To The Doctor

Well, the migraine cluster which I was whining about in my last posting here and later in my main blog, lasted until 7th January. Curiously it was brought to an end by a visit from my sister and her family (who, much as I love dearly, often leave me with a migraine the following day) and the first weekend of blue skies and sunshine that we'd seen in months.

I think the latter may not be unrelated.

Be that as it may all was then fine until 11th February when another cluster started. At first I assumed we were back to the normal pattern as in previous years once the big winter cluster stopped it was over for the winter.

But it continued and by last week I was starting to notice both a change in the character of the headaches (hard to explain, but they just felt different) and my regular cocktail of triptan plus paracetamol and codeine weren't really getting rid of the headache any more just turning it down a bit. Plus, and more worryingly, I had a new patch of numbness above my right ear to add to the other numbness down my right side.

This is Not Good.

So today I finally bit the bullet and went to see my GP. I was the second patient in and went in ten minutes early. I left thirty minutes later so that was his morning schedule screwed. But that's what I like about my GP: when you need the time he makes it. And he put me through the usual gamut of tests for (new) neurological issues and it all seemed fine.

As for the numbness, well sometimes things do change he said, even nine years out from a bleed. He was more concerned about the migraines clusters and the headaches. I'm taking far too many triptans (apparently I shouldn't be using them more than twice a week whereas in December I was using three or four a week peaking at six a week for two weeks). Over use reduces their efficacy, and switching to a different triptan won't help as they all latch onto the same receptor.

So he thinks I should see a neurologist. Earliest NHS appointment as it's not urgent was ... 13th May. That's eleven weeks from now! So I'm going private and he gave me the name of the man I need to see. I phoned the hospital and got an appointment for next Monday.

Which is good because so far today I've had one triptan (before I saw my GP) and multiple doses of paracetamol and codeine and at 9:30pm I've still got a bloody awful headache.