Today, I had one of the worst headaches I have had in a long long time. I have no idea why, and it has been so long since I have had one of that magnitude, that I had forgotten how bad they can feel. It took me to the point of prayerfully considering my existence while consumed in a porcelain halo. (TMI, I know.)
What really frustrates me, is that I wasn’t always like this. Quite to the contrary, my mom used to get migraines all the time and I couldn’t understand them incapacitating her from doing anything. Mine weren’t brought on until after I was married…um, that sounds horrible, so let me explain.
I had been married for a while and we were expecting our second…that literally has nothing to do with why but it gives a time reference. Anyway, I got a REALLY BAD case of food poisoning and went in to the doctor to see if he could give me something to stop vomiting (yeah, twice in one blog). He prescribed two prescriptions for me. I took them as directed. About 24 hours after taking them, I stopped most my symptoms and felt ok enough to go to a meeting with my wife.
As I sat in the chair, I turned to my wife and said, “Something is wrong…” She replied, “What is wrong with you face.” Unbeknownst to me, the left half of my face had lost its muscle control and began to slide downward, at the same time, my body began to tighten and curl to the left. I would later find out that, I was suffering a chemically induced stroke.
A 911 call, a blood geyser from an IV and an ambulance ride later, I was wheeled into the emergency room and given several shots. As I lay there waiting for the medicine to kick in, the nurse asked me how I was doing to which I replied, “Mmmmf, Crusmes frsss…” Which loosely translated meant, “My tongue feels funny.” She somehow figure that out, a screamed at another nurse to get her some amount of something as my jaw began to hurt from being forced open by my swelling tongue. I can honestly say, no shot is as piercing as one stuck directly into your tongue, with whatever needle size they have handy.
I ended up spending the night so they could continue to flush my system and make sure all the prescriptions were out of my system. But the best part was when I was told that the doctor I went to see for my food poising had given me something my charts clearly indicated I was allergic to and a second prescription that was a synergist for that drug. Shortly after I was told, that doctor came into my room and said, “I heard you had a bad reaction to the drugs I prescribed…but your food poising is better right?
I swear, if I didn’t have three or four different machine attached to me, I would have gotten up and hit him.
What was the point of this long doctor’s story, since that day, I have been able to very clearly understand what a migraine as I got them every few months after that. The frequency has diminished greatly as I mentioned, but they don’t appear they will ever go away and every time I get one, I think to myself, “at least my food poisoning is better.”
Gnarly!
I used to get terrible migraines, I had almost no relief for 5 years, just struggled daily to maintain... I finally got on meds that helped. Then I changed my diet and I rarely ever get them. Now they happen if I eat too mmany preservatives.
I, however, only had one rushing trip to the Dr. due to the pain and he was the one who sent me to the specialist for the right meds... My own MD told me it was 'all in my head', no pun intended.
I pray to God I never have a shot in my tongue.