Brief migraine update...

Well, our insurance company finally approved Botox for my wife, and she got the injections yesterday. The doctor injected the Botox in to several trigger points and nerves, hoping to relieve the stress and tension, and hopefully give her some relief from her chronic headache pain. He told us that it would take 1 to 2 days for the medicine to take full effect, so we are waiting to see. She has had a very sore neck, which is where the majority of the injections were, and she has still had some headache pain yesterday and today, but I am hopeful that she will see some benefit from this.
She is desperate for something to work because she feels like she is missing out on so much of our 3 boys' lives. She has, since school started, been asking the boys to tell her 3 positive things about their day at school and she logs them in a notebook. After they tell her 3 positive things they can also tell her anything that upset them, or that they didn't like. I enjoy seeing and hearing her make such an effort to be an active part of their lives. Their grandma bought them the new Lego Star Wars game, and it has been a great opportunity for all of us to do something together that we enjoy. It has been fun to work together as a family to complete the levels and find all of the extra items.

More Migraines

We went to the Pain Clinic again today and saw a physical therapist. She taught Nikki, my wife, some stretches to relax and loosen the muscles in her neck. It was amazing to me that the physical therapist knew which muscles would directly affect the headache based on where the pain in her head was. I can also see how these things that she is learning could help. The therapist explained that the part of the muscle that is spasming is actually just a few fibers in the muscle, she referred them to the trigger points. She also explained that stretching the muscles was important, and that it needed to be a gentle stretch. The reflex of the muscle is to relax when it is gently stretched. If it is stretched to much it can aggravate it even more. Which is difficult to find the middle ground, especially when those muscles are directly affecting the headache.
We got what I thought was encouraging news from her doctor at the clinic. We have battling with insurance to get Botox approved to help with the spasticity of her neck muscles, and her nerves that affect her headache pain. The insurance company told the doctors office that they should have a decision by this afternoon, but we never heard anything. I'm guessing that we will hear on Monday. The doctor said that once we do the Botox we shouldn't have to come twice a week anymore! We would only have to come in occasionally for nerve blocks using local anesthesia to supplement the Botox, sine they can only give the Botox every 3 months.
I have to say that I really like Nikki's Doctor at the pain clinic! He always has so much care and concern for her. It seems like it can be tough to find a doctor that genuinely cares and can express it. But I feel really good about this doctor. I know that Nikki is in good hands, and that he truly has her best interest at heart. Overall, everyone at the pain clinic is very kind, compassionate, and understanding.
I intend to get some posts up about my other boys too, but this is the pressing issue for us at the moment.

Migraine follow-up

Well, now that school has started again this is going to be very difficult for me to keep up with. The stellate ganglion block my wife got took her headache from a 9.5 to a 5 on a pain scale from 1 - 10. The only problem was that she had the pain of 9.5 back within a couple hours. She did seem to have a couple of decent days after that. They have since tried putting local anesthetic in the trigger points in her neck and around her eyes. This has seemed to help, but the medicine around her eyes caused them to swell a lot. Her eyes were hurting, which I think contributed to a headache. They have also tried a sphenal palatine ganglion block, where they try to block the nerve below your eye and just to the side of the nose. They go in through the nose to get to the nerve. It didn't seem to help at all. The clinic is now having us come down twice a week to see if they can help her. She will be meeting with a physical therapist on Friday, and we are hoping the insurance will finally approve Botox. She has met all of their criteria, and we gathered all of the info proving it. The clinic was going to submit the appeal in hopes that we would have an answer by Friday! I could say so much more about this but I have to leave for class. I'm going to add a link in my favorite links list that gives information on drugs and their side effects. I think it is very good information for anyone taking or frequently changing a lot of medications!