Migraine. angry, hurt, confused...

[Ashelen]

So I started out friday morning with a whopper of a migraine. I'm used to getting really bad migraines, so my doctor prescribes me Tylenol #3 to take at home when they get bad, and it usually works. Well this time it didn't. So I hung in there until saturday morning, waiting and hoping it would go away, even though I could barely sleep friday night because it hurt so bad. I called my OB for advice on saturday morning, and she told me I was crazy to wait, she said, AND I QUOTE "Honey there's no reason to put yourself and your baby through this, go in to the ER, tell them your migraine is BAD, and they can give you a shot of something like demoral to help you out. THey'll probably send you home with something too in case it comes back."

Fine. So I go in saturday at about noon, and the doctors act all surprised "she said you can have pain medicine? we rarely treat pregnant women with pain medicine...but I'll give you some morphine and benedryl, but I'm not going to send you home with something because that will DEFINITELY get rid of the headache."

I know that there's still a chance it might come back, but at this point I just want relief so I agree to it.They come in, give me the shot, the nurse is a real *** about it and pushes it into my IV really fast so I get that awful feeling that morphine gives you that makes you feel like you're having a heart attack. Long story short, I end up feeling much better and go home to lie down.

3 hours later the headache is BACK and as bad as ever. But I don't want to go back again, so I wait it out. Finally at about midnight, I can't sleep, I'm throwing up from the pain, so I head back.

I get stuck with this barely-english-speaking hippie doctor who proceeds to look up my nose (......) and tells me "I can't give you anything stronger than tylenol because you're pregnant. you don't have a migraine, you have sinusitis. have your sinuses been stuffy?" "well, no" "that's okay, they will be, it just hasn't started yet. saline drops will stop the pain, and tylenol." ............................................................

moron. So at this point I'm miserable and ask him to call my OB and get her opinion. So he agrees and pages her. And then he comes in with my discharge papers "She hasn't paged us back, we don't know how long it will take, so go home and take saline drops and tylenol and you'll feel better." ARRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHH


so here I am, sunday morning STILL IN PAIN. I can't eat, I could barely sleep last night, and my head throbs with every single freaking breath I take. What do i do!!??!?!?

I don't want to go back again just to get sent home, they're going to think I'm a druggie/junkie trying to get a fix or something. Besides which I can't handle the condescending "you're pregnant you shouldn't want help for your pain!!!" that some doctors will give. BUT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THIS PREGNANCY THAT I'VE ASKED FOR HELP WITH PAIN!!! I injured my back really badly and it's been hurting the past few weeks and never once asked for pain medicine because I prefer not to take it when other methods will suffice.

I'm in tears I'm so frustrated. I'm so sorry this story was so bleeping long but I don't know what to do. I keep hoping this migraine will shuffle off on its own, but I've had migraines last 6 days before.

:(

advice anyone?

[JadedSweetheart]

When I had the incident where the ER nurse and PA were so rude to me and treated me like a drug addict, I wrote a letter to the director of the hospital.  He was very understanding and promised to look into it.  I still need to call him back, but just writing the letter and having the entire ER staff's BOSS tell me it wasn't their policy to treat people that way made me feel better.  As did picturing the look on the face of the staff when they were confronted by their superior about my situation.
I used to have Fioricet to take occasionally for migraines.  My script said take one and if no relief take two.  I don't know how many they told you to take, but I would recommend trying two if you continue to get the migraines.  Another thing I do is when I feel a migraine (or headache as they turn into migraines with me) coming on I take the medicine right away, before the migraine gets into full swing.  I deal with A LOT of pain on a daily basis (as I have herniated discs and Degenerative Disc Disease at a young age) and I find it's best to take the medicine right away than wait for it to get worse.
I think a big problem with migraines in pregnancy is that we wait until it's really bad to take something because we don't want to hurt the baby with meds, so I know it's hard to just "take something" if we don't know if the pain is really coming, but personally, I think it's worth it for me to take something and prevent the pain.

I really hope you are feeling better and don't get any more migraines!

[Ashelen]

Yep it's still there...day 3 and counting. fioricet didn't really help..like at all. I've got another call in to the OB but what has me irritated is that one of his suggestions was "if you come in to L&D we can do this IV therapy...it's non-narcotic and takes about 6 hours, and it could possibly help." (note the "could possibly")....I really just wish they'd give me a strong shot of something and send me home. even a few hours relief like I got saturday morning is better than nothing, and if it comes back then I haven't lost 6 hours. The only reason I'm hesitant to try this "therapy" is that every single traditional migraine therapy has NOT worked for me...I've had these headaches all my life so believe me I've tried everything... and if I go in and it doesnt work then I've wasted 6 hours and a lot of money.

