Just Curious – 05/02/09
My wife Paula suffers from headaches. She has a headache pretty much every day of her life. Not just regular headaches but migraine headaches. Migraines have unfortunately become a normal part of her every day life for quite sometime now.
She has been to her regular doctor several times now and has been put on several medications that either don’t work or work very little. She has had several chiropractic appointments for adjustments to her neck and shoulders in the hopes of solving the problem. The chiropractor unfortunately didn’t help either, so it’s off to the neurologist.
Yesterday afternoon was her first appointment with the neurologist. My wife walked into the office, answered the normal questions asked by the nurse, provided her insurance card, filled out paperwork and was asked to be seated in the waiting room.
After a short wait, she was escorted to an examining room by a friendly nurse. She described her problems to the nurse and patiently waited for the doctor to come in. Soon, there was a knock on the door and in walks the doctor. He was around 40 years of age and very friendly. He put his hand out to shake Paula’s hand and she noticed that the doctor had a rather large booger hanging from his nostril. Paula explained her problem to the doctor and they discussed a plan of attack to stop her migraines from being triggered. Paula spent much of the time trying to NOT look at the booger hanging from the doctor’s nose, not laugh at him and wondered if she should tell him about the booger.
My question to you is….What would you do in this situation? It’s the first time you have ever spoken to one another. Would you tell the doctor about the large booger hanging from his nose or would you not say anything? How would you tell him if you decided to tell him about it?
Gary's World 
I’d probably say nothing but try & somehow get a photo with my phone/spy cam then write a great blog post. So my question to you is why didn’t Paula get a pic (pardon the pun)
I could not look at him long enough to take a pic.
Eeeewwww Paula. YUCK!!! I wouldn’t have said anything I suppose. It’s hard enough to tell someone you know to “wipe your nose” but how do you say that to someone you don’t know??
I could tell someone I knew, but not someone that I meet for the first time.
have you ever noticed that you can get almost anybody to wipe their nose just by wiping yours? It’s like a reflex..so I’m curious now if Paula would have wiped her nose if the doctor would have.
Ok to be honest with you. I can’t handle snot/boogers. I would have started gagging or something so I would have found a kleenix and handed it to him. Serious.
At least it was not dripping like the picture Gary posted, it was just hanging on for dear life on one of his nose hairs.
Oh I know…GAW Gary ..that picture makes me want to hurl everytime I look at it…I gotta scroll real fast!
Paula actually found it and emailed it to me.
I probably wouldn’t have said anything eventhough I know I should.
@ javajunkee, the relex action nose thing is such a smart idea.
I’d go “Dude.” and then put my finger under my nose, indicating him to wipe it.
Really? I think if the doctor had a booger and it was a first time meeting no I would look away,probably unless I busted up laughing and couldn’t stop then maybe. If it were Gary or Paula yes in a heart beat, I would say something. Paula Sorry to hear about the headaches;+/. That can sure make life tough, Have you looked into allergies I had one friend who was allergic to MSG and had headachedaily also another friend with Gluten Celiac disease. I hope you uncover the reason soon Paula.
I do have allergies but it is they are leaning more towards neck problems and hormones. I don’t know. I am just sick of getting around 15 migraines a month.
I hope they can come up with the solution soon! Pain is no fun it can make life really difficult. Neck and hormones that sure can do it. Sounds like they are after it. That’s good. Keep us posted and I’ll keep my fingers crossed.
I don’t think I would have said anything either. If it was my normal doctor that treats me, sure I’d say something. Just not with a first time neurologist. I’ve dealt with migraines my whole life. I would get them about once a month for 3 days on average, and it would just wipe me out. I did the whole doctors/medication/brain scan stuff myself and wasn’t seeing any improvement. About 4 months ago, I went to an acupuncturist/herbalist. I started out at a higher dose of herbs (not marijuana) and now take 1 a day. If I feel something coming on, I take 2 and I’m good to go. Hope Paula feels better soon, cause headaches aren’t fun!
Wow….I hope they find something that works that good for me. I had migraine medicine that was working but that is not working anymore.
It was probably a test… haha Maybe he placed the booger there just to see how his patients would respond.
I would have said something. Only because if it were me, I would rather someone tell me I have a booger hanging out of my nose…
I would have said, “You have something hanging out of your nose, it looks like a booger. don’t touch! get a kleenex.”
