A Mega-Migraine in the COVID Times

I get migraines. Not often anymore, and rarely severe, so OF COURSE the powers that be decided to gift me with a doozy this week. My prescription meds weren’t touching this one.

Add to that, I’ve had a sore eye for about a week, which seemed long enough to me, so I called my doctors office to see if I could get a quick appointment - not realizing that a major pandemic victim was…routine medical care. My goal was to hopefully get something for the eye, and maybe an injection for the headache.

But no. Because guess what? Everything is a COVID symptom now. “Do you have pink-eye?” the receptionist asked. “Well, I dunno. That’s why I am calling,” was my bewildered response. Sore eyes are a COVID symptom. So is severe headache. And nausea. And chills. All of which are standard migraine stuff.

“We can’t see you,” the receptionist said. “You can go to urgent care in Brighton or Ypsilanti. I can make an appointment but it won’t be today.” Okay then.

I went online to the urgent care site. Walk-in wait times were…800 minutes. That is not a typo. I managed to snag a late afternoon “save my spot” time the next day. Then I also scheduled a telemed appointment for the same day, in the morning.

The telemed appointment was interesting, but needs work (text messages asking for insurance information with no identification of the sender - c’mon people). And I know you will all be shocked to find out that eye exams don’t work real well over Zoom. The nurse recommended an in-person appointment, and was impressed I already had one.

It was cold and raining when I drove to Brighton, loaded on migraine meds (don’t recommend this) and I gotta give a shout-out to staff. All of the intake procedures take place in the parking lot, they had to be having a miserable day - taking temps and oxygen levels through car windows, and handing out damp forms to be filled out, and excuse me but WHY BOTHER with the online check-in if I have to fill out the same damn forms when I get there?

Eventually, I was escorted through the back door of the clinic for a rather comprehensive eye exam that resulted in nothing more than “I think your eye is just dry, use more moisture drops” and the news that I could go to an opthamologist, if I could get one to see me, what with all my covid symptoms.

Got my frontal lobes COVID-probed with the 3-foot Q-tip. Results might take up to 3-days.

By the time I got back home, I knew the migraine was beyond help. I called my doctor’s office the next day - they still can’t see me unless I have a negative test result. You know, the results I won’t have for 2 more days. But they would see what my doctor recommends and call me. I was honestly hoping I could have someone shoot me up in the parking lot…but no. 6 hours later, I’m told I can double my dose of migraine meds.

Yes, dear readers, JUST TAKE TWO. It has taken 3 days to get to this point.

Which I do. And by some miracle I do not puke it all up. And it dulls the pain to “tolerable” which in migraine-speak is the equivalent of being hit upside the head with a sack of potatoes, as opposed to a baseball bat.

I need to state that this little rant is not about any of the medical staff - nor the efforts being taken to prevent the spread of COVID. I get it, I really do.

But my head hurts. And the message in all of this seems to be - too bad.