Learning to Stand Up For Myself (Thanks to my Sister)

Today started as a bad day. For starters, my house has no electricity, due to recent storms. Luckily, my sister, who lives five minutes away has electricity, so I've been staying with her.  Unfortunately, my migraine is still on going. 

I woke up today at 4:45 am with increased head pain. I stayed up until about 11 am, then headed back upstairs to take a nap. Ten minutes later my sister woke me up. It turns out that my mom asked my sister to check our voice mails online, since we have no service right now on our home phone. One of those messages was for me, and it was not good news. 

I am due to go into Methodist Inpatient Headache Unit on Tuesday the 30th to try and get rid of this migraine. However, the message for me was the woman who schedules the inpatient unit and she called to tell me I would have to be rescheduled because they are short staffed this week. Naturally, I was horrified. I immediately called her back, but I got her voice mail. I left a message, then called the Headache Center's front desk (they told me I had to speak to the woman who left the message) and I called the headache unit at Methodist (they told me they didn't know anything about it). An hour later, I received a call back from the scheduler. She told me I would be pushed back a week. When I repeated what she said, my sister, who was in the kitchen, made a horrified face, like o.O. She was so mad on my behalf that I thought she was going to bitch slap someone, and since I was the only one there...(I'm kidding of course. Not about the face, but about the slapping. Moving on now).

Anyway, I explained to the woman that I had tried four different medication bridges and an infusion and they all failed. She suggested I go to the ER but, as I told her, my local ER only gives me narcotics, which make me feel worse once they wear off. I was nice, but firm when I told her all of this. I am particularly proud of myself for not backing down, because usually, I'm a pushover. Eventually, she put me on hold to speak with my doctor. When she came back, she informed me that they were going to keep my original inpatient date of Tuesday the 30th.

I cannot sufficiently explain how grateful I am that I will be going in on Tuesday. I also cannot explain how proud I am of myself that I did not back down. I find it very hard not to do so, but my sister recently told me that I am too nice and I need to learn to stand up for myself. So I took her words to heart and did what I needed to do. 

So while I would not call today a good day, I no longer consider it a bad one either. Here's hoping Tuesday comes quickly and I get some relief soon!