you were a migraneur. Most migraneurs, when we hear statements like that, will just nod their heads, understandingly, and give an empathetic murmur. We get it.

When most people break an arm or badly sprain an ankle, they don't think twice about going to the emergency room to get treated. Why do migraneurs always go through enormous internal conflict about going when their pain levels reach 9 or 10 on the pain scale? It's because our first few experiences in the ER were so negative that we left feeling like a skanky low-life addict or at the very least, didn't get any relief there. You'd be amazed by the kind of remarks that migraneurs get when they go to the ER. Check out my blog entry, Oh The Things You'll Hear, and an even sadder entry about a woman who actually committed suicide, because of how she was treated at an ER visit.

There is something that we can do to prevent being treated like scum by the ER staff, though. Here's what you do. Keep a migraine diary, firstly. I can't imagine that any junkie would keep a migraine diary just so they can get a fix. That takes away the doctor's assumption that you're just there to get drugs from him, because your neighborhood dealer is skiing in Vale for Christmas.

The next thing you can do is have our pain management doctor or whoever treats your migraines fill out this Emergency Room Treatment form. Treat it like gold, because in it, your doctor will put how he wants you to be treated if you end up in the ER, because of migraine pain. There's one for Cluster Headache sufferers, too. I keep both on me, because I've had to go to the ER for both forms of head pain.

You'll be amazed at the difference in how you're treated when you go to the ER with the support of your personal doctor and backed up by your migraine diary. You may still have to wait in the ER, but you won't be abused as badly as before. And, if you do end up meeting up with a total jerk, then you have proof that he was negligent in perfoming his duties and can make a complaint against him with the Medical Board and his hospital.

It's possible that your doctor will balk at filling in the forms for you, but push him as hard as you can to do it anyway. The ONLY reason a doctor would balk about it is because he's worried on stepping on another physician's toes. I'd tell him to suck it up and get a pair of ovaries! Be a Woman, dude! It's not his head on the line, it's yours.

I hope that none of us has to go to the ER over the holidays, but I wanted to give you some resources, just in case. So, make sure that your doctor fills out those forms before he goes to Jamaica for the holidays. If you do have to go to the ER and you use the forms, please, let me know what the experience was like. My experience has been that my visits were so much easier to deal with once I had those papers in hand. Make sure that you keep them up to date, too. Whenever your meds or treatment plan gets changed, you need to update your forms.

It's also a good idea to always carry a page, jsut a Word.doc will do, with your allergies, previous surgeries/major hospitalizations and dates, and your current physical afflictions listed on it. I have this down to a science, now. When I go into the ER, I hand all the forms to the nurse, so that I don't have to talk more than absolutely necessary. She can just copy all the info down from the forms. Then, she makes a copy of my form and my diary, and intake is done and I'm credible. Voila!

posted by Jessica @ 1:46 PM