I'm losing my faith in doctors-or Kaiser. Whichever (Migraine related-long)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I know, I know. It is shocking that someone would become upset with Kaiser- shocking! At the same time, this thread is entirely too whiny for the Pit, so here I am.

**My last doctor visit: ** I’m sitting on the exam table with my giant, swollen, tonsil of doom and the earache from hell, waiting for the doctor to come in and tell me I’ve got the bird flu or the cancer or something. Outside the door I hear a woman’s voice say, “Oh GODDDD!!! Why do I ALWAYS get the teenagers? They ALWAYS think they are SO sick when NOTHING is wrong with them.” Door opens. Guess whose voice that was? My doctor. :rolleyes:

But this time was magical. In fact, I’m seriously considering writing a letter to Kaiser (although, I’m not sure exactly where I would send my complaint).

A lil’ background: I have had migraines since I was 12- bad, bad, bad migraines. Migraines so bad that I have passed out, collapsed (my legs just give out), and even lost my vision for short periods of time (usually lasting until a few minutes after the migraine goes away). The one positive thing about my migraines (hey, I’m an optimist!) is that they never lasted more than 2 hours. Never ever. Also, the migraines have always been in the exact same spot on the left side of my head.
I was on meds for a while, but they made my blood pressure drop so low that I passed out all the time. I also didn’t like that I couldn’t control something that was going on in my own body, so I started learning about natural pain relief. I worked through my migraines with breathing, thinking, and apples (yes, really, apples- Og’s natural migraine cure).

**But this migraine is different. **

I woke up yesterday morning at 7 with a full blown migraine on the RIGHT side of my head. Not thinking too much of it, I drank some coffee, ate an apple, and tried to relax a bit. Throughout the day the migraine kept coming in waves. I thought perhaps I was tired, so I figured going to bed would make it better. No dice. I woke up this morning at 6:30 with a throbbing head.

Long story short, I ended up at the doctor at 7:30. The doctor came in and proceeded to yell (yes, YELL at a person with a migraine) at me for not just taking some Excedrin and now wasting her time. I explained my migraine history (she hadn’t asked) and I explained that Excedrin always used to make my head hurt worse. I then said, “And the neurologist I saw, and all the literature I’ve read, said that once you are in the middle of a migraine, OTC stuff will only make it worse. OTC meds only work if you take them at the beginning of the migraine.”

She said that was wrong and that I should just take some Tylenol, even if I was in the middle of a migraine. TYLENOL. (The neurologist had told me to stay away from anything that wasn’t specifically labeled “migraine”, as it would just cause whatever I had to be a million times worse). She then started walking out of the room, but I stopped her and said I had a final tonight. I asked if she could give me something for some temporary relief.

After a few minutes of debate, she agreed to give me a shot of Triptan. But, before she gave me the shot, she gave me this gem of a lecture: "You know, you can’t just come in and get a shot for every little migraine you get."

I again, very calmly (I don’t think a person with a throbbing head can be much more than calm) explained my migraine history and that I had never, ever gotten a shot- so clearly this was an exception of a case. I then asked if there was anyway she could prescribe me some more Maxalt, as mine was gone (Maxalt is an emergency med you take if your migraine is really bad. I probably used 6 in the last two years). She sort of rolled her eyes and walked out of the room.

The nurse came in, gave me the shot, and I asked her about the Tylenol thing. She verified everything the neurologist told me and apologized for the fact that the doctor was so rude.

So, in the end, a medical professional gave me medical advice that would have made my condition MUCH worse had I not known better. She also was terribly rude and condescending in the process. Oh and she never wrote me the prescription for the Maxalt.

Yeah, I think I’m going to write a letter to Kaiser.

And no, my head is only moderately better (not stabbing pain, just dull, sore pain). I’ll survive though, I’ve got a stockpile of apples :smiley:

2

Please please write that letter!! Everyone deserves better treatment than you received. And I was just reading today that patient feedback on doctors really can make a difference - here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/health/30patient.html (It’s free registration required but I think you’d find it interesting!)

I hope your migraine abates soon! Feel better.

3

I’m sorry about your migraine. I’m a rather bad sufferer as well so I know what you’re going through. That doctor was a total jerk; no one should have to deal with that and if you have a bad migraine it just makes it worse. I’ve never heard of an apple cure, but I must try! Also, have you tried biofeedback?

4

I haven’t tried biofeedback, explain please?

And the apple thing is amazing. When my 11th grade Chem teacher heard I had migraines, she came up to me and said, “Look, I KNOW you are going to say that I’m crazy, but next time you get a migraine just smell an apple.” I did think she was crazy, but I tried it anyway.

I smell the apple slowly, then take small bites… See, my teeth hurt when I have a migraine, so this makes my teeth feel better too! Within a few bites, the pain is usually decreased greatly.

5

I’ll try the apple thing next time I get a migraine, it sounds crazy but like it could work.

