It Gets Worse

(continued...) My brain episode problems became so bad that I decided to seek medical attention. Again, it had not occurred to me up to this point that this might be related to my heart problem. I went to my family doctor and told him what had been happening.

My doctor didn't know what it was and had never actually heard of anything like that before, but he said it was probably nothing to worry about (easy for him to say!). I didn't understand how he could not know what it was, but say I shouldn't worry about it. Shouldn't we figure out what it is? He prescribed me lexapro and sent me on my way.

Lexapro? Are you serious? That's what the other doctor put me on a few years earlier for my heart. What, are these guys getting paid by the prescription? As it turns out, yes they are. I took the lexapro for a month or two and went off of it. It's not doing anything about my problem, its just making me care less.

I sought the attention of a neurologist. It took several months to get an appointment, but I finally got in and was able to describe my symptoms to her. She had never heard of anything like what I was experiencing but said the repeated, hard to describe brain episodes are usually seizures. She scheduled me for a EEG (like an EKG but for your brain) to see if everything in my mind was running okay. I'm not sure how EEG's work, but it seemed like we wouldn't really accomplish anything unless I had an episode while they were monitoring me - an event which seems highly unlikely.

About this time I was running into another problem. How was I going to pay for all this? My insurance sucks and has high co-pays and deductibles. I was going to have to pay for the test out of my own pocket. What's worse, and this is a problem I run into for every medical procedure, nobody could tell me how much it would cost. Doctors do not have prices for things up front, their assistants don't know anything, and the insurance company has no idea either. So I'm supposed to go ahead with the test and just wait for the bill.

I eventually learned that such a test would probably cost me $500 or more. I began thinking very carefully about how I wanted to proceed.

I began thinking of the possibility that maybe a heart problem was the source of my head issues. Perhaps they could be explained by a sudden drop in blood pressure or a sudden surge in blood pressure. I went back to my family doctor and asked him. He seemed to think that could be a possibility and ran an EKG. He also referred me to a cardiologist.

So now I had before me two choices: proceed with investigating my heart, or proceed with investigating my brain. I really can't afford to do both. I'm already going into debt, I simply can't pay a lot of these bills.

I decide to investigate the heart issues, since I've already been having known heart problems for so long. I cancelled my appointment for the EEG.