July 19, 2013
Migraine: Pain never really goes away
Halifax man almost gave up during the decade-long battle but now has hope
By EVA HOARE Staff Reporter
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| Sam Fried and his wife Cindy sit in their Halifax home. Sam, who suffers from chronic migraine headaches, has been referred to a Michigan clinic specializing in treatment of his condition by his doctor, but the government of Nova Scotia will not cover the $47,000 cost. (CHRISTIAN LAFORCE / Staff) |
Twenty years ago, Sam Fried was just like any other working father.
With three children, a lovely wife and his health, he was looking forward to a wonderful future.
But one day, sharp, searing migraines arrived.
At first, they were manageable. But as the years passed, they built up, forcing him to hole up in his room.
In the past decade, they’ve robbed him of much of his joy. They wake him every morning and track him like a laser, day and night.
“I’ve been in this really bad situation for 10 years,” Fried said in an interview from the Halifax home he shares with Cindy, his wife of 36 years.
“It started getting really bad seven or eight years ago. My quality of life started to go downhill about five years ago, and the last three …,” he said, his voice trailing off.
The 59-year-old, who works as a Xerox salesman, said he might have an hour or two daily when he’s partially free from their vise-like grip. But that’s only with the help of painkillers.
He said he writhes in pain when his after-lunch prescription wears off at about 3 p.m., sometimes smashing his head against the wall of his bedroom, hoping that discomfort will override the other.
Television and computer times are limited to 15-minute intervals because they make it worse. Other triggers are stress, anxiety, excessive heat and weather changes.
Heredity might be at the root of the headaches — Fried has relatives who suffered from them — but no one knows for sure.
He said there isn’t a treatment in Canada he hasn’t tried, from regular painkillers to Botox to acupuncture, massage and naturopathy.
Fried said he throws up repeatedly, and in the throes of the worst migraines, often wishes he was dead. That almost happened a few years back, when he attempted suicide.
“I walked into the woods in the coldest day of winter,” said Fried, sitting with Cindy on their living room sofa. “I didn’t want to come out.”
Cindy said, “It’s loss of hope at that point because he thought he was a burden.”
A psychologist helps, he said.
After enduring this darkness, there might be a new medical regime possible for Fried, whose Halifax neurologist, Dr. Allan Purdy, suggested going to a clinic in Michigan that treats chronic migraine and headache sufferers.
“We have hope now,” Cindy said of the treatments available at the Michigan Headache and Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor.
The doctors’ level of expertise allows them to find successful medical regimes that aren’t available in Nova Scotia, the couple said. Dr. Joel Saper, the physician who heads the clinic, is considered to be one of the best in the world in that field.
Purdy wasn’t able to comment on Fried’s case, citing patient confidentiality, said John Gillis, spokesman for Capital Health.
But in an online report, Fried’s family doctor, Matthew Burnstein, said the migraines his patient suffers are “among the worst I’ve ever seen in my 30 years of practice.”
“If we hadn’t had this, our future would be very bleak,” Cindy said of the Michigan facility.
The U.S. doctors are willing to take him on as a patient next month, provided he can come up with the $50,000 needed for treatment and travel costs.
Under provincial rules, some assistance is available for treatments not available in Nova Scotia, but the treatment must be medically insured. That is not the case in Fried’s situation.
Fried said MSI officials told him private facilities aren’t covered, here or anywhere.
He and his family were initially reticent about going public for help. Cindy said they have been so “isolated” in their ordeal.
They don’t go out much because they can’t. Fried needs a very regimented program to ward off headaches.
“Pain is a very, very private, personal experience,” he said.
“We’ve kept it to ourselves,” Cindy said.
Fried’s sister and a good friend, Harvey McKinnon, both of Vancouver, have spearheaded a fundraising drive.
Stopsamspain.com was set up in late June. The donations stood at about $17,000 as of Friday.
Fried’s sister Carol Ann said she’s intent on helping her brother, and she’s amazed at the money raised so far.
“People care,” she said in an interview this week from her British Columbia home.
Fried and his wife are also amazed at the kindness of total strangers.
“We have been so overwhelmed … by the kindness from people we don’t even know,” he said.