Day 26
A recap of my current migraine.
Migraine Update: Day 26
I answered on the third ring.
Scheduler: “Name, Date of Birth, Insurance the same”
Me: T Banks. 12/30...all the same
Scheduler: can you get here for a 2:15 appt.
Me: Yes.
Scheduler: i’ll let them know you’re in the way.
I had 42 minutes to get there.
No thats not enough time to call parat-ransit, No I can’t guarantee my uber will get me there in time.
Hazy, dizzy as hell, weak, head pounding i drive myself to the neuro office.
I get to the office: The schedulers who have never seen me walk before, because they are both new, had their mouths dropped to the floor as they witnessed me walk with my forearm crutches.
Scheduler : I thought you were gonna be in your chair.”
Me: I don’t have a wheelchairs accessible van and i couldn’t get para-transit, you need to call the day before.”
Scheduler: oh, well we moved the couch for you, so you could have a space for your chair.
Me (thinking to myself. In agonizing pain, “you want a fucking cookie!?”)
Me: “Oh look their is someone using a scooter who is using the spot”
Scheduler: “oh i see, well good”
_____
I get to the room finally,
Black Nurse: i thought you were gonna be in your motorized , so I moved the chairs
Me: (out of breath) thank you, para-transit couldn’t...
I nearly faint into the exam room chair.
My breathing is heavy, my eyes closed the room is spinning i see black dots, all the things that happen before i faint. I have POTS.
Black Nurse: you want me to take your Blood Pressure? I know it will be high because of the way you are breathing.
Me: go ahead.
Blood pressure: 151/88 pulse 106
Black Nurse: this is high but expected. You want some water? You want me to turn off the lights? (Turns lights down) how is this this?
I say no to the water then i ask for it, checking myself because i am shrinking my needs when my nurse is seriously offering some care.
Black Nurse: sure, I’ll be right back.
She come back handing the bottle through the door,
Black Nurse: Here you go, i hope you feel better.
Doctor walks in.
Doctor: ok i know you been talking to the nurses but give the spiel.
Me: ...
Doctor: We can do 2 things for you, a nerve block with no steroid, but insurance might not cover it. And a burst of gabpentin.
I say yes to both.
She palpates to see where is the best spot to inject into the greater occipital nerve,
Me: if i sanitize my hands can i touch where it is,
She hands me the sanitizer bottle.
I point to the spot
Doctor: Poke. Burn.
I feel the medicine instantly work. She has hit the spot. I feel the pressure leave my neck, down right arm. And down my right leg. It’s a cooling sensation i feel the strength to that side satt to wake up and come back.
We repeat me touching the 7 other injection spots.
Doctor. Poke. Burn.
Right lesser occipital nerve. Left greater occipital nerve, left lesser occipital nerve. Right eye brown,( inside/outside) . Left eyebrow, (inside/outside)
I start bawling.
Me: thank you, thank you,
Doctor: Im glad you could get it. You’re lucky.
Doctor: sign this consent form, you understand you will have to pay out of pocket if insurance doesn’t cover it.
I sign.
I ask for an ice pack.
I get my sticks, disoriented from the pressure relieved and still suffering the neuro cognitive effects of a complicated hemiplegic migraine, with vestibular complications.
I wobble to the waiting room. Wobble to the car. Drive through the city to pick up the gabapentin. The lights hurt so bad as i wait in line and at stop lights.
I pray I don’t have a seizure. Or throw up.
Insurance does not approve the medication (gabapentin). So they put the medication back on the shelf. And ask me to wait 20 minutes to fill it.
I get a burger. I am no longer to nauseous to eat, i am so hungry its been over 24 hrs since i could eat.
I get back in line. I pay out of pocket, i speed off.
I get home, i collapse into my powerchair, i roll down the hallways.
I sleep, wake up take medicine. Repeat.
Day 26: of the same migraine. I still fill it in the distant background, it is manageable.
I am writing this in-between a quasi drugged and altered state, all of the madness sits here, i work through all the trauma of day to get care, the calls everyday for 6 days to see someone, anyone, the casual ableism, as they want me to know the effort and inconvenience it was to make room and space for me, and the astonishment that i am walking.
But grateful i had access. So many things made that Krip Grit possible. Thank you God, thank you to my TransKrip Ancestors who made a pathway through for me today.
I rest now. I sleep now.
#uneditedthoughts #LnuWrites2026