I hope your wife gets rid of the headaches soon. sounds like an mri and a ct scan are in order, should rule out an a/v malformation at least. Could be diet. Sometimes we are eating the wrong stuff, we like it, but it is not doing us any good. too much junky candy (as apposed to quality candy) gives me a stomach ache 🙂
I am surprised I have not had a MRI or CAT scan yet. They have been bad for around 4 years now.
Dear Paula, I am a retired RN.
You might also consider seeing an endocrinologist. Hormones are also a culprit, also any birthcontrol/synthetic hormones can give wild bad headaches. No adjustment of dosage can change that.
I just read an article discussing the “proposed universal healthcare”
and the impact it will make on qualified doctors, and the possibility of seeing nurse practitioners and PAs. It was mentioned that PAs and NPs tend to order more tests haha, that was apparently a negative, comparing to GP. I am not a NP but thought many times of being one…. only 10 more years of schooling
oooooops that comment was from me, signed in from my cats account.
Yes, Princess has a blog *busted*
LOL *BUSTED*
I will have to keep this in mind. Thanks
sp: –> opposed
I would just tell the poor guy. I would want someone to tell me!!!
Ewww, gross, boogers totally creep me out. Seriously, I’ve actually got chills from all this booger talk, lol. Hmmm, I can’t say for sure what I would or would not do, but, I’m thinking I would probably say something in a “round-about” way. You know, kind of discreetly direct the good ol’ doctor to his hangie rather than come right and say…”Oh, yuk, doc, you got this big gross green thing….” ha ha. Actually, my husband is sitting right here beside me reading too, and, according to him, he thinks Paula should have said, “Well, it looks like you’re about to have lunch, doctor, maybe we should reschedule.” LOL
Oh, poor Paula, I feel for you in the headache department, I get migraines myself and I get them often. It’s been years and years and still…no answer as of yet. Whatever you do, don’t give up hope, sooner or later, what you need to help you deal with them will “have to” show up. Good luck and all the best to you!
Thank you….I hope you get help with your headaches.
well, i wont tell him but maybe i have to do some signal like close my nose or something like that hopefully that he will realize something wrong has happen and he’ll try to find out where or why..or maybe he will ask me what’s wrong and i think that’s the right to let him know
ok I got a booger story since we are talking about them.
My bff is really really bad about this kind of stuff. If I were to show her that picture you posted she literally would throw up. I’m not even kidding. She’s got a low point gag reflex (which has provided me with a lot of entertainment in our 40+ years of being best friends)…anyhow
When my daughter was a just a little thing my bff and her son came over to our apartment. I had not noticed my little angel digging for gold in her nose until I see my bff turn green and running to the bathroom. I’m like “dude wth?” When she came back out of the bathroom she told me that my kid had taken her something..she figured it was a toy and it was a nice big juicy booger. We still laugh about that. It was so freakin’ funny. She NEVER took anything from my kids again.
That’s hillarious!!
I used to work with someone like this. You could just talk about certain things and she would start to dry heave. I LOVED fuc%&ng with her!!! 😉
that’s how she is…just mentioning the word booger could send her into heaving stage. Yep they are fun to fu*k with aren’t they!
OH yeah, FOR SURE!! LOL
I don’t know what I would have done! Probably wouldn’t have said anything, but I would be wiping my nose just to make sure I didn’t have one hanging on! My mom also gets migraine headaches and has been to all the docs and been through the tests. They came up with stress, food triggers and hormones. Her meds for her headaches aren’t working like they use to either. I keep telling her to get another MRI just to be sure it’s nothing else! I’m hoping I don’t end up with them:( Good luck Paula.
Thanks Sue.
Paula… Ewwwww!! You shook his hand at that! lol!
It reminded me of one of Jeff Dunham’s gags with peanut…
I’m new here but just need to comment on Paula’s migraines.I had to stop working May/08,one year ago due to continues migraines.I may have had a day reprieve here and there but it was constant for months.Ive had them for years but only a few a month,for some reason it got really bad.So this last year I have done all the tests and migraine meds too.Nothing worked.I am now on a antidepressant that prevents migraines and it seems to be working.I have a daily headache,but not to bad and I too do the massage etc for my neck and shoulders.I hope you find your solution,I know how debilatating they can be.I sure hope this med continues to work for me.All the best to you!!