Anyone get terrible headaches?

[des1954]

I had a medic in the army who used to tape an aspirin to his head.

And now he is the President of "HeadOn"

 

[gemstone1952]

The nature of a migraine can change over time so it may just be that your migraines are changing. I was first diagnosed with migraine when I was in my teens and my vision vanished. Never got a headache from them. As I got older, I still got the migraines with the visual disturbance, but then slurred speech, vertigo, double vision, and light sensitivity joined the symptoms. Later, all of the above and nausea and problems with physical coordination and I got the headaches. I've been MRI'd to death. What they found was that what I expeienced were all symptoms of migraine which kept changing as I got older. In my case, I have what is a "complicated migraine, also called Basilar migraine, etc. I have to take daily meds to prevent them--in my case, a calcium channel blocker, usually used for high blood pressure, which I don't have. See your doctor. Whenever you have a new or different type of headache, it's best to get it checked out.
A sidenote, during one of the MRI's, they found my "brain" was just fine, but I had a growth in my thyroid that they saw during the MRI. Turned out to be cancerous so I was glad I checked out the headache!

 

[mreyes01430]

Lately my son and I have beeen getting frequent horrible heades. I have found that Sudafed and Motrin help me best! I think that the weather plays a key role! I also use Vick's Vapor rub on my eye lids, