8/16/2009

MIGRAINE TESTIMONIAL 

   Question:  Does anyone else have a HUGE problem convincing their health insurance provider 
what a FANTASTIC idea it would be for them to COVER our STINKIN' medication???
Thanks to a company like GlaxoSmithKline, we no longer have to spend 3 days in a dark 
room, puking our guts out - or popping dangerous narcotics to the point of near
unintentional suicide - anything to stop that pulsing, throbbing agony.  
But, Blue Cross/Blue Shield (for one) does not want to pay for the wonderful IMITREX - that can 
actually nip a migraine in the bud within a few hours.  Granted, I usually have to take
an Imitrex pill about every 24 hours for several days.  That is only because migraines are
like freight trains - they just keep coming at you.  So, thank you, GlaxoSmithKline  - if only
health insurance providers were as compassionate...

*** This just in - $184.00 for 9 - count 'em NINE  Imitrex - not covered by Blue Cross/Blue Shield, because MIGRAINE
is a "pre-existing condition" - as if I could have done anything to avoid the "condition." ?

LINKS

DISCLAIMER The following is not intended for the purpose of boredom. The author accepts no responsibility for any residual drowsiness experienced by the reader. However, If you are newly migrainous, you can compare and verify symptoms described herein. For you M.V.’s (migraine veterans), it’s just the same song AND same verse. Only the names have been changed, not to protect anyone – but, well, because our names are different. That is, unless you have the same name I do, in which case, the names have not   been changed. Oh yeah, and what DISCLAIMER would be complete without:     Offer void where prohibited by law;      Batteries not included;      No salesman will call --- that is, unless you're DATING a SALESMAN - he will probably call you!

I had always been sort of a "headache person" – only slightly more  inclined than other kids, to suffer sinus or tension type headaches. However, I was never bedridden with the pain, and certainly never missed anything FUN because of a headache. At age 25, five months after the birth of my first child, I officially progressed from being a mere "headache person" to an official "migraineur." My first migraine actually started with the ZIGZAG, blurred visual phenomenon and subsequent (temporary) blindness in one eye. Initially, my concern was that I had inherited my mother’s Retinitis Pigmentosa, an incurable eye disease that results in blindness. I closed my eyes in hopeful denial of the blindness, and fell quickly into a nervous nap. When I awoke, the blindness had been replaced by a splitting headache. From that day, the headaches increased in frequency and intensity. I was having at least one headache a week, though not always preceded or accompanied by the visual phenomenon. The migraine was totally different from any headache (or anything else) I had ever experienced.  Based on the piercing pain, sudden onset, and bizarre visual symptoms, I entertained all kinds of paranoid possibilities: Is it  a brain tumor? Am I going blind? Could it be some form of Epilepsy? What if it's Lupus? Is it MD? MS? PMS? ALS? What if it's the entire alphabet??? As archaic as it sounds, in 1979, there was no internet or World Wide Web where one could easily obtain information.  We were barely at the cutting edge of cable TV.  Medical information was still pretty exclusive to doctors, unless one had time and access to a medical library. The first doctor I consulted was my OB/GYN. Since my daughter was only a few months old, I assumed the headaches might be related to hormonal changes. My doctor did not make that same assumption. However, he thought I might be stressed out by my new role as a mother and "overwhelmed by the pressure of being completely responsible for another human life." So, he prescribed Valium. The Valium made me want to sleep all the time. With a colicky infant, sleeping was no longer an option in my life. Consequently, neither was Valium. From the OB/GYN, I went to an ophthalmologist. He could not identify the cause of the headaches. He did, however, reassure me there were no signs of Retinitis Pigmentosa. Another consultation with the OB/GYN resulted in his referring me to a neurologist. Based on my description of symptoms, the neurologist easily proclaimed my mysterious plague as "migraine headaches." To exclude any catastrophic causes of the migraines, I underwent blood tests, an EEG, CT scan, and EMG. In addition to several brochures about migraines, the neurologist gave me Caffergot to take at the onset of the headaches. The Caffergot made me (more) nauseous. So, he prescribed Fiorinal for the pain and Inderal as a prophylactic. However, when my headaches continued with consistent frequency and intensity, the neurologist was baffled by my resistance to the medications. Consequently, his last resort was to suggest I be given the Minnesota Multi-Phasic Personality Inventory (MMPPI). He believed I simply had a "migraine personality." Note: This was in 1980, and migraines were evidently, still somewhat of a medical mystery. I would spend the next 19 years evolving through different phases with the migraine. Occasionally,  I would go for several months without a headache – just like a real person. In 1991, the migraines took on a pattern that I honestly thought would kill me. They were occurring at least once a week, frequently with nausea. The headaches were severe and almost totally debilitating. They never lasted less than 24 hours, and often spanned up to three and a half days. When you consider that once the pain subsides, the head remains sore and the body weak, for at least another day, that left very little time to be a functioning wife and mother. In fact, I had very little time, between headaches, to be a viable organism. Depression and anxiety were inevitable. I had heard of a childhood friend who committed suicide because of her migraines. I have often wondered whether it really was intentional, or if she simply lost track of her dosage. In the throes of that agony, the instinct is to do almost anything to just make the pain stop, make the pain stop. . . please, just make the pain stop. Somehow I managed to survive a year and a half of this crippling pattern of pain. Ice packs and Excedrin became my constant companions. I had discovered long before the experts signed off on it, that Excedrin is about as effective as anything, short of a narcotic coma, for the pain of migraine. There were at least a couple of trips to the hospital emergency room. The worst thing about going to the E.R. is the car trip nearly kills you. In the hope that medical science had progressed and there might be something a doctor could do to alleviate at least some of my suffering, I did see another neurologist. At first, he took me  completely off the Excedrin, so he could try a prophylactic method. A 48-hour blind, puking, piercing, throbbing, totally bedfast bender was the result. Though, before I gave up on him, that neurologist would have also had me on Depakote and something else that has faded into the medication montage in my mind. I wish I could say I have found a miracle cure. I have used Stadol NS, Imitrex (both injections and the pills), as well as the more natural approaches, including oxygenated water and the herb Feverfew.  I even bought one of those special pillows, designed to keep the spine properly aligned. To date, nothing has ever been able to completely arrest the momentum of that oncoming locomotive of a headache, once it decides to happen. Over time, the headaches have become far less severe, rarely involve nausea, and generally last only about 24 hours. Once I even went a record 12 weeks without a migraine. However, I average about three to six weeks without a migraine, which allows me to, not only function like a real person, but also to maintain a three-digit weight as an adult human should. The worst part is there is always that an ominous voice, warning, "MIGRAINE WALKING!" A migraineur lives in fear of that next headache. You know it will strike. It’s just a matter of where and when.