Morning all (or afternoon/evening/etc)

I'm trying to find some advice about negotiating some serious deadlines I have coming up. I am a 13 year cluster sufferer (episodic) and have thus far managed to meet most of my obligations in day to day life for the most part. However, I am a PhD student coming up on my qualifying exams in the first week in April. Herein lies the problem.

The exams are 5 days of writing done from home which last 9 hours per day. During that time we are asked analytic and theoretical questions on which we are expected to write 30-40 pages of critical essays per day. The exams themselves wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the cycle ramping up as we speak...

I put the exams off in the fall of 2010 due to a 10 week headache cycle, and then was further delayed by committee sabbaticals the following 2 semesters. There is no way I can live in poor PhD (monetarily) student status anymore and putting my exams off again is a non-starter. To get to the crux of my issue, I have no idea how to ask for some special concessions while writing.

My physician has already contacted my advisor once and explained the nature of the illness when my committee chair questioned "why I couldn't write and defend my exams with a migraine?". I think that given some extra time I will be able to write, but seeing as that week will be right when I am going into the worst 2 weeks of my cycle there is no way I will be able to write continuously for 9 hours without interruption by my old arch-nemesis. O2 usually shortens and/or aborts to some degree but that doesn't remedy the time it takes (about 25 mins) after the pain has subsided to scrape myself up off the floor and resume functioning. Not to mention the sleepless nights when the O2 is far less effective.

I guess what I am asking is if any of you have had similar issues and found a way to negotiate them, or if there are any resources y'all could send my way to help me build a strategy to speak with my advisor and my committee?

Any advice would be great! And thanks so much for all the support over the years! I may be pretty quiet on the discussion boards, but I follow the threads and the supporters threads have been so helpful to my husband and kids!

Alissa

Hi Kevin,

As a matter of fact, I went on Verapamil this summer when I started feeling shadows (5 months before I expected another cycle) and it seemed to hold the cycle at bay until the last couple of weeks. I'm still taking them and this is the first time I've had a cycle while on the prophylactic so I'm not sure if they'll shorten it or lessen the severity of the headaches. So far this round is ramping up no differently than any other,but we'll see.

I have an appt with the Doc to see if we can up the dose, but it's complicated due to the fact that I have really low BP and a slight heart arrhythmia.

The early headaches aren't so bad, relatively manageable and short in duration, so I can still study relatively productively.

Have you ever used Verapamil? I was also on propranolol for a stretch, but I couldn't take a high enough dose to be effective without passing out and falling over all the time. I don't know of any other meds that might lessen this cycle, do you?

Thanks for the reply!
Alissa

Quote:


Verapamil has been effective for me.  I can cruise sometimes at 240mg a day, sometimes 360, but there have been times 480 is required.  For short durations, when needed during intense times 640, 720, and once around 900 were needed.  Chronic, like cycles, can have their strong and weak times. 

Consistent breakthroughs signal a more intense bout happening and has needed an increase in preventive measures for a while, gradually increasing and tapering slowly afterwards.  One size does not fit all.

I may not understand the exam format but would it help to have one of those voice to text programs so you just dictate your essay?

You could also look at the top of the Getting to Know Ya board for a thread called "Letter to Employers & Colleagues". Might help.