I Made a Mistake

I will preface this with... I hope this all makes sense. I'm going to try my best to explain everything, especially since I know I was an idiot.

I woke up last Sunday, May 25, with a massive migraine after sleeping for only two hours. That's my least favorite trigger but I couldn't fall asleep until five a.m. and had to wake up at seven since I had work. I've had migraines for a long time so I just used medicine in hopes it would help. Calling into work wasn't an option with how few hours I get. Nothing helped it so I just went to bed early, right after dinner.

It continued to the next day. That Monday was Memorial Day, so seeing my doctor wasn't an option. After talking to my best friend and her seeing how bad I was doing, she said that I should go to the emergency room. Nothing was breaking it. By this point I had tried multiple doses of acetaminophen, ibuprofen, Excedrin migraine, rizatriptan and nonmedications including a dark room, caffeine, an ice pack, sleep, and trying to stay hydrated. I was also really sick so there was ondansetron (Zofran) in there a few times.

I talked to my mom about taking me to the emergency room but she said to talk to the on-call doctor at my primary care doctor's office. I called and spoke to a nurse who had the doctor call me back. She told me to go to urgent care for a toradol shot. I was hesitant since I needed a ride and I didn't think they would have toradol. I called and they had it.

I went there and they had it ready since it was only about five minutes after I called. I had it injected and thought I was having some relief. After getting home, I took a nap and when I woke up, the migraine was back. The time I had toradol before that, it worked. Of course it made me miserable. I tried to hide my excruciating pain but I couldn't.

I avoided getting help because I had appointments Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. My psychogenic seizures increased a lot. On Thursday, before therapy, I went from 0-1 to 4 while I was there because pain is a trigger for them for me.

After therapy on Thursday, when I was finally done with stuff, I went to the emergency room knowing I needed a migraine cocktail and nothing else would break it. I told them everything I have already mentioned and they did blood work, an ECG, and vitals.

I waited, after all that was done, to talk to the doctor. As I waited, some of the results came back. Quite a few things were abnormal so I was curious and did research as I waited for her. All of the abnormalities in my blood work pointed to dehydration and electrolyte imbalances because of the dehydration.

I was also having chest pain at this point. I didn't mention it to anyone because I'm always told, "It's just anxiety," so why bother pointing it out? I realized later on that medical gaslighting really affects me. I genuinely believed it was anxiety because of all of my other interactions.

I ignored every symptom I had, as much as I could, while staring at the wall.

After a little bit longer, the doctor came in. She asked about my psychogenic seizures since I had one when I was going to be triaged. I told her the important information, including saying, basically, "It happens. That's not why I'm here." Then we got onto the migraine stuff and I told her everything that I told the nurses an hour or so earlier.

She asked if I ever had a migraine cocktail before. I did about two years ago. So she told me what was involved in it and that it would be on discharge paperwork so I could let people know in the future.

The nurse came in with tylenol pills and ginger ale (to take them) and three vials... benadryl (since sleep is supposed to help), toradol (since I didn't mention earlier: it's an NSAID stronger than ibuprofen), and reglan (an anti-emetic, preventing nausea and vomiting). He also had a bag of IV fluids. He connected the fluids and gave me all of the medicines. I fell asleep after a little bit from the Benadryl for a about an hour.

The doctor came back about 30 minutes after I woke up to see if it worked and decided on what's next for the plan. It broke my migraine on day five. (I should have gotten help sooner.)

I was discharged since the migraine was gone and I denied any other symptoms, including the chest pain that I still had.

The next day, Friday, I got a notification, "You have a test result available," on MyChart. I opened it and it was the 12-lead EKG. There were sections with numbers that I didn't quite get what it meant so I did research and they were normal, until I scrolled down some and the results for one was, "Nonspecific ST and T wave abnormality."

My first thought... Shit... My heart is actually fucked up. It wasn't just anxiety.

I checked to see what that really means. I learned it years ago but since I don't work in a hospital, I forgot what it means.

One of the causes of it? Electrolyte imbalances. I was so dehydrated that my heart was fucked up and caused chest pain. To update on that part, the chest pain was gone after a couple days of being able to keep down liquids. So many issues went away once I was hydrated again, but that was the most noteworthy one.