Migraine Medicine

Lenox Hill Hospital claims to be world-reknowned and score well on patient satisfaction surveys. Natuarally, the satisfied patients make less noise than the angry patients, but I did hear from one unhappy patient recently:

I broke my arm playing basketball Friday morning (both bones)and needed surgery. So I go to Lenox Hill and waited 3 hours for a room! Meanwhile, there were only 3 people on that God damn floor! OK, so I get up to my room and what do I find? Blood in the toilet! My orthopod promised me surgery on Friday so I went the whole day not eating or drinking. Meanwhile, I’m in excruciating pain and my surgery gets pushed to 10 AM Saturday. I spent 14 fn hours without food or drink, in excruciating pain, without an IV and anxious as all hell for my surgery.

And one other:

They almost killed my dad there after his heart attack. He was in the ICU and they accidentally kicked out one of his IV’s and he almost bled to death before they discovered it…

And this is where they teach new doctors…

Lenox Hill Hospital, on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, is a 652-bed, fully accredited, acute care hospital and a major teaching affiliate of NYU Medical Center. Founded in 1857, the Hospital has earned a national reputation for providing the highest quality care, training new physicians, contributing to progress in research, and offering innovative community outreach programs.

Here’s an interesting NY Times article about pole dancing. It seems to be decent exercise, relieves stress, and can make you a bit of money if you host the pole party (think tupperware party with poles and shoes for sale). pole-dance instructors are charging for lessons if you’re interested…

June - Herkimer, NY - February 2007 Four years ago I thought I had a toothache. I had dull pain in the upper right side of my face. I went to the dentist. No cavities, but an old root chip could be seen on the x-ray. He sent me to the oral surgeon. After more x-rays he found abnormal bone growth called exostosis. He shaved it down and removed the bone chip. It was the worst pain in my life! One month later, back to the oral surgeon. I had a cat scan, thinking I may have had a sinus infection. No sinus infection. Back to the dentist. X-rays detect another root chip, so back to the oral surgeon. He disagrees and tells me I do not need surgery. On my own again, I ask my primary care office to give me a referral for a neurologist. He prescribes Tegritol and Neurontin. Both made me dizzy and sick.

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June - Herkimer, NY - February 2007

Four years ago I thought I had a toothache. I had dull pain in the upper right side of my face. I went to the dentist. No cavities, but an old root chip could be seen on the x-ray. He sent me to the oral surgeon. After more x-rays he found abnormal bone growth called exostosis. He shaved it down and removed the bone chip. It was the worst pain in my life!

One month later, back to the oral surgeon. I had a cat scan, thinking I may have had a sinus infection. No sinus infection. Back to the dentist. X-rays detect another root chip, so back to the oral surgeon. He disagrees and tells me I do not need surgery. On my own again, I ask my primary care office to give me a referral for a neurologist. He prescribes Tegritol and Neurontin. Both made me dizzy and sick.

I had a couple of different types of MRI’s. Nothing found. Then the neurologist asked me if I cried a lot and I answered “no”. He says, “of course you do” and gave me Zoloft and said he thought it would help the pain. Still taking Zoloft, and still in pain, somehow I ended up at the root canal specialist. I finally begged the man to give me a root canal because my daughter’s wedding was coming up in Colorado. The man was kind enough to try it for me. Still in pain $750 later.

I should mention that all this time my family was worried about my getting addicted to the pain meds and kept begging me to go for acupuncture. I had one trip to the hospital after I passed out in the bathroom. Don’t know why – probably the combination of medications. I was missing a lot of work at a job I used to love. But now I was under a lot of stress and went to work angry most days. That was part of the state that I was in.

I decided to see a doctor that many had recommended to me. She finally talked me into trying acupuncture.

I had three treatments and haven’t had pain in three months now, other than a few twinges. At the first session the pain stopped in about five minutes after the needles were in. I never felt the needles. Joyce makes you feel so relaxed to begin with, I actually dozed off on the table. After four years…I finally tried acupuncture and so far I’m still pain free.

Thanks Joyce and Dr. Perlanski.

My family thanks you too!

Here’s a health blog that looks kind of like mine. If you don’t get confused between Health Salon and Healthspan Blog, then this is a blog I recommend.

One of the things I like about it is the practical information. For example among the nutrition articles we learn the benefits of common foods like olive oil, cinnamon, and iodine. Olive oil is also good for your skin, by the way. I use skin care products that deliver powerful antioxidants like olive oil and vitamin C right to your skin. Even my shaving cream has green tea extract in it.

Well Health Salon doesn’t have a skin care section, but they do have something missing from most other health related blogs (including mine). They have a section on the environment. Here they recommend something I’ve been meaning to see, the movie An Inconvenient Truth. Thank you for the reminder!

Speaking of controversies and conspiracies, check out this article on DCA, a possible cancer cure. There have been some promising studies but no clinical trials. Why no clinical trials? Because DCA can’t be patented so the drug companies have nothing to gain (finding a possible cure for cancer is not a gain to the drug companies) because they won’t make much money (if any) on DCA.

It’s a crazy world… Profit and politics rule our health…