The emergency room

It’s good advice.  If you ever have a “new” headache, new symptoms, or a “worse ever” headache, you should go and see your doctor right away.

Now I’ve never been to the emergency room for a headache.  Once, about 10 years ago, I went to a walk-in clinic, but that’s about it.  Last night, though, was unusual.  I couldn’t get to sleep, the headache was incredibly painful, I felt like my head was in a vice, and I was faced with the dilemma.  Should I follow my own advice, and check with the doctor – just in case?

By the grace of God I made it to the emergency room without having to use the handy plastic bags I’d brought along.  I was assessed, and did the paperwork, and then began to wait.

Seeing the emergency room from the eyes of a migraineur gives one a whole new perspective.  It’s like someone said:
What?  You have an intense headache?  Light bothers you?  Here’s what we’ll do.  We’ll put you in a room, where the chairs are designed so that you can’t lie down, only sit.  We’ll surround you with strange, loud and sudden noises.  We’ll put strange chemical odours into the air, and leave you without anything familiar.  Then we’ll make you sit there for several hours.  Later, just for fun, we’ll drop the temperature, and we won’t give you a blanket (instead we’ll make you wear a hospital gown).  And how about that nice intravenous gadget?

Remember how God created light on the first day, but didn’t create the sun and moon until the fourth day (Gen 1:3,16)?  Did you ever wonder where all that disembodied light from the first day went?  It went into hospital waiting rooms.  Now you know.  Those places are BRIGHT.

All in all, for someone with a severe headache to go to the emergency room is kind of like asking that person to go to the torture chamber.  After 3 or 4 hours, I finally got to lie down and see a doctor.  About 2.5 hours, two nurses, one doctor, time on the intravenous and two medications later, I finally asked to be allowed to go home.  One of those medications I had a bad reaction to, the second was to counteract the first, and in the end, I still had the headache.  But I figured that after all that I would at least be able to sleep, which was part of the problem at the beginning.

Don’t get me wrong.  The doctors and nurses did an excellent job.  The receptionists had the patience of Job.  I guess I have the Mark/Luke doctor perspective.  You know, Mark and Luke both tell the story of the same woman.  Luke, himself a doctor, writes,”She had spent everything she had on doctors, but none of them could make her well.” (Luk 8:43)  Mark writes,”She had gone to many doctors, and they had not done anything except cause her a lot of pain. She had paid them all the money she had. But instead of getting better, she only got worse.” (Mar 5:26)  You see?  They were both right!

Anyway, the point of going to the doctor with a headache is not so that they can ease your pain (which may or may not happen).  It’s so that they can rule out some of the very serious causes of headache.  Nevertheless, I hope that was my first and last visit.  It was a night to remember.  Too bad I was in too much pain to appreciate it.

After a brief sleep at home, the headache is mostly behind me.  It’s funny because other than that this was one of the best weeks in a long time.  You never can tell, I guess.

So I now have a new appreciation for people that end up in the emergency room with a headache.  It seems they have maximum pain with minimum treatment.  Somewhat understandable, when they’re sitting beside someone in less pain who is bleeding to death.  But headache can cause serious problems, and be a sign of serious problems.  Many now believe that migraine itself does cumulative damage to the brain, and may lead to stroke.  So take it seriously.  But consider a walk in clinic instead of a hospital.  And remember, I know what you’re going through.