Yet another migraine update

The last time I wrote a migraine update, things were going really well. I had a new doctor and was on steroids to keep my brain calm while my body adjusted to my new dose of topamax. I really liked the steroids. I had almost no migraines while I was on them. But, I had to get off them quickly, and life returned pretty much to normal. Headache of some sort every day, really really bad migraine once a month, and a want to stay in bed migraine about once a week.

A few weeks ago, I went into work despite having a "want to stay in bed" migraine. I knew I shouldn't, but my CHI workshop proposal was due and I'm generally more productive at the office. It was also a group proposal and I was working with other people who I don't know that well and didn't want to let down. If it had been lab mates, I might have filled them in and stayed home, but with this proposal, I couldn't.

I worked all day and in the afternoon, took a quick break to call the headache clinic to leave a message for my nurse practitioner. Nothing was working. Nothing had been working. I wasn't going to last until my next appointment in mid-December. (I hate making phone calls and hate bugging doctors.) So I left a message. On Monday, I got a reply and set up an appointment for the earliest time, November 17. "What do I do in the meantime?" They said they'd get back to me. The next day I got a call back that they wanted to switch my preventative medication to zonegran, another seizure medication. So I'm on that now, ramping up the dose.

In the mean time, that Friday night I worked until 7:30pm, submitted the workshop proposal. (CURSES, Word for crashing an average of once every 5 minutes during that last half hour!) Then Ben picked me up, trying to rush me to my normal urgent care clinic, which closed at 8pm. We got there at 8:03. They were closed. So it was on to the ER and, while I got treated and had no migraines all weekend, I didn't get out of the ER until 2:30am. It's never a good sign when you go into triage and they inform you that they have one patient who's been in the waiting room for 4 hours and the average wait to go back to a room is 2 hours. (I'd taken an Imitrex injection and Zofran, but they just weren't doing the trick, sadly.)

So in 2 weeks when I go to the doctor, high on my list of questions is "what now?" What medication can I have for when I have a migraine and what if that doesn't work?

Now, however, I'm excited that the zonegran is no longer giving me nightmares. And I'm still exceedingly thankful for a medical team that is incredibly responsive to my needs. And insurance. SO THANKFUL for insurance! Without it I wouldn't be able to go to the ER or urgent care, or this great clinic. (Or get any of the medications I take regularly.) Hopefully with all this, things will get back to "healthy" levels soon.