Hope he gets back to me soon, because I've moved from pissed to really angry. I still prefer this OB 100% over my old OB but there's no reason for this, and I blame the ER doctors more than I blame him actually. Everything he's trying is what they SHOULD have tried saturday night. even the OB said we have to nip this in the bud because this much protracted pain isn't good for the baby..so I hope we can find a solution :(.

[faye83]

I'm sorry you have to go through this! Hopefully it'll be one of those headaches that stay with you for a week or so and then leave forever. I got one of those like 4 months ago, it was HORRIBLE especially since I never get headaches. I couldn't sleep or anything for almost 2 weeks. Tried tylenol and of course it never worked, I didn't want to go to the ER and the doc only told me to take tylenol so I had to man up and just apply some cold compresses in my head and expect for the best. Hopefully yours will be over soon!

[Ashelen]

Thanks again ladies, it really helps to hear that someone cares, lol...I tried the fioricet and it took the edge off but my head still hurts like crazy. I'm just going to wait until tomorrow to deal with it though...I've already dealt with 2 1/2 days of it...what's another one? Sigh, lol. Anyway, the worst part about it is that the pinkeye my daughter gave me is now in both eyes and they're so swollen I can barely see (omg, i look so gross, lol...but the good thing is that I can barely see myself to see how bad i look!!)...got another call in to my OB about that at the moment....one thing at a time, eh? Pinkeye tonight hopefully, migraine tomorrow (if it's not gone...please be gone...)

thanks again for responding girls it helps so much to lift my mood!!

[Rosa20]

I have no idea what to say..i just wanted to let you know that i feel soo bad that you have to go through this while your pregnant! I know how bad it was when i had a migraine for a week straight and nothing worked,,i wasent even pregnant then!! I hope you feel better soon!! :)

[Sunkissed19]

i read all of your posts and thats so frusterating! i know what your going through with dealing with e/r docs that just think your in it for the drugs...they can be such jerks sometimes! Im glad your ob has written you a script for something new to try...i hope it helps!! i also get migranes once in a while and i  know how bad they hurt...ive also been getting super bad headaches while pregnant but only one has been migrane bad thus far...and i was able to sleep it off in a very dark quiet room..thank god. I think your a,b,c,d plan sounds good and i think after what has happened your ob will and should be more than happy to make this work for you! every doctor should make you want to feel as comfortable as possible with your care. Again, good luck with the new med...keep an open mind and eat a small meal! i hope you feel better sugar, hang in there!

[Ashelen]

sorry all to posting 4 times in a row, and I don't even know if anyone is going to read this but I think I have a plan and I wanted to know if anyone thought it was a good/bad idea....

I'm going to sit down with my doctor and go over a list with him:

List:
A)this is what you prescribe me to keep at home for treating my normal migraines
B) this is what you want me to do if I'm out of the medicine
C) this is what you want me to do if the medicine is not working
D) this is what you want me to do if I feel that the pain is too significant and I need to go to the hospital

does that sound like a good plan? I hate havin to have "the migraine talk" with a new doctor...either it goes really well and you completely click, or they just treat you like an idiot...hoping for the former with this OB!

[Ashelen]

okay so the OB called back and said that he's going to call in some fioricet to the pharmacy...I guess I'll have to wait and see how that does. I've taken it before, but not for a long time..maybe 6 years ago. I'm hopeful that it will work though, from what I'm reading about it. He wants to switch me off of the tylenol #3 to the fioricet during pregnancy, and I'm gonna see how it goes.

Thank God he also told me to go straight to L&D if I ever have to go in again, and he's going to leave instructions in my file about this. Here's hoping I can update headache-free later tonight!

thanks for the help and support ladies, I really appreciate it!

[Ashelen]

well what happened last night was that they called the same number that I have for contacting the OB and they just sent me home before she responded. it took her about 45 mins to get back to me when I called yesterday...and they paged her last night and sent me home after 15. saturday night, really you think she's going to respond that fast??? stupid people...

I'm definitely going to bring this up with my OB. normally he does write me a script for Tylenol#3 which I keep around for bad migraines, but this time it didn't work in the slightest. I took some friday night and saturday morning to see if it would help and it didn't, and I even tried again this morning and all it did was make me queasy because I haven't been able to eat. (I hate codeine, but I would rather take that than vicodin because it's been prescribed for so long).

[Ashelen]

I just left her a message telling her what happened and explaining how I felt like the doctor last night didn't even listen to me...I appreciate the response, sgtwife. And it really does stink that the drug seekers have ruined pain management for the rest of us. I really feel like the doctor was discounting me because I'm young, not because I'm pregnant because I KNOW you can get pain medicine when you're pregnant, because they gave me heavy stuff when I had my kidney stones while pregnant with my daughter. Of course that's a different situation, but lying and saying you can't give me ANYTHING just crosses the line. If he had said "I don't feel comfortable with it" that would be a different story. but he bold-faced lied, and didn't believe me when I said that HIS ER had given me morphine earlier that day. what the heck??? he has to know I wouldn't lie because he could check in my charts and expose me if I was lying.

and when he was examining my eyes and my nose (still not sure why he did that, it IS NOT a sinus headache) he noticed that my left eye is red (my daughter gave me pink eye, it's so much fun let me tell you) he was like "Do you smoke?" and when I said no, he gave me this look like I was lying to him!!!!!!!!!!!! I TOLD him "My daughter's got something going on with her eye, I think it's pinkeye and I think I caught it" and he just goes "uh-huh, so you know you really need to not smoke and you need to take prenatal vitamins while you're pregnant. you just need to take some tylenol and your head will feel better."

