Dangling...

My 14yo has had a migraine for over 6 weeks now. You read that correctly. SIX WEEKS. The neurologist we've been seeing doesn't seem to get it. We see him every couple of weeks, she's no better, he changes the meds, and nothing changes. She can't do any physical activity because it makes the pain worse. This bright, shiny girl who runs cross country and plays basketball and loves to be outside is gone, replaced by a poor thing who says, "Mom, my head hurts so bad," and can't stand bright light or loud noise. My heart is breaking.

The doc put her on daily meds that don't seem to help, so he increased the dose last week and PRESTO! There's a drug interaction and the side effects from the pain meds are much, much worse. Nausea and stomach pain top the list. So she gets to decide every day if she would rather have a vise on her head or a knife in her gut.

To top it all off, something is interacting with her birth control pills, so she's having a horrible period right in the middle of all of this crap. When she shouldn't even be having a period yet.

I called the doc when the latest trouble started. No response. His nurse even called me Tuesday afternoon to apologize because the dr wasn't responding. I called Wednesday, and he's out - and no other dr in the practice would see her. So we went to the ER, where an IV took care of the nausea and pain for a few hours, but today we're back to square one. The ER doc wouldn't change her daily meds, said we had to talk to the neurologist about that.

He has finally got time to see us this afternoon. In the meantime, I've gone back to the GP to get a referral to a neurologist at a children's hospital about an hour away. That's all set but they can't see us until October 1st. Which means I can't pulverize the current neuro just yet - will have to play nice until we can get away from him.

The last 72 hours have been horrific. Trying to be strong and calm in front of the kid. Resisting the urge to scream at receptionists when I know it is not their fault. Looking desperately around for someone to HELP US and tell me what to do. Fighting back tears of helpless rage every time I try to explain the problem to yet another doctor or nurse. Narrowly avoiding killing Hubs last night when he said, "She just needs to drink more water."

And, above all, dangling from the end of my rope.