Some Doctors are Quacks Part 2

I last left off with having trouble walking down the street by myself because of the pain in both my head & eye.

It had now been 5 months since the strange headaches and vision problem started. I was still no closer to finding a diagnosis. I go see my family doctor for my regular physical and tell her all about the past 5 months. When I tell her of the suspected MS, she says ''But you don't have any other symptoms, do you?'' Well, No, not really. She makes note of everything and shakes her head. The headaches and vision aren't improving, sometimes they are hitting new heights, so I try to see the neurologist...ok, he's told me I should make an appointment to see him. After his office gives me the run-around of a few days, his receptionist finally tells me he will meet me at the hospital the next week. And she sets a time. So I wait, and go to the hospital for the appointment. I check in and wait...and wait...an hour later, I go back up to the reception and ask how much longer he's going to be, I had an appointment. That's when the nurse on duty tells me ''oh, you're not seeing him, you're just seeing one of the regular ER doctors''.

What the F... was the point of me making an appoinment with this guy????He never intended to show up in the first place. HE makes the appointment, HE sets the time, then HE DOESN'T show up???? I was so upset. I mean, you tell a person you think they have MS, you give them a speech about what the future will hold, and you tell them that if they have any questions night or day, to give a call. AND THEN YOU RENEG ON ALL OF IT!!!!

Needless to say, I went back to my family doctor (a doctor who has never steered me wrong, by the way), told her what happened and asked for a referal to a different neurologist. I think she was as angry as I was at how I was treated. A month later I go see this new neurologist. She does all these tests that the other one should have done much sooner, the results were NOT MS. Huge relief!!! She believed I had migraines, and put me on Verapamil, it was supposed to help lower my blood pressure in order to allieviate the headaches. I already have really low blood pressure, and I told her about it...she thought the benifits would outweigh the risks. OK, so I take the drug. Suddenly I can barely make it up a flight of stairs, my chest hurts even if I so much as walk to the end of the hall and back. I throw the pills away. The eyesight is still bad, the headaches are there.

Now we are at the 13 month mark of not really knowing what is wrong with me. I make my yearly appointment with the optomotrist, tell her all that has happened since the last time I saw her. She said, there is still one more doctor who's testing would be definative on the eye question...an optho-neurologist. I'd never heard of that before. A neurologist who solely deals with the eye. A month later, I go see this optho-neurologist. She tests me for a number of things, looks at the MRI, and after all the tests come back, it truely shows there is nothing wrong with my eye. More over, I never had optic neuritis, nor MS.

Finally, after 15 months of being mis-diagnosed, she comes up with the answer. Paroxsymal Hemicrania. It's a very rare form of headache, found mostly in women over 40. It's an inflammatory headache that can affect sight, hearing, sinuses, and nerves. It can hit 5 - 40 times a day for any length of time, from a few seconds to hours, and removing yourself from light or noise doesn't help the pain. She put me on Indomethacin, and 20 minutes after I took the first capsule, my headache eased up and my eyesight returned. 20 MINUTES!!!!! After 15 months, all it took was this very specific medicine.

When I think back to all that happened, and all the crap that I was perscribed I realize that when a doctor receives their license to practice medicine, it truely means PRACTICE, and practice, and practice. Not necessarily DO any.

In the 1 year and 3 months of all this the sum of diagnosis': Iritis, Optic Neuritis, MS, Migraines, and finally Paroxsymal Hemicrania.

The drugs/perscriptions: regular over-the-counter medicines, Steroids, hyro-morphine, Gabapentin, Lyrica, Verapamil, and finally Indomethacine.

No wonder my hair was falling out!!