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I have a classmate who gets these, and she had to leave a lab once to go home when one was coming on. She was excused and nothing else was said about it. Once a year doesn’t seem unmanageable, but if they’re stress induced you may find yourself having them more frequently and needing to seek out solutions.
I can't answer the question, but as someone who has had these in the past, I not only sympathize, I empathize.
My experience is that medicine in general, and med school in particular, has very little empathy or latitude for illness in providers. The general response at my school for people who get sick or have disabilities is punitive. If YOU don't feel that it will put your patients in danger, I wouldn't mention it ever again.
I don’t think it should limit your options, but it should make you pickier about the types of programs and cultures you apply to. There was a student at my medical school who had severe Crohn’s disease with intermittently severe abdominal pain and bowel incontinence. She had a rough go in school and on rotations, but ultimately matched into general surgery at a program where she felt supported and where her peers and attendings knew to cover for her during times of crisis. Though if you really are only afflicted once a year, I don’t see that being a big barrier for you.
How much warning do you have that a migraine is coming on? Agree that if it’s rapid onset and could occur unexpectedly in the middle of a procedure, it could be a problem, but if not, you should be able to work around it.
I know this is going to sound like the weirdest thing, but I had a similar phenomenon, annual migraines, and it always happened in spring. Typically relating to one of the first days of the year I really got outside (I'm not one to spend time outside in the winter). The most anecdotal thing for me, is that I started taking vitamin D one winter, and in the middle of winter, and shortly after I developed an intense migraine. While not exactly a rigorous study, my mind wants to tell me that my migraines are related to vitamin D levels.
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Seriously what the eff how did it take 6 responses before get medical treatment came up? on a forum of doctors?
Are you talking like a visual migraine (one that starts in the center of your vision and expands with an odd sort of blindness)?
I get those, rarely, but they do occur and I cut out the idea of surgery because of it because they truly can happen whenever without notice and if it happened during surgery I would absolutely have to stop. Happened while I was gravity mountain biking once and let me tell you, horrifying experience.
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This thread is comedy gold
Because someone qualified to match into XYZ surgery, with aspirations to be a surgeon, had to make the difficult decision of moving away from it due to an ailment they have no control over?
ha ha
Also, these types of migraines (mine, not necessarily OP's) aren't helped much by medication, FYI - I personally still get them ~6x a year and am for all intents and purposes blind for 30-60m.
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Would you mind explaining this? How are they punitive?
I mean, that's funny and all, but realistically, the standard of care isn't the medicate annual migraines, at least not preventatively.
It depends on a lot of factors. For one, do they really happen only once a year? And if so, is there a trigger or do you get a warning ahead of time? Are they triggered by lack of sleep, which is a significant trigger to onset of migraines? Are they triggered by stress? Surgery training is brutal, with many sleepless nights due to call, and a lot of stress. So likely, you'll have increased frequency of these if you don't get a handle on them. And yea, they may affect your specialty choice.
Because the episodes happen only once a year, it would be difficult to assess the effectiveness of medication given prophylactically. And medications have side effects.... But it is a good suggestion that the OP seek an opinion from a neurologist.
I have migraines with aura about once a year. No known triggers, no effective treatments. I'll go blind in one eye, it'll last 20-30 minutes, and then it goes away. No other symptoms.
I'm a senior level resident in a competitive surgical subspecialty. It hasn't affected my performance, ability to take care of patients, or even been something that I feel particularly compelled to bring up. If you feel it would be safe for your patients, then I would advise you to just choose the specialty that is most attractive to you, whatever that might be.
I'm a senior level resident in a competitive surgical subspecialty. It hasn't affected my performance, ability to take care of patients, or even been something that I feel particularly compelled to bring up. If you feel it would be safe for your patients, then I would advise you to just choose the specialty that is most attractive to you, whatever that might be.
This thread is a real headscratcher
you might have learned in doctor school that people take medications preventively for all sorts of reasons
the idea that someone would allow a very treatable condition to completely derail their career aspirations without even seeking professional advice is tragic beyond belief
you might have learned in doctor school that people take medications preventively for all sorts of reasons
the idea that someone would allow a very treatable condition to completely derail their career aspirations without even seeking professional advice is tragic beyond belief
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Plenty of surgeons get migraines (or seizures, or *insert another medical condition*); it really just depends how debilitating they are. I get visual drag as my aura but have never had a problem getting through an operation if it comes on at work.
Well, we have no excusable absences. During a given block, for example, you can have two absences. If you have a "good" reason, ie, you are sick or had a flat tire it's not an instant ding on your file. Also, regardless of your "good reason," they are not required to allow you to make up any missed info on that day (so, for example, if you missed a quiz because you were in the hospital or at a funeral, too bad). After 2 missed days, every subsequent absence is a ding on your record. On the 3rd ding, you go before a committee and the burden of proof is for you to demonstrate why you shouldn't be thrown out. So, in a real-world scenario, if you took a day to go to the dentist and then had a flat tire one day, it's not a problem. However, if subsequently get the flu and miss two days, you are put before the committee.
Thus, if you have any extended medical issue like pneumonia or something, what you end up needing to do is take a medical leave of absence. However, if you take a LOA, it gets reported on your MSPE. So, if you have to spend a few days in the hospital from a car wreck and take a leave of absence to prevent getting kicked out, you still have to explain to every residency program why you have a LOA (or you could risk letting them think the worst about what it could have been for.)
The end result is that most everyone I know has medical issues that they don't get taken care of (GERD, broken fingers, rashes, etc) because we're all terrified of using our "buffer" for something that isn't life-threatening just in case we get a flat tire or need to go to a funeral. Actually, I know several classmates that have actually chosen not to attend the funerals of grandparents, etc, out of fear of taking up one of their buffer days.
For a once-a-year event that won't kill you? What doctor school taught you this?
So those recommendations for patients with debilitating neurologic conditions to take their medications to avoid rare events are wrong?
I'm calling all of my epilepsy and MS patients now to share your insight.
Debilitating is a key word. A visual disturbance for 30 minutes doesn't really seem on par with a seizure.
Edit: would you really treat this kind of patient with medication? Remember, this has also only occurred 3 times in the OP's life. How would you ever know if your medicine is useful?
It's not debilitating to ask the question, no. More than one surgeons has answered that for them and others a similar issue is not a problem, so hopefully OP gets the idea to still pursue surgery. If OP reads this thread another way, then sure we can consider it debilitating, and likely with an some excess anxiety.
Wow your school is harsh
I mean there are abortives, lifestyle/food changes, vitamin supplementation......there's plenty of options besides a daily prophylactic medication. Now if you want to argue that putting someone on a low tyramine diet or taking a daily vitamin for a once a year event is stupid, I guess, but another med student above said they actually crossed off surgery and I'm doubtful this is a line of thought isolated to 2 people. But the underlying point is that not seeking an opinion from a neurologist before making career defining decisions is undeniably tragic.
The post I was responding to was suggesting medication. I would not disagree with other options that have a better risk/benefit ratio even if it doesn't help, such a lifestyle/dietary changes.
So someone who is willing to take a huge risk going premed in undergrad, slogs through med school and takes on hundreds of thousands in student loan debt giving up some of the best years of their life couldn’t possibly consider taking a relatively low dose medication to treat a common health problem in order to realize their dream and not settle after all of the above?
Your posts perplex me.
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