First, a link. Basically you learn how to relax the muscles in your face to try and make the migraine not as intense. As you prolly know, tensing up your muscles just makes the migraine worse. There is also a thing where you learn to raise your hand temperature. The theory is that it moves the blood around your head to your hand to create less tension and pressure in your head. It’s really neat.

6

Hope you’re feeling better soon, Diosa. Maybe writing that letter to Kaiser will be just the cathartic you need. Pour that migraine into the letter! I’ve gone through the same sort of thing with Docs with the same sort of attitude. And good luck on the final.

7

I too will try the apple thing, I hope it works.

I had a different sort of migraine the otehr day too - it started out normally I was really clumsy and everything then it started without pain. I had all of the symptoms with no head pain. It came later unfortunately but it was weird.

I take Relpax for mine, used to take zomig. Relpax works very well.

I hate doctors that blow off migraineurs. You can really tell when one of them had actually either suffered themselves or had a loved one suffer with one.

8

People who dismiss migraine sufferers, or say, “It’s just a headache!” should immediately be stricken with the worst migraine EVER.

9

Wow.

What an absolutely SUCKY doctor. I feel for you - my migraines have started returning in full force lately, and they are absolutely NO fun.

But that doctor really needs a kick in the ass. Sht, I walked into a Stat Care facility through my insurance company, and got a shot of Imitrex and a -prescription for Maxalt and Midrin - I couldn’t get into my regular doctor for a day, and by then, I’d have been on my ass . There’s no reason she shouldn’t have taken you seriously about your migraine - they’re nothing to fck around with.

Write to Kaiser, and you might even want to follow up with a phone call. Is there anywhere on their website that you can file a complaint?

Hope you feel better. I’ll have to try that apple hint.

E.

10

I totally agree with you guys but I think there’s another problem on top of the doctor probably not ever having a migraine (which I also agree with):

There are a shitload of people who call every tiny headache they get “a migraine”. I don’t suffer from migraines, thankfully, but I detest people who do that. They could have a very slight headache but they go on and on about “this migraine!”. People who do this help to decrease the mental image of how bad a real migraine is.

11

Ugh, what a bitch. Definitely write a letter of complaint.

I’ve fortunately never had a migraine that has caused me to lose my vision or knocked me out, but I have had ones that have lasted several hours, or a few times even up to 3 days. My doctors, thank god, take me seriously. I have a big dose of Imitrex I can take, or 1000 mg of naproxen (about 4 Aleve, the typical person’s OTC dose is 1 or 2 per day).

12

I’m glad we can all agree on two things: migraines blow and my doctor is a raging biotch :slight_smile:

My head finally feels better, but now my right ear is all plugged (like it needs to pop because I was in the mountains…but I haven’t been in the mountains) and I can’t hear anything. Hopefully this is a temporarly symptom, as I rather enjoy hearing on my right side.

I am going to definitely try to find an address for Kaiser tomorrow. Someone else suggested that I should contact the AMA; although this seems like a productive idea, I’m not sure if what she did was really THAT bad (or maybe it is- after all, she clearly didn’t know what she was talking about re: to migraines).

Thoughts? Ideas? Anybody wanna bring me some cookies?

13

I think you should complain. If you don’t it will burn you!

Last year my son and I caught flu - I took him to the ped, who did the throat swab which came back positive. Then we were sent down to the general section so I could be seen, and were put into a separate room. We both had high fevers and I couldn’t sit up straight by that point.

Dr BITCH comes in, does the swab, it reads negative so she refuses me Tamiflu, refuses to examine me further, tells me I only have a cold but to be be careful when caring for my child, as influenza is “easily transferred.”

I was so weak there was just nothing I could do, but afterwards I went in and made a formal complaint - how the HELL could a doctor not see that a mother with a kid diagnosed with influenza, with all the same symptoms and unable to stand, might just, oh my god what a shock, have the flu too???

I got an apology from miss stiff britches, but she also got a telling off from me and a stern warning to use her imagination in future.

I am still pissed off. Can you tell?!

14

The AMA isn’t a licensing association and doesn’t have (IIRC) any regulatory power - they’re just a professional association that doctors can join if they want. Not all doctors are members, as well.

15

I work small-town emergency. I see a lot of teenagers and a lot of migraine headaches. Lots of times, we’re the only place around here that’s open.

Working with kids is probably the best thing about my job. I like the teens too. But teenagers can be terribly self-absorbed. I saw one teenager with jaw pain yesterday, who came into the ER with six buddies and kept trying to get me to bump their friend up in line (past a heart attack and a digoxin overdose) because he had some jaw muscle spasm that hurt only if he opened his mouth. The teens are cool, but you wouldn’t catch a WW2 veteran saying he had a “tonsil of doom” or “earache from hell”. :wink: Teenagers often DO think they are so sick. Melodrama aside, I have seen plenty of teenagers who ARE sick – teenagers who (while previously well) have had heart attacks, bleeding inside the brain, major trauma, strokes, overdoses, HIV, life-threatening infections, swallowed barbecue brush bristles/batteries/coins, overdosed on recreational drugs/rat poison/Pogo dogs, yada yada. Can’t just assume someone isn’t sick who says they are. Lots of patients overestimate the seriousness of their problem, but this is hardly limited to teens.

