You're just getting old

I am pretty sure "second opinion doctor" has lost his touch with people and forgotten that patients have feelings.

"Big whoop" and "whoop whoop" complete with the finger-in-the-air twirl were common phrases during the appointment.

First of all, I don't care if you are talking to an allergy patient who complains of snot dripping from her nose, that is just crappy bedside manner.

We were discussing lesions on my brain, excruciating, debilitating headaches, loss of vision and balance issues.

His laisez-faire attitude was that because I have migraine disease and high blood pressure, brain lesions weren't completely surprising. He made this diagnosis without seeing all the brain scans and without even knowing if there was one or forty lesions.

His decision was to put me on two prophalactic medications and to discontinue all pain meds even Excedrin. Clearly he had never had a migraine.

You know the commercial that show the woman asking the waiter a billion questions about dinner options and then show her at the doctor and having no questions when he asks? That was me. I think I was still trying to process the fact that a doctor used the term "whoop" multiple times.

So, I continue to suffer. No answers. No solutions.

The light at the end of the tunnel (other than the migraine auras - yeah, I'm funny like that) is that we are moving in a few months and I will be able to see another doctor and start this whole process over again.

Second Opinion

In what has to be am unprecedented event in Tricare, I am getting a second opinion.

I have nothing against the first neurologists I saw, but he seemed almost tunnel-visioned on only migraines. Not surprising as that is the main thing I was referred for. If he can end or reduce the migraines, I am all for that, so please don't get me wrong.

I tend to be concerned with the lesions on my brain, as well as the sensory and balance anomalies that crop up intermittently.

So, next week, I head to yet another neurologist with my stack of medical records and three latest MRIs.

To be honest, I am not sure what I want to hear.

Botox

My neurologist is an advocate of Botox for migraines. I know many people would be thrilled at the option of Botox and having their insurance cover it. Me? Uh, NO!!!

It's not so much a needle thing. I have had so many procedures involving needles that they don't phase me. It's the whole poison in my face and head that I have a problem with.

And, so help me, if I end up looking like Nancy Pelosi, someone is getting a beat down!

OMG

Those three letters - OMG - mean something different to me than most. No "Oh My God/Gosh or Goodness" here. It's all about OhMiGraine with me.

Yeah, I hear you out there. You are dedicating an entire blog to just having headaches?

No. A migraine is not just a headache. Migraine is a genetic neurological disease.

Disease. I hate that word. Probaby because I know there is no cure for this disease.
There is no rhyme or reason to who gets this disease or the severity of it.

Some lucky bastards get this disease and only have to deal with it a few times a month or less. Some women know they are going to have to deal with it every month around a certain time.

Some of us incredibly unlucky bastards get to deal with it, to varying degrees, nearly every single day of our lives.

Care to guess which group I happen to fall in?