Reached the breaking point.

I’m extremely worried about Doc. He’s had a rather intense headache (not sure if it’s cluster, he says it’s on the wrong side and feels more like a migraine with light sensitivity and all that) for eleven days straight with no break. For the past couple of days it was slowly getting less intense, but as of yesterday it’s getting worse again. Last night he came to bed at 3:30 a.m. and, as he said, barely felt human. He was whimpering in pain, he couldn’t go completely to sleep yet he couldn’t stay completely awake. I could barely understand his speech.

I’m worried that something has happened, physically, in his brain. I don’t know what exactly, but I think someone needs to take some scans or something to see if they can figure out what’s going on. In addition to the 24-hours-a-day pain, he’s been experiencing double vision and light sensitivity. The thought that something might be growing/breaking/bursting in there is freaking me right the fuck out.

His doctor was out of town last week and his office called in a prescription for him, which of course did almost nothing, and certainly didn’t treat the CAUSE of the headaches, whatever it may be. It was basically just Tylenol with barbituates, so it dulled the pain a little but made him feel “stupid” and zombie like.

His sleep doctor recommended he call a local neurologist, who turned out to be Stuart Black, a world renowned headache specialist. Of course, Dr. Black doesn’t have any appointments until August 2008 (yes, that is a year from now) and the other doctor in his practice is booked up for the next 3 weeks.

What is a person who is in acute chronic pain like this supposed to do in the meantime? What if something horrible is happening? We’re just supposed to wait? Doc’s had bad experiences in emergency rooms before, where they tell him he has a headache and to take some painkillers and go home. I’m not sure it would be any different this time, but I’m at the point where I’m seriously considering taking him in anyway, despite his protests of “they won’t do anything, so why bother?”.

I don’t know what to do. He’s reached the end of his very frayed rope, both physically and emotionally. I’m close to that point. I’m trying to hold it together for both of us but it’s hard.