I felt so judged :'( and ignored...waiting for OB to call back.

[spade22]

If you can contact your doctor there is no reason why the ER doctors shouldnt be able to - I wonder if you can call your doctor on a cell phone while at the ER so they can talk to her directly?  Sometimes you have to do things yourself because others dont do their jobs.

Definitely call your doctor back and tell her what is happening though.  Pain like you describe is bad for you and baby (more so than an minor risks from being treated with the appropriate medication).  Its a good thing your doctor understands this but clearly there is a major communication breakdown.

I hope you get some  help for this soon.

One last thing.  I would suggest making an appointment with your own doctor to discuss this as soon as you can so this can be prevented from happening in the future (either she can write a script that you have handy, or have your records in L&D so you can go there and they can access the information and know how to treat you etc. etc.)

[sgt6852wife]

the best advice i could give is to page your OB doctor and tell her you are VERY unhappy with the treatment you got in the ER and ask if you have any other options. having worked in an ER, it's really too bad that the drug seekers ruin pain control options for people who actually have pain. also, another thing you can do is call the hospital on monday morning and ask to speak with the patient advocate and tell them how you were treated. although it doesn't make your migraine go away or help with the pain...they need to know about the quality of their staff.

[Ashelen]

I don't know spade but that's a great idea...I'm going to call her again now. I was avoiding doing it since it's the weekend and all but I'm still utterly miserable...I'm gonna call and see what she advises, and if she tells me to go back I'm going to see if she can call the ER circulation and leave a method of contacting her. I know L&D can contact her at any time so I really think that the idiots in the ER just didn't try...they called her office but never paged her personal phone.

But I've been trying all day to just get through this and now I'm throwing up again because it hurts so bad and I can't keep doing this...I've GOT to be better by tomorrow morning because DH goes back to work and it's just me and the toddler...can't be like this and watch her, I'm sure you can relate, lol.

wish me luck

[spade22]

wow - Im sorry you are going through this.

I think one good solution  is have your OBGYN communicate directly with the ER doctors so that your pain medications can be ok'ed.  You said she never paged them back but is there another way they can contact her?  Emergency phone number for example (how have you been communicating with your doctor?).

Is there anything that your doctor can call-in too a pharmacy for you?  Thats another option.  

[Ashelen]

Thanks for replying! Yeah it really ***** how they treat people. The other hospital here is worse in a lot of ways...it's the big "medicaid" and "no insurance" hospital, so they're really rude about pain management. this hospital has always treated me right, but I really feel like this particular case was not handled properly....

I'm just so angry and hurting and I don't want to go back just to be sent home again...I TOLD the ER doctor "Tylenol WILL NOT WORK" and he said "you can take two the first dose that will work".....seriously? are you that much of an idiot? NOBODY believes that tylenol works for serious pain. he didn't even look at my chart to see that they had given me morphine that morning. his response to me telling him that they had was, and I quote "No I don't think they would have given you morphine because you're pregnant." and I said "it's in my chart, you can check" and he said "no, you can't get pain medicine when you're pregnant but I can give you tylenol."

Sigh. I'm so tired of this freaking headache, and it ***** because I either go back today or I don't go back, because I can't go to the dr or ER during the week because I have no one to watch my toddler and my husband works 7AM-8PM.

[JadedSweetheart]

That has happened to me recently BEFORE I found out I was pregnant.  I was in severe pain and they drilled me with questions about going to the ER twice before recently (we had just moved to the area), even though it had nothing to do with pain or pain meds.  I was so hurt and angry, too!  Your doc tells you to go to the ER and the ER says go to your doc.  Well you wouldn't be in the ER if you could go to the doc, would you?  Frustrating, I know.  Worse when you're in pain!

My advice would be to try a different hospital.  I know that might sound like doctor shopping, but you are the consumer, the hospital is a business.  If one doesn't meet your needs and in fact, doesn't meet your standards, you have all rights to be treated like the good person you are and take your business elsewhere.

It's really sad that it's come to this, but nowadays it's like they'd rather turn away people in pain than accidently give one junkie a fix.  I think we all understand, but at the same time, if they really took the time to care about the person and not treat us like cattle coming through the door for branding, then maybe we would get the right treatment.