THE SOLUTION OF MY MIGRAINE PROBLEM

In October of 2004, in a very stressful meeting with some angry folk in my Victoria church, I suddenly lost much of the vision in my left eye and it subsequently began to ache. The next morning, however, everything was fine and the problem didn’t recur. I treated it as a one-off and thought no more about it. Then, about two years later, in September of 2006, in another very stressful meeting with the Church Board, the same thing happened. I left the meeting immediately and went to Emergency. They checked me out, ordered a bunch of tests, and over the next week or so concluded that I had a stress induced migraine condition. The migraines, they assured me, were not as significant as the stress. I went on stress leave immediately and by January of 2007 had resigned my position as pastor. And by June we had returned to Edmonton.

Over the next few years the stress problems, which were very real, gradually subsided, but the migraines continued at intervals. Every few weeks I would have a visual incident, usually in the evening and in my left eye. My vision would blur and halos would appear around light sources. These were seldom accompanied by headache, but I was assured they were migraines nonetheless. – Though migraines generally manifest as headaches, they can also be visual, auditory or even olfactory (smell), with no accompanying pain. – There wasn’t much to be done, so I set about learning to live with them.

By the time we moved out here to North Bay (May 2011) these were becoming weekly occurrences and more severe. There was often pain now, and because they usually happened in the evening our social life was considerably impaired. By October of 2012 they’d become almost daily occurrences and I had become quite accustomed to going to bed by 8 or 9pm.

I managed to get through the 2012 Christmas season but in January of this year, the 15^th to be exact, I finally went to Emergency with the worst pain I’ve ever experienced. I checked in at about 6am, and by 11am had had laser surgery for glaucoma. On the 18^th I had another laser surgery session in the ophthalmologist’s office. And that was the end of my “migraines”. I use eye drops daily now, and have had no reoccurrence of the problem.

I’ve learned several things from this experience:

1. Diagnosis is difficult. The type of glaucoma I have is acute angle glaucoma, and the attack I experienced (in dim light, under stress) is classic for this form of the disease, but no one treating me ever thought to check my eyes. Why? Probably because this condition is rare among Caucasians, rare in men, and runs in families. As a white male with no family history I’m perfectly positioned to be missed.

2. Misdiagnosis is worse than no diagnosis. If they simply hadn’t been able to figure me out I’d have been better off, but because they told me I had migraines, and had reasonable answers for all the probing questions I could think of, I spent seven years coping with a problem I didn’t have, and getting no treatment for the one I had.

3. Good health is a very good thing. I can see all day again. I can do things in the evening: watch a movie, read a book, drive the car and stay up late. Going to bed at night has become, once more, a matter of self-discipline, but that’s a condition I’m willing to cope with.

There are two kinds of people in the world, the disabled and the not yet disabled. I am grateful to be one of the former for the time being. Just one more reminder of how much I have to be thankful for.