Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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My Migraines are … GONE? … A Miracle?

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Most of my regular readers know that I’ve been suffering from migraines over the last year. In particular, my migraines and extra migraine symptoms have worsened over the last 6 months or so.

This past March when I happened to be seeing a Neurologist for a different problem (numbness and burning in left thigh) I happened to mention that I’d been having more and more migraines and that I’d had a new symptom – zig zag visual disturbances a few times since the previous July. We discussed my medical history (including migraines since the age of 12) and he though that since the auras were new I had an increased change of stroke so he wanted me to get an MRI.

I finally had that MRI near the end of July and between my original appointment with the neurologist and the follow up appointment that I had with him on August 19th to discuss the MRI results I started having constant 24/7 dizziness and balance problems, blurred vision, began feeling confused, occasionally had hearing problems and ringing or buzzing in my ears and I just had this overwhelming feeling that things were getting worse and worse. I couldn’t think, I was having trouble talking – mixing up words, losing my train of though … never mind attempting to write blog posts! I’d click on Add New Post and then sit and stare at my computer for an hour at times.

I’m sure I could add a few other symptoms to the list above, but the overwhelming constant pain (one migraine lasted 24 days in a row!), lack of sleep, dizziness and “brain fog” were my main complaints and concerns.

Back to August 19th when I saw my Neurologist … I had learned through my family doctor that my MRI wasn’t normal. I had white spots in my white matter. As it turns out pretty much everybody gets white spots in their brain matter as they age and my Neurologist said that I actually have less than most people my age … so that’s good.

Then we discussed what to do about the migraines and the other symptoms. He believes the dizziness, vision and hearing problems are all related to the migraines. I had already come to that conclusion as well.

When I was in my teens and twenties I suffered badly from migraines and I think I’ve tried most of the mainstream migraine treatments. None really did much to help me. I just suffered along with my migraines and then, sometime around the time I turned 25 my migraines started to die down and they gave me a break for a few years, came back for a year or two, then went away for a decade and now they seem to be back with a vengeance.

I had tried Imitrix in the past but it made my heart race – like 200 beats per minute and that’s NOT good. Now that I’ve had an extended visual aura with my migraine (squiggly lines that lasted more than an hour) I can’t ever use Imitrix or any of the related drugs (Triptans) again as the risk of stroke is very high.

So … after discussing all my options, including the fact that I don’t have a drug plan right now to cover the cost of my medications we decided that I should try an anti-convulsive drug called Topamax.

The new drug isn’t cheap, but considering how much pain and misery I was in I thought it was worth giving it a shot.

Now I tend to react oddly to most medications. Half or more of the new medications I try I tend to end up having an allergic reaction to or an adverse reaction to … or end up being severely sensitive to … Of the other half of new medications I try … well, only about 25% of those seem to do whatever they’re supposed to do.

So I was hopefully starting this new medication, but fearful that I’d have either a bad reaction or that it wouldn’t help at all.

I took my first pill on the evening of August 19th and by the morning of August 20th I realized that I didn’t have a migraine any more. In fact, two weeks in to taking this new medication I can say that I’ve been migraine free the whole two weeks!

I do seem to have low grade headaches a few times a day and what feels like the start of a migraine on occasion but if I take a Tylenol that migraine feeling just goes away.

It’s a miracle!

This is the first migraine (well epilepsy) medication that has ever worked for me!

It’s not without it’s side effects of course. There are tons. I feel kind of buzzy (like I’ve had a couple of drinks) most of the time, and my hands and feet tingle like they’ve gone to sleep or go numb. My tongue tingles or buzzes too and sometimes everything seems to just tilt sideways … it’s one of the weirdest medications (that’s working) that I’ve ever been on. I’ll talk more about the odd side effects in another post – ’cause they’re weird!

Anyway .. since my Crohn’s has actually been doing well for the last several months (dare I say most of this past year?) … and now these darn migraines might actually be under control (knock on wood) there’s a real chance that I might get back to work sometime soon … maybe I’ll be coming through the jobs in healthcare sometime in the very near future if things keep working out for me!

Has anyone else tried Topamax for their migraines? If you have, what was your experience? Did it take away your migraines? Did you get them less frequently or not at all?





Why do I enjoy watching so many medical dramas on TV?

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You’d think that since I’m an ER nurse (well one that’s on medical leave) I wouldn’t be all that interested in watching medical shows on TV, but they are still one of my favorite form of television watching.

I used to love watching ER. Oh I’ll admit the early years of the show were the best, but I watched every episode right until the series ended last year.

Now this year a new crop of medical TV dramas are on ranging from more nurse oriented shows like Mercy, Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe to Trauma which covers the paramedic side of medical drama. I even watched the short HBO series Bloodletting and Miraculous cures – mainly because it was a series that developed from a book written by one of the ER doctors that I’ve worked with for several years.

I also watch House regularly, although as with ER I think the earlier seasons were better than what’s being produced lately. Likewise with Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. Geez there’s a lot of medical shows isn’t there? Maybe they all just need to take a multivitamin and they’ll get better?

