It had been a while since my last neuro appointment, so it was nice to go back last week. My migraines have been bad lately and since my Ketorolac expired and a previous neuro had prescribed it, I figured it was a good time to pay her a visit. And boy, do I mean pay...the specialist copay for my new insurance is $50. That adds up when you see a lot of specialists!
The appointment went pretty well. My neuro mainly listened to the headache/migraine update I gave her, plus some ideas I have. She's going to see if my new insurance will cover Botox (not getting my hopes up). Another idea I had was doing a spinal tap aka lumbar puncture because I've never had one and it's my hobby (more like second job) to rule things out. She was able to schedule it right away, but when I called my insurance I found out I'd have to meet my $1,000 deductible before they'd cover it (well, 80% of it). So far I've paid $0 toward my deductible. I left a message with the neuro billing person asking how much a spinal tap costs, but this lady is chronically unresponsive. My online research shows it's about $300-$400, so I canceled my appointment and moved spinal tap back on my "One Day When I'm Rich" list.
The other week after doing a big run (big for me being 20 minutes without stopping, and the other 10 minutes walking), I started having sciatic nerve pain, and I talked to my neuro about that. We agreed that I need to keep exercising since it may help my headaches, so she referred me to a physical therapist and now I'm doing that once a week. Luckily the pain hasn't been bad, but it's good to play it safe. And that copay is only $25.
Other than that my neuro appointment was fairly uneventful, but it was still good to check in with her. I still really like this one and hope to keep going there for a while.
By the way, my thyroid test (which was ordered by my gyno) came back normal. No surprise there.
I was talking with someone today and she recommended 5-HTP for my migraines. Have any of you heard of it or tried it? WebMD makes it sound scary, but if it works for migraines I'd give it a try!
