h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

An actual headache. I've had it for 10 days now. Since having that tumor removed and zapped, I really haven't had any headaches that weren't self inflicted . Oddly, my headaches usually didn't arrive until a day or so after drinking. This one came on a bit early, but it felt the same; a sharp throbbing pain around the back of my eyes and the base of my skull, right around the old scar tissue. It's not constant, mostly it flairs up with exertion like standing quickly or climbing stairs. Pain relievers have so far proven ineffective against this. I'm trying a naproxyn sodium/ibuprofen + pseudophedrin combination this morning hoping it's sinus related, but I'm not very optimistic that it will do anything. There has only been one thing that has alleviated it and it does work well... more . After a night drinking, I'm headache free the next day. I do wonder if two beers a night will make it go away.

I'll be letting my brain care specialists know about this later today. I wasn't scheduled for another MRI/visit until 2014 damnit.

I wonder if it is your brain reacting to your op in the same way it reacts when a person has a leg amputated? Phantom pain, which by the way is just as painful. Just a thought.

Websailor

I really doubt it's phantom pain. The operation was several years ago (6 I think). I really haven't had any headaches since then that weren't following a drinking session. Before I had the operation, the headaches were random, occurring months apart and would last 24 hours or so, the worst was 3 days and that lead to double vision and the MRI that spotted the tumor. I don't even know if this is related to the tumor site or not, but odds are it is. The idea of it being phantom pain is dreadful. Then there would be no way to "fix" it.

hi mr grim

i realise you are not experiencing a regular run-of-the-mill headache but...
maybe..
you never know..

i never used to get headaches
i mean ...all my life ...never headaches
i used to joke i would take 4 aspirin once a year whether i needed them or not

then a few years ago i got one little one
then another

complained to my daughter
she said "maybe you need to drink more water"
i laughed
but i tried it
and it made the headache go away

and has worked every time since

so now when i get a headache i figure i havent been drinking enuf water
and usually that is the case

when its not the case, drinking more water does help
so that means sometimes i need to drink more water than other times...
its just that things change...

soooo



maybe you need to drink more water

(and good water, not water with chlorine or other junk in it)
(and pop and other stuff doesnt work as well)

i now drink a gallon a day

one glass at a time

Dehydration was something I strongly suspected, but it's been 10 days now and yesterday I made a really concerted effort to drink a LOT of water. Today it's worse than it has been yet.

No, I'm sure it has something to do with the big gaping hole in the base of my skull. Maybe it's no the source of it, but maybe it's being exacerbated by it.

okay well i was going to say something about that (a LOT of water) too but forgot

maybe a LOT of anything is a problem...
like too much can be a problem as well

it seems to be a problem of hydraulics

so you have enuf water in the pipes
and in the tissues
then you stand up suddenly
no problem

but one day you either have too much or not enuf water in the pipes and the tissues
but not enuf to notice... until you stand up suddenly... and the hydraulics come into play

the usual advice is eight 8 oz glasses a day
which of course should vary depending on the person's size

and don't forget that it probably took a while to get to the place
where your body is protesting...
so it may take a while to get back to normal
like a week or two?

thing is that this headache is a GOOD thing
because it is telling you something needs to change

problem is that it is so hard to think about what to change
when you have a headache...

hope this dialogue hasnt stressed your brain

Heh... you haven't made it any worse.

I think I just determined that ibuprofen does mitigate it a bit as it's improved somewhat over the last hour or so since I took some.

Having a headache, even a bad one isn't what troubles me. It's that 10 day duration of it (with a few alcohol related breaks) that disturbs me.

I hope you find out the source, soon, Dear Baron


lil x

Whatever is causing them BG, and I hope it is resolved soon.

I suffered severe migraines for most of my life and still get an occasional hit. How I put up with them I will never know.

Websailor

I always thought I had migraines. But...

[Ahnold] It *WAS* ah toomah! [/Ahnold]

Glad you can laugh about it. Mine was definitely gender related!

Take care,

Websailor

blimey, I hope you can get to the bottom of it and then do something about it.

I sent an "email" to my brain care specialist yesterday, but haven't heard back yet. I hope he's not out of the country on a lecture circuit or somethin'.

Right now, I keep hoping something will just >pop< and it will sort itself out, maybe a lucky yawn or neck twist. I even irrigated my ears this morning in the off chance it was a plugged ear canal. No luck.

Well, I do NOT like the reply I just received. This came from someone else I'm not familiar with.

"If you want to come see a neurologist for headaches we can request a consult here.
Otherwise- I would recommend you see a local neurologist as they are the people that treat headaches."

This seems like a blow off.

Here's my reply:
~~~~
The reason I was trying to contact Dr. McCutcheon about this is that I can't help but suspect this is related to the tumor he removed a few years ago. I expected he'd want to look at a new MRI. Am I wrong?
~~~~

I suspect this person is NOT familiar with my case. Either way, I'm sure considering my past, another MRI will be in order whoever I see and I also suspect it will need to be compared to the one I had in January and that it should be examined by the surgeon who is familiar with the progression of the tissue in question.

Well... apparently my brain care specialists do not believe I need an MRI at this time.

I'll take that as they're confident it's not returned.

Yesterday was better than the day before. Today was better than yesterday.

It's not completely gone...

I'm not superstitious at all, so I don't think I'm jinxing myself when I say I think it's going away.


It wasn't without its benefits. http://barongrim.wordpress.com/2012/09/14/painful-deliverance/

I'm so glad your headache is receeding


My younger brother suffers from SUNCTS constantly:

http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/A1088174

For him to go on holiday, he has to have a letter from his doctor to allow him to take his medication in and out of the country. He can only take the maximum dosage he will need for his stay and no more.

The heroin medication only dulls his pain, nothing ever gets rid of it.

That sounds dreadful.

It is. Some can have an operation to sever nerves in the brain.

Unfortunately, his problem lies too close to the brain stem, so is inoperable.

On good days it's like having a severe migraine, which is when he makes the most of things and attempts to have a 'normal' life

The bad days means he sleeps, if the meds are working.