Ocular migraines, ever heard of them? I hadn’t either…until today. I signed off of here earlier last night because I got a headache that just was not going away and I was starting to get dizzy from focusing on my laptop. I watched some TV (Biggest Loser), took a bath, and went to bed. I woke up this morning with a lesser version of the headache.
About an hour after waking up, I started getting these circles that would flash and stream across my vision and out into the periphery. I checked each eye to see if only one of them was doing it but they were both doing it. Then, the flashes started getting worse and worse. At first I only got off my laptop, then I shut off the TV, closed the blinds and started at myself in the mirror trying to figure out what was going on. I didn’t have any eye trauma recently and my headache surely couldn’t be the cause of this. Or so I thought. I started doubting my ability to care for Brady and the implications of this vision thing so I called Casey and asked him to come home. He told me to schedule an appointment with our primary care doctor and he’d take me when he got home. From the time the flashes started and my vision started blurring until they ended it was between 15 and 20 minutes.
I went to the PCP who said she thought I was experiencing ocular migraines. She called me in a prescription of Imitrex and gave me orders to see have an ultrasound done of my carotid artery, an MRI to check for any vascular problems or tumors, and a referral for an opthamologist exam. Since Casey was already working from home for the day, I decided to try and get everything scheduled for today if it was possible.
I managed to schedule the ultrasound and MRI appointments back to back for 45 minutes from when I called. On my way to the appointment, the scheduling office called to update me saying they hadn’t received a pre-authorization from my insurance yet for the MRI but they were still working on it and to keep my appointment. I made it to the office on time (they have you arrive 30 minutes early for paperwork that takes 5 minutes, but isn’t that how it always is?) and while filling out the paperwork someone from the billing department came over to tell me they hadn’t received the pre-auth yet and I’d need to reschedule the MRI. I told her about the call from scheduling on the way over and asked if there was anything I could do to speed up the process. She suggested calling my doctor’s office (the one requesting the exam) and following up with them. When I called, the receptionist said they were already working on it but the doctor was busy and they’d have to get back to me.
The ultrasound wen very smoothly and the tech didn’t see any problems there. She also told me that she had two ocular migraines in the past as well and they scared her just as much. Before taking me back for the MRI, she checked to see if the pre-auth had been received yet and it hadn’t so I was asked to reschedule. I rescheduled for Friday evening when Casey would be off work but I’d still have to fight rush hour (the alternative was tomorrow night at 8:30 – no thanks) and then headed home.
On my way home I decided there was still a couple of business hours left in the day and I’d try scheduling my opthamologist appointment. I scheduled my appointment but when getting directions found out the doctor had not given me the number of the referral we talked about that was only 3 miles away, but instead gave me one that was 20-something miles away. I went ahead and made the appointment but was getting ready to call my doctor’s office again when the nurse called me. She said they had received the pre-auth and wanted to know when my appointment was and where to send it. I told her the appointment had to be rescheduled because it should have started 20 minutes ago and gave her the updated information. I also told her about the opthamologist office and asked for the referral that I was supposed to get.
When I got home I talked to Casey and decided that regardless of when the doctor’s office called back, I wasn’t going to go to the referral that was so far away. I called and canceled (to a not so thrilled receptionist, even though she knew I thought her office was located elsewhere) with the opthamologist’s office and as I was hanging up, the nurse called back again. She gave me the correct information and said she was faxing the referrals for the MRI then. Apparently this office does not have a sense of urgency (another reason we have considered switching PCPs). The opthamologist’s office asked me to come right over for the exam and although I was there for an hour (including vision and glaucoma testing, as well as pupil dilation) I got the all clear that my eyes were looking just fine and the opinion that I was having ocular migraines and did not need to be seen again (or in her opinion require an MRI).
If I thought my blood work (which I still haven’t gotten the results of) last week through my day off, this completely flipped my world upside down. I didn’t get anything done today and felt guilty for all of this testing for something that’s going away on it’s own (well, with a little help from Excedrin). Hopefully tomorrow will end up the way I envisioned today, filled with productivity and not leaving the house!