Migraines suck for lots of reasons. They cause lots of pain. The pain is tough to treat. Lots of dangerous and terrible diagnoses present as headaches (usually different from the patient’s usual symptoms). In short, headaches are not a thing to “write off” lightly. One teen I saw with bleeding in the brain looked like a migraine headache, until you started asking a few more questions. The place I work in has no CT scanner, and getting one is a hassle, so one learns to be sensitive to these things.

Some nurses I work with dislike that I often give migraneurs Toradol and Demerol injections (in addition to fluids, ergot, oxygen, triptans, Tylenol and other treatments). I’ve never personally had a really bad headache. I can’t understand why writing a Maxalt script would be a big deal – if anything, it would reassure me the patient was less likely to be seeking narcotics. I’ve never heard about apples. I usually believe the patient when they tell me what makes their headache better, and often give them that.

I do disagree with the neurologist who told you a remedy needs to be labelled “migraine”, though. Plain Advil or Tylenol work well for lots of people. But whatever works for you. Just don’t assume ten pills will work better than two pills if the headache doesn’t improve. Your doctor should not be so cavalier about migraines. I have learned to take some terms “dizziness”, “headache”, “I just don’t feel well”… very seriously indeed.

Of course, I’m not your doctor, Internet advice is useless and I know nothing about Kaiser or American HMOs.

16

I should point out that, in fairness, I didn’t say the tonsil of doom thing to the doctor (I just wanted an excuse to make funny pictures in paint).

What made me mad is that she made the teenager comment outside my door and must have been yelling it to someone down the hall. That is down right rude and unprofessional.

I think what bothered me most is that I am 19, I’ll be 20 in less than a month. Had she looked at my chart and seen 20, perhaps she would have looked at me in a completely different manner and not been so dismissive of my symptoms.

Today’s doctor was a different woman, but- as you can see- just as dismissive. She didn’t even ask about my background or anything, she just told me to take some Tylenol. It wasn’t until I explained my background a FEW times, that she agreed to give me the injection (only after her snarky little comment).

17

Well, assuming that the negative swab is correct (I don’t have knowledge of the exact accuracy, but my understanding is that most viral tests are very accurate), then you didn’t have the flu. Around half of all “flus” are caused by other viral infections that will be refractory to Tamiflu. Given that a pretty large portion of the population will suffer from influenza or an influenze like infection over the course of a year, I would guess that it’s far more likely that you and your son just happened to have cooccuring illnesses rather than sharing an influenza strain that presented with a true positive followed by false negative test.

So, although this doctor didn’t give you the drug you had in mind (that isn’t terribly effective, especially once you’re to the point of not being able to sit up), I can see where she’s coming from.

18

In fact less than 50% are now AMA members.

19

Well, to be fair she didn’t know this at the time because it was in the process of unfolding, but my husband was taking part in a nationwide training course that was hosted by our town, and it was one place that last year’s flu epidemic broke out - the day after the training broke up people started coming out with symptoms, and they’d all been sleeping together in gymnasiums! Eeek. It was spread all over the country by the staff returning to their homes.

My husband brought it home and infected me and my son.

A different doctor later said that swabs often don’t pick up the virus if they are placed wrongly, but I don’t know the accuracy of his statement, or what exactly he thinks “often” means.

I just wanted the woman, who was very young, who looked at me and said, “Your swab is negative therefore you DO NOT have influenza” to make that small step of imagination and think, “Hmmm, her husband has been diagnosed, her son has been diagnosed, she has exactly the same symptoms, and they all became sick at exactly the same time. Maybe, just maybe, she’s got the same thing.”

As far as the Tamiflu thing goes, hub and kid got it that day, Husband was not noticeably affected by it but it certainly made a big difference in kid’s recovery. Me, I got it 24 hours later when my SIL took me to another hospital as she was so worried about me. By then it was too late and had no noticeable effect on me.

It would have been nice to have been given the benefit of the doubt…

20

Just a little update:

The first story I told took place a few weeks ago (it was my inner, right ear that was hurting, but the doctor said nothing was wrong).

Yesterday I went in with the migraine and my ear hurting, but the doctor just quickly looked in my ear and said it was fine.

Now I can’t hear out of my right ear and I STILL have the migraine. I’m going back in at 2 and I am not leaving until we figure out what is wrong. I hate being pushy, but this is under no cicrumstances “normal.” I’ll also be stopping over at member services to get an address to file a complaint to.

Bah, damn Kaiser.