A woman in New Orleans, Louisiana, has suffered from chronic, and debilitating, headache pain her entire life. A brand new form of treatment has been discovered, and it is the first thing that has taken away her pain. Her health insurance refuses to cover it, which means she is being denied this important and effective treatment.
Alicia Lissard – Easley has lived her entire life in terrible pain. She says it started when she was four years old. She recalls having headaches that were so painful that they caused her to throw up and to pass out. Imagine going through that type of pain as a pre-schooler!
The pain never really went away. By the time she was in her 20’s, she had already tried pain medications, migraine medications, and injections as a form of treatment. Nothing worked. She has spent a lot of time in the emergency room, and in the hospital. At times, she truly thought she would die from the amount of pain she was in. She is now 39, and still suffering from chronic, severe, headache pain.
What she was experiencing was more extreme than what happens to people who have migraines. People who are experiencing a migraine headache can also have extreme pain. The pain might be on only one side of their head, and it might pulse or throb. Migraines often include a sensitivity to light, sounds, and smells. Other symptoms could blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. It can include lightheadedness, which can be followed by fainting.
Both migraines, and the more extreme headaches that Alicia Lissard – Easley experiences, share some side effects. The pain causes people to miss work, which can have a negative effect on their careers. It also causes people to withdraw from social activities, which can make it difficult to make friends and maintain relationships. Both groups have to deal with situations where people do not believe that they are experiencing pain, mostly because the person appears healthy.
She is seeing a neurologist named Dr, Erich Richter. He used a piece of technology to help take away her pain. It is a small device that uses electrical impulses to block pain signals. She wore a temporary external stimulator that blocks specific problem nerves from receiving pain signals for two weeks. It worked! The next step would be to replace the temporary device with a permanent implant.
Unfortunately, her health insurance company, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Louisiana, refused to cover the cost of the permanent implant. The temporary one cannot be used forever. The neurologist had to shut it off. The next step usually would be that the patient receives the permanent implant. But, due to Blue Cross Blue Shield’s refusal to cover it, the result for Alica Lissard – Easley is that her pain will instantly return.
The insurer is calling it an “experimental treament”, and is using that excuse to deny coverage. The cost of the implant will be much less than the medication and visits to the ER that she will require in the upcoming year without the implant.