These shows are full of errors – from having too many doctors and not enough nurses, to medical errors, to patients going from deathbed to miraculously healthy by the next day. LOL

Of all the new shows I think I like HawthoRNe best. It captures the emotions of being a nurse in the ER much better than most of the shows I watch regularly.

Although, just like Mercy, I don’t understand how the nurses that are supposed to work in one area end up working all over the hospital and even assist during surgical procedures. In real life, in a big hospital, nurses work where they are assigned whether it’s the ER, a medical floor or in the OR … they aren’t all over the place .. nor are doctors unless they are specialists – then they might be seen regularly in a few areas of a hospital over the course of a shift.

I think I like watching these shows because I can spot the mistakes and I get a little thrill when I spot them. LOL Maybe these shows keep me on my toes?

Anyway .. do you like watching medical dramas on TV? Which ones are your favorites and which ones could you do without?

Driving me nuts with questions!

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My husbands cousin’s wife .. I guess I could call her my cousin-in-law, is driving me nuts! Since I’m a nurse she calls me up or sends me an email every time she’s sick or has some kind of health related question. As you might imagine, with Swine Flu in the news last week she called me at least three times a day!

Do you have any friends or relatives like that? People that ask your advice about something your knowledgeable about because of your work? Doesn’t it drive you nuts?

She’s calmer now about the flu … but now she wants to lose weight so she’s sending me questions about how to lose weight fast and sending me links to places like the atro phex review site for me to read and advice her!

** Big eye roll **

I think that I’m just not going to answer the phone or her email for a week or so and maybe she’ll get the hint.

We need to get new health insurance

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I’m starting to think that I’m never going to get back to work at the hospital. I’ve been off work on medical leave now for two and a half years! Two and a half years – mostly without pay too, as I only had sick leave pay for the first 15 weeks. Argh.

Topping that off, I’ve been off long enough now that my health insurance is about to end. They apparently only cover employees on medical leave for 30 months. So once I got the letter from work, about two weeks ago, Chris went and applied for group health insurance with his hospital union plan. We still don’t know if we’ve been approved or not. I hope my illness doesn’t cause any problems with getting coverage.

In other news, when Chris came home from work the other day he said that they were busy putting cell phone amplifiers in several areas of the hospital. It was only a year or so ago that they actually allowed people to use cellphones in the hospital. I remember working in the ER and constantly telling people to turn off their cell phones. Now everyone’s walking around with one!

Wish us luck on getting new health insurance!

I’m seriously sleep deprived

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I swear I’ve got a sleeping disorder. Over the last several months it’s very common for me to only sleep for an hour of so and then get up again. When that happens I end up not returning to bed for hours and then I only sleep for an hour or two at that time.

In other words I’ve been living on only one to four hours sleep most days for maybe the last two years.

I’ve always been a late night person. Not falling to sleep until about 2 a.m. has been my common habit for most of my life. No matter if I had to get up at 5 a.m. for a nursing shift or if I could sleep in. I’ve also never been a morning person. I’m groggy if I get up before 9 a.m., or well … that’s the way it used to be when I’d at least sleep for several hours at a time.

I think my sleeping problems started when I began working in the ER at the hospital in 2002. I’ve been a nurse since 1992, but in those first 10 years on the job I’d never had to do a night shift. Suddenly I was expected to do at least two night shifts per week … and not just an 8 hour night shift. No … a 12 hour night shift.

My night shifts were always at the end of my run of shifts and it would take ALL of my days off for me to get back to a normal sleep at night schedule. Just in time for those early morning shifts at the beginning of my run of shifts.

Then of course in mid-2005 my Crohn’s really started acting up and by the end of the year I was off work on medical leave (and still am since my Crohn’s hasn’t settled down at all).

While I’ve been off work I’ve kept myself busy on the computer. Writing blogs and starting more blogs and websites. Hey it’s been not only a way to pass the time but a way to earn the income I’m not making by working full time as a nurse.

I’d stay up later and later because my pain is always worse from evening onward into the night. So pain is a factor in my not sleeping well and or putting me off a normal sleep schedule. However filling my time by being on the computer working on my sites just keeps my mind active and as a result I don’t settle down to sleep at a decent time – or at all most of the time these last few weeks.

Of course now it seems to be getting worse.

I did go to a sleep clinic a couple of years ago. I knew I had a sleep problem. They put my light sleep down to my pain. Of course my time in the sleep clinic was a horrible mess as they tried to make me go to bed early and since I was in pain and couldn’t even take my mind off of it by reading for a while I simply didn’t sleep for hours. I finally slept at the clinic for about half an hour!

I think it’s time I talk with my doctor about my sleep problems again and maybe (shudder) go back to the sleep clinic again.

In the meantime I think I’ll try to turn the computer off my midnight at the latest and see if that helps my mind slow down and helps me get to sleep.

At this point I feel so sleep deprived that I’m sometimes not sure that I’m making sense. Sad eh?

Do you have trouble sleeping? Or have you had trouble sleeping in the past? What helps you get to sleep?

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