Migraine
A/N This is set in Season 13 when Tony Gates is an intern in the ER. So, this is based off of my experience of migraines and I have googled and read up on as many aspects of migraines as I can, so should be accurate, though everyone experiences migraines differently so I guess it might not match everyone's experience, anyway onwards with the story. Disclaimer: I own nothing
Tony had been on shift in the ER for 8 hours already when there was a major pile-up on the freeway, he'd been hoping to get off soon and get some sleep but it seems he wasn't going to be in luck. He slipped into the lounge after he heard the announcement of the pile-up and got some Advil from his locker. His head had been starting to hurt for the last hour or so and he hoped that the drugs would be enough to ward of the oncoming migraine but he knew there was little he could do now. No one in the ER knew he suffered from migraines, and so far, he'd been lucky and not had any at work, or managed to be off shift and gone before anyone could ask him to stay longer when he felt one coming on. Today he knew that his luck was going to run out because there was no way he could run off when there was going to be so many people who needed his help. He knew the Advil would do little to help him but he was going to need anything he could get.
Tony forces himself back out into the ER to wait with the other doctors and nurses for the incoming patients, he forces the slight ache in his forehead as far back into his mind as he cans and drops into his doctor mode. He watches as ambulances pile into the ambulance bay one after the other throwing open their doors and patients bloodied and bruised swarm out. He hears Morris shouting to him to take the ambulance at the back and he moves around listening to the fast words of the paramedic taking in the information he needs and introduces himself to the young boy who is sat on the bed, shaking hands with the mother who is following closely behind the gurney holding her son.
It takes almost an hour before he is finished treating the young boy and his mother, he strips off his gloves and leaves the suture room heading back towards the nurses' desk. He scans through the charts looking for an easy case because the ponding has returned to his head and he really just wants to hide out with a few easy cases and slink off home to sleep through this migraine.
He's not paying as much attention as he normally does so he doesn't notice Pratt calling him until the other man throws a pen at him, it rebounds of his skull with a quiet tap and falls to the floor. Turning around he comes face to face with Pratt who doesn't look happy.
"You better not be trying to take all the good cases, you take whatever comes through those doors whether it's boring or not" Greg says to him. Tony knows it's probably just Greg's normal level of loudness but with the pain already reverberating around his head the sound of it causes a spike of pain to run through his head and he can't hide the grimace. Greg however takes this his lack of verbal response as an argument though and continues "So what are you trying to steal then?" he says ripping the chart from Tony's hands and looks through it. "A scalp lac not really what I was expecting but good, you take the easy ones and let the big boys handle the more complicated cases". Tony shies away reflexively from the other man and the pain his shouting is causing, but Greg just huffs and shoves the chart back into his hands and disappears off. Tony lifts his hand up to his forehead and rubs at his head shielding his eyes from the harsh light for a minute so he can collect himself together again.
"You know you don't have to let him treat you like that" Abby says from next to him making him jump, not having realised anyone was nearby let alone paying attention.
"Yeah, I know just not in the mood to fight back tonight" he says quietly not wanting to make his head feel any worse.
"You feeling OK? You look like you're trying to hold your head together." Abby says looking up at him with a soft smile.
"Yeah just tired and my head doesn't really agree with how long I've been awake, that's all" he says smiling back at her though Abby thinks it looks more pained than re-assuring.
"OK, well I've got to get back to it, but you know no-one would blame you if you need a break" she says patting his shoulder despite the height difference and walking away disappearing into the crowd swirling around the desk. He checks the chart again and heads over to the room where his next patient is waiting.
Several more hours pass before he gets another moment to himself and he knows this can't go on for much longer, the vision is right eye is starting to blur and sway slightly and it feels as though the right side of his brain is in a panini press, being burned and crushed at the same time. Worst of all is the nausea that has settled in a pit at the bottom of his stomach and is getting worse with every flash of light or loud sound. He's managed to keep his symptoms hidden for now but it won't be long before he has to run for the toilets and then someone is going to notice. He walks over to the main desk and looks to the chart rack, surprisingly it's empty. Looking around for the first time in a while he notices that the ER is much quieter than it was before, there's only a few people sat in the waiting room and the board is only half full.
He pulls out a chair and sits down for a second figuring that he can allow himself to rest for a minute. As soon as he sits down he feels a wave of exhaustion sweep over him and he folds his arm on the desk and allows his head to fall onto them, he sits there knowing that it's not the best position to be in since his neck muscles are already tight but the pain in his head has dulled slightly now that his arms are blocking out all the light. He stays like that for several minutes before he hears someone walking past him probably to check the board, the footsteps pause next to him and he braces himself to be shouted at suspecting that it's Greg come to shout at him for not working.
