Day 7: Health Activist Choice! - Headache Update
Write
about what you want today.
In light of my haiku post yesterday, I thought I should do an update on my headache status. I first wrote about the daily headaches I've been having since the beginning of last year, in February 2012 on Another ICI Diagnosis.
Since that blog post, my neurologist has taken back the migraine diagnosis.
I don't have any aura or visual disturbances ever, throbbing pain is rare for me, I have occasional nausea but never any vomiting, rare and then only mild sensitivity to light and/or sound. So you can see I'm missing most of the major symptoms of migraine. I do occasionally have piercing pain on one side/temple.
I just have a headache, i.e. pain in my head, almost every day. It's usually an actual ache and it's usually at least a level 4 on this Comparative Pain Scale, sometimes a 5 or 6 but never more severe than that. Thank heaven for small favors.
So the neurologist is thinking maybe it's low cerebral spinal fluid pressure and I'm scheduled to have an MRI this month to see about that possibility. But there are a lot of symptoms of low CSF pressure that I don't have also.
I was able to start seeing an endocrinologist recently, and she's thinking maybe it's an anterior pituitary disorder. I'll be having some blood work done this month to see about that.
In the meantime I have a level 4 or above headache almost every day and I can only take pain medicine for it 3 or 4 times a week because of the possibility of rebound, or medication over-use, headaches developing. In addition, every medicine I was taking for pain including Tylenol and the muscle relaxer Flexeril, seems to be triggering even worse headache pain. NSAIDs cause nausea even when taken with food. So I can't take anything for pain.
On a more positive note, as a result of being unable to take meds I've been doing other things like gentle yoga or water exercise when possible, meditation for pain relief, and using ice and rest.
Since that blog post, my neurologist has taken back the migraine diagnosis.
I don't have any aura or visual disturbances ever, throbbing pain is rare for me, I have occasional nausea but never any vomiting, rare and then only mild sensitivity to light and/or sound. So you can see I'm missing most of the major symptoms of migraine. I do occasionally have piercing pain on one side/temple.
I just have a headache, i.e. pain in my head, almost every day. It's usually an actual ache and it's usually at least a level 4 on this Comparative Pain Scale, sometimes a 5 or 6 but never more severe than that. Thank heaven for small favors.
So the neurologist is thinking maybe it's low cerebral spinal fluid pressure and I'm scheduled to have an MRI this month to see about that possibility. But there are a lot of symptoms of low CSF pressure that I don't have also.
I was able to start seeing an endocrinologist recently, and she's thinking maybe it's an anterior pituitary disorder. I'll be having some blood work done this month to see about that.
In the meantime I have a level 4 or above headache almost every day and I can only take pain medicine for it 3 or 4 times a week because of the possibility of rebound, or medication over-use, headaches developing. In addition, every medicine I was taking for pain including Tylenol and the muscle relaxer Flexeril, seems to be triggering even worse headache pain. NSAIDs cause nausea even when taken with food. So I can't take anything for pain.
On a more positive note, as a result of being unable to take meds I've been doing other things like gentle yoga or water exercise when possible, meditation for pain relief, and using ice and rest.
Comments
Post a Comment
Welcome to The ICIE and thank you for commenting!
Note: If you are leaving a comment on this blog in an effort to advertise anything except your own valid topical blog or website, your comment will be marked as spam and will not be posted.