Wow! Just wow. Last Monday I had double eye surgery. Ordered to go off my three times a day as needed Rx for ibuprofen ( twice the normal high dose OTC) Used in addition to other meds for my chronic pain and to held with my migraines. I had horrible migraines Tuesday thru Saturday. Jus stated Aimovig for my migraines ( ALL the research even that of the makers of Aimovig say it can cut the #s of Migraines in half monthly after 4-6 months. I’m a mess. My migraines are awful. I get 8 pills per my insulrance for 1 month. My practitioner is well aware I stockpile. Because I get cluster migraines- & if I can’t take all thre ibuprofen, coffee, and 1 migraine pill a day- or if they are horrible I take 2. Add it up by Friday I had taken the Aimovig earlier in the month but had 1 migraine pill left. Despite orders from my eye surgeon 2 days post surgery I’m taking the ibuprofen, drinking high octane coffee, and taking my rescue migraine medicine and all 3 of my low dose narcotic pills. Interestingly enough for 15 out of 30 days it’s ok if I take 3 of thes low dose narcotics but the other 15 I can only take 2. I’m running seriously short because I’m not comfortable taking all three of the highest dose ibuprofen you’ll even get in a hospital. One eye is horrible the other had a procedure to stave off a tear or blow out in the eye that still sees. She has turned on all the lights in the exam room- despite her tech making it as dark as possible with 1 light on. My chronic pain in my neck and shoulders are awful- because of the post op positioning and the rest of my chronic pain is worse than usual. I’m crying because She’s telling me Aimovig is 100% effective in eradicating all migraines about 2 weeks after injection and she’s fighting with me telling me the person at my insurance co, after reading her referral for physical therapy won’t go far, if at all, because she never put in my conditions and why She, the practitioner, thinks it will be helpful & maybe more recent ( than 5 years ago) contrast MRIs would help. She had written the referral only stating that “ the patient wants…” And that’s probably why I got only 4 weeks 2 years ago. She says I need psychiatric help and meds- like she expects someone with chronic pain has gone off the rails- having horrible migraines and overall increased pain isn’t from the surgery, post op positioning, etc. She writes a 1/2 ass second PT referral- I ask her to put at least a 2 month date stamp on it because I’m not seeing well, have no idea whether this eye surgeon will have the same physical restrictions and in the summer- 2 botched surgeries in my bad eye, and I’m not seeing well at all- so seeing my eye surgeon again a few times might be required before I can get PT and would she like his name and number. She finally says, in not so many words, that at the beginning of Jan I need to see the pain doc. Then Tuesday I go to the eye surgeon- the sight in my bad eye is, no change, horrible but has gotten much worse in my good eye. He tells me the migraines are due to anxiety. He’s been an eye surgeon since his residency. Having been in the medical profession I know a few things. Stress and anxiety can make regular headaches worse but are Not the cause of migraines but the pain from one eye and the extreme strain to try to see anything clearly along with everything else- especially severe light sensitivity in both eyes can. I kindly remind him anxiety doesn’t produce migraines but the worsened sight, extreme sensitivity to light, head and neck positioning all together could. He actually agrees. He admits though my eye structure in my good eye is perfect- him lazering part of my eye to tighten it could have caused problems with how images and light are now distorted ( fine before the surgery) He never warned me of this and it wasn’t in any papers I signed. I have a call into his cell because at night I have severe astgmotism- the lights are crazy and the depth perception is gone determining how far away cars or traffic lights are. I got home, driving incredibly slowly and carefully. He was better than the pain practitioner. I admit seeing badly in both eyes is both terrifying and anxiety producing. But to be shoved into ‘ You may be drug seeking, you need psych meds, and your migraines are all from anxiety- Well it brought back every time I’ve seen a doc who dismissed my symptoms, refused to run tests ( that when they were run found a bio- physiological problem) & used the ‘ crazy lady’ routine. All because I wasn’t all put together and not complaining or nicely correcting them on centuries old- just put it down ( to quote Freud but still used by multiple docs today) as a hysterical woman. I know a man would have been treated differently in both situations! It’s as belittling as the old way men used to assume women were dumb when they went to buy or get a car fixed. Probably some still do. WHY? Because Ihave breast? No. Because it’s easier to pigeon hole. A patient than to listen carefully- a female patient! Uggh. Flashbacks and feeling like they’d rather disrespect me and my concerns and paste a label on me. Did you know Nurses get the most psych training in school and rotations before getting their RNs and it’s extremely minimal. Most docs and PAs will admit they got 1 day to 1 week of psych theory in school- yet they’ll still use labels they don’t even comprehend instead of taking 5 or 10 more minutes to HEAR you! I guess the 10 minutes per patient regardless is true. It’s been said by many docs and practitioners brave enough to come forward that billable hrs- seeing 3-5 per hr is what companies demand. What price are we paying as patients to pay for/ or part of our insurance and still have most docs pushing us out the door ? A lot! Unless you have premium insurance , a doc that can afford to listen, or both! What a flippin week. Just pray my eye surgeon either recommends what type of glasses will take care of my sight problemS. And I guess I’ll deal with the pain doc with kit gloves so my meds aren’t taken away or lessened and my Primary can at least write a Rx for me to see a spine and joint doc to get new MRIs done. Yeah I both need and want PT. It sucks not working and of course I didn’t get SSDI because I didn’t have people in my life then who knew docs that could get it for me- because that’s what you need in my State- connected docs! Thanks for letting me vent! I was doing well with ‘docs’ for a long time after a lot of docs who pigeon holed me and it took months or years to get the right care!# Doc PTSD Returns # between insurance reimbursement and the goats was on drugs we’re screwed # pray I can drive again at night!
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