"You know normally people go to bed to sleep" he hears Morris say from somewhere nearby.
"How do you even know I'm awake to listen to you tease me?" Tony says not bothering to lift his head to talk, leaving his words coming out muffled but still clear enough to be understood.
"Well first I'm a doctor so I can tell that sort of thing, and secondly I don't think anyone could sleep in the middle of here unless drugged" Morris says. Tony knows he's not going to go away so lifts his head off his arms and starts turning to face the other man.
"Yeah, well I was trying to be the first but now maybe I'll go somewhere else" he says moving to stand but the rolling sensation in his stomach suddenly increases, and he can feel all the blood draining from his face. He barely catches the confused look on Archie's face changing to a concerned one, before he is forced to go and dash as quickly as he can dodging patients and other staff alike as he races for the men's room. He nearly knocks the door of its hinges as he shoves it open and drops down his knees cracking harshly against the hard linoleum floor, already heaving before he even has his head over the toilet. He doesn't have anything in his stomach left to bring up considering all he's had in the last day is the Advil he took before the pile-up happened, and so he's quickly left dry heaving which does little for the headache he already has. His head feels like it's splitting in two, he keeps his eyes firmly screwed shut and hands clamped on either side of the toilet to make sure anything that does come up makes it into the toilet.
He hears the door open and the noise from the rest of the ER floats in temporarily causing another spike of pain and he retches again into the toilet sure his stomach is going to come up if he doesn't stop soon even though he knows it's medically improbable if not impossible. The door closes again and he finally is able to get his heaving under control, he sits back carefully feeling his way so that he is sitting against the wall on the floor of the cubicle. It's only when he feels a cool hand against his forehead that he realises he forgot to shut the door into the cubicle, he doesn't bother to open his eyes because he already knows who it is.
"You can go away Morris I'm fine" he mumbles groaning softly at how nice Archie's cool hand feels against his head.
"Oh, thank you for your permission but I think I'll be the judge of that, you don't have a fever, how do you feel other than the obvious?" he hears Archie say. He becomes aware of Archie's other hand wrapped around his wrist with a light pressure over his pulse point and cracks an eyelid open slightly to glare at the other man. Unfortunately, the light that enters his eye spikes like a knife and he's forced to lean over the toilet again and retch. The hand on his forehead moves to his back rubbing in gentle circles as he heaves. It only lasts for about 30 seconds but it feels an eternity before he sits back again wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Yeah, not opening my eyes again, I suffer from migraines, so far I've not had one on shift but I couldn't get away and now I don't think I can make it home" he admits seeing no point in trying to hide it from Morris any longer. He's surprised to hear Archie getting up and walking away but sighs in relief when the lights flick off and the room is plunged into darkness. He opens his eyes experimentally and is pleased to find he can do so without pain, the light level is now so low he can only really make out the vague shape of everything in the room but it's better this way than with the lights on.
He looks at the Archie shaped shadow that has just emerged from another cubicle and goes over to the sink, he hears the faucet turn on and off quickly before Archie heads back in his direction. He sees a hand extending out towards him and recognises toilet paper in Archie's hand, he takes it and realises that he's wet it under the faucet. Tony wipes his face and mouth with the toilet paper before pulling his shirt up to dry his face, and throwing the toilet paper in the toilet. Archie leans over him reaching for the handle to flush the toilet.
"Might want to cover your ears" Archie says softly before flushing away his vomit, he complies glad he did when even the noise that makes its way into his ears still causes slight pain. "What do you want to do? I can take you to a room and admit you, you could probably benefit from it because I'm guessing you haven't eaten or drunk since before the pile-up so you're definitely dehydrated. Or you could go and lay down in the lounge for a bit and let me get an IV going and once that has run through you can come home with me. You're choice?" Archie says. Tony is surprised at the options, he hadn't even really expected Archie to care enough to want to help him let alone offer to let him come home with him.
"I don't need to be admitted, it's just a migraine" he says sounding more like he's asking a question, but Archie seems to expect this response since he's already rummaging before his pockets for something.
"Well then you're coming with me. Put these on, they won't stop it completely but should make the light manageable for you to walk to the lounge." Archie says holding out his hand again now that he's found what he's looking for. Tony looks at the sunglasses being held out to him and for once decides not to argue, instead he slides them over his eyes and braces his hand against the wall behind him pushing himself up. He sways slightly once he's stood up but despite Archie's hovering he manages to stay upright on his own. He turns to face Archie and waits expectantly as the man turns towards the door and walks over, he pauses just before he opens the door.
