Migraines and Masks

On Monday, I attended the Migraine Clinic in Beaumont, and I swear that I am getting more and more pissed off with the whole situation. 

So it all started when I was called by a very young doctor. He was very pleasant and he took a detailed history of my pain. (I had to tell my fecking story AGAIN, despite a file a couple of inches thick was sitting on his desk.) Anyway he was bamboozled with the sheer amount of medication that I am on, and he went to get a more senior doctor. For the life of me I can't remember her name. There is very little the can do for me, and they agree that I may have a migraine element to my pain, but the root of the problem is Atypical Trigeminal Neuralgia. According to the Migraine doctor, I have two choices; another but different nerve block, and an adjustment to my medication. The latter is tricky, as there is a very real chance that my pain and my emotional state could be compromised, I will more than likely have to be admitted to hospital. 

I left the doctors office slightly deflated and a bit angry. I was waiting for this appointment for 18 months, and nothing came out of it. I am going to ring them if the Stereotactic Radiosurgery doesn't work. 

So on Tuesday I was back in Beaumont, but I was in the oncology section. Preparations for my procedure were underway, and I will say one thing. It hurt like hell. I had to get bloods taken which doesn't bother me at all. Then I had to wait (for 3 hours) for them to send me for the CT scan. Now getting any of these scans aren't pleasant. I had to get a plastic like mask made and that hurt like hell. I was in so much pain, I can't describe it. My face is painful all the time, the acid burning pain is a constant companion, and the electric shocks and stabbing pains visit regularly. If any one touches me, it causes me unimaginable pain. Pain so extreme that I need to yell out or I collapse. 

The mask is made of heated plastic mesh stuff and it had to be moulded to my face, which means the nurses and radiologists had to touch me. They were so nice and understanding, so I couldn't be angry. The pain is still extreme, I can still fell that fecking mask on my face now, and I know that the next couple of days are going to be really bad. 

This is the final stage before the procedure and I can't wait to get it all over and done with. I may have a low pain Christmas and that will be a major improvement on last year. A 20% chance of lower pain seems like a small chance, but it's better than nothing. 

There have been a lot of success stories, and I will say that the side effects are ridiculously frightening, but the chances of some of these side effects occuring are very small. I refuse to worry about it, until I have a reason to panic.