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!!

My New Banner - Some Doctors are Quacks Part 1

I decided to add something very personal to my blog header. Yep. That's my MRI. I had it done a couple of years ago, well, I HAD to have it done a couple of years ago.

I work in a job that is 60 hours/week for 10 months/year. Having just finished one project, I had gone directly onto something very small, only a week of work. So I do that, then crash. Completely. I slept for 20 hours a day for 3 days straight. Sleeping all night, waking up to have breakfast, back to bed til lunch, woke up & had lunch, then went back to bed until supper. Woke up long enough to eat, then maybe a half hour longer, then sleep through the night. 3 days of this. I put it down to exhaustion. When I woke up on the 4th day, I suddenly could barely see out of my right eye, and I had developed these horrendous headaches. Part of my face would freeze, my pupil would contract to the extreme when I was around ANY light (just the right side mind you, the left would react normally), my teeth hurt, my sinuses hurt, and my skin around my eye was super sensitive.

After waiting what felt like forever to see an optomotrist, I was told that my eye was healthy, but they made an appointment with an othomologist just in case. In the meantime, I went to the dentist, thinking the toothache had something to do with a cracked tooth or something. I even had a root canel. None of this worked, my headaches, etc. were so bad that every 2nd day I ended up in the emergency room at the local hospital trying to get something for the pain.

A month later I finally got in to see the opthomologist. He tells me there is nothing wrong with my eye, and it's just optic neuritis, and it would go away in 6-8 weeks. It had already been over that and it was still going strong. So I wait the 6-8 weeks to come back for my follow-up, during this time, I continue my visits to the emergency room. I can barely work because of the pain.

Finally, another 6 weeks pass and I go back to the opthomologist. He tells me I'll be ok, there's nothing wrong, the eye will clear on it's own. Blah, Blah, Blah. I convince him I want to see a neurologist. He hums and haws, saying the neurologist probably wouldn't see me over something like this. He kept trying to convince me not to see a neurologist. By this time I'm livid and practically demand to see someone. So he calls the hospital, and very appologetically tells them he has a woman who really thinks she needs to see someone because of this 'little' problem. (I'm in the room for the phone call so I hear everything this whiney little idiot says).

At any rate, the neurologist says he'll see me right now, can I come to the hospital? I can't get out of the room fast enough, and head the few blocks to the hospital. After the neurologist checks me over and orders some tests, he tells me he thinks I have MS, and will order an MRI for me. He immediately puts me 3 days of intravenous steroids, and gives me a perscription for Gabapentin. The steroids don't help, oddly enough, neither does the Gabapentin. After a few weeks of the drug not working, I call the doctor's office to ask for something else for the pain. It takes another 5 days for them to get back to me and the Dr. issues me a perscription for.....GABAPENTIN. It's like he didn't even look at my file to find out I was already on it, and just arbitrarily issues another perscription. Finally, he gives me a perscription for Lyrica. A drug designed to control nerve pain.

By this time, my hair is falling out by handfuls, my nerves are shot and I can barely work. This Dr. was supposed to order an MRI for me (which would've been free), of course he forgot. So the only way I could get one before another 5 months had passed was to pay for it myself. Over $800.00. Thank God my parents helped me to pay for it. This doctor also forgot to fill in a form (that I sent him) to show my union that I was physically unable to work. I couldn't even ask them for financial help through our medical services provider.

I'm so stressed by this point; I can't see out of one eyes and I have trouble walking on my own because of the constant headaches.

I'm going to stop writing now, because this still upsets me, I'll continue this tomorrow.