"You go through to the lounge and lay down, I'll come through in a minute" Archie says and turns pushing the door open leaving before Tony can say anything. Seeing no other choice Tony follows out into the hall keeping his head low hoping to avoid any questions about why he's wearing sunglasses inside. He makes it to the lounge and goes inside turning off the lights straight away, throwing the sunglasses on the table and flopping face down onto the couch, he lets out a breath and relaxes now that he's back in a dark, quiet place.
"Any particular reason you want us to sit in the dark?" he tenses when he hears Greg's voice from the direction of the table. He hadn't even bothered to check if the room was empty before he turned off the lights, he lifts his head slightly turning to see Greg looking at him incredulously and Abby hiding a grin behind the sandwich she's eating.
He doesn't bother replying and just flops back down to press his face into the cushion, his stomach is still rolling and he's not feeling up to arguing with Greg now. The door opens and he guesses that Archie must have entered the room as promised, his suspicions are confirmed when he hears the man's voice.
"Come on turn over, you won't get admitted so you're at least getting the IV" Morris says also not realising anyone else is in the room. Tony shifts and rolls himself so that he is laying on his back and opts to throw his arm over his eyes to block out the light.
"What's wrong why would he need to be admitted?" Greg said and he hears a chair scraping followed by footsteps approaching him which he guesses is Greg coming over to him.
"Well Gates here hasn't eaten or drank in at least 10 hours and because of a migraine that he neglected to mention to anyone has also been puking his guts up in the restroom, so I gave him the options of get admitted or let me put an IV in and he sleep here for now." Archie said and Tony can hear the smugness in his voice.
"So that's why you looked so pale earlier, I told you to take a break" Abby cuts in sounding concerned. Tony is starting to tune out their arguing in favour of slipping into the darkness threatening at the edges of his already limited sight, that is until he feels someone taking hold of his left arm pulling it out straight and he feels his sleeve being rolled up.
"Sharp scratch but you know the drill by now" he hears Archie say. Something wraps around his arm and he guesses that must be the tourniquet, and before he knows it he feels the sharp pain as the needle slides into his vein. He feels tape being pressed over the IV to hold it in place, and lifts his arm from his eyes for a second to look around and sees Archie's look of concentration as he checks the IV and both Greg and Abby look concerned hovering nearby.
"I'm fine, you guys go back to what you were doing, I just need to sleep then I'll go home" he says allowing his arm to fall back over his eyes.
"You're right in that count, have you taken anything yet for the headache?" Archie says and he can hear him rummaging about.
"I took Advil, but that was before the pile-up but it did nothing" he says.
"Ok I'm going to give you Sumatriptan which should stop the headache, but if you start feeling any tightness in your chest you need to say something immediately" Archie says and Tony can already feel the IV move slightly as the drug is injected.
"Well that's re-assuring" he mumbles to himself.
"It's the most effective drug for stopping migraines but there can be side effects so you need to stay here for a few hours just to be sure" Archie says standing up and packing away the equipment he had used.
"Fine, whatever" Tony says, he's starting to feel increasingly drowsy and wants to go to sleep now. He hears Abby and Greg go back over to the table and Archie leaves the room. Relieved that he's finally being left alone, Tony relaxes completely the pain is still there but it no longer feels like he's being crushed and fried at the same time and so that combined with the drowsiness he's feeling means he drifts off to sleep.
Sometime later he comes back to awareness out of the pleasant sleep he'd been floating in, to someone shaking his shoulder, blearily opening his eyes he sees that the sun is starting to come up outside so he must have been asleep for hours now. His headache is almost completely gone just a slight tenderness around the right side of his head. Turning his attention back to what woke him he sees Archie crouched next to him, obviously waiting till Tony has gotten his bearings again before he continues.
"I'm off shift now so I'm taking you home and you can crash at my place for tonight, well today" he says looking at the rising sun.
"Right ok, I'm coming" Tony says moving his legs round onto the floor, getting ready to stand but having to stop half way up when he suddenly feels dizzy. Archie's hand is on his shoulder pushing him back down again.
"Take your time, no rush, I'd rather not have to scoop you off the floor" Archie says. Tony stays sitting for a bit this time, before slowly rising to his feet, he looks towards Archie who is holding out the sunglasses with a smirk. Tony snatches them from Archie putting them on not wanting to risk the sunlight causing the headache to return. He follows Archie to the door and goes back out, he's pleasantly surprised to see the ER pretty much empty. Greg and Abby are waiting by the doors to the ambulance bay, he smiles at them getting smiles in return.
"You're looking better" Abby says looking at Tony who does indeed look much better than before only slightly shaky. Tony continues out into the ambulance bay.
"Yeah, I feel it, sorry about before I should have said something" Tony says.
"Nah, you got the job done and that's what counts, just next time say something before you're literally about to hit the deck" Greg says with a smirk. They all walked out of the ambulance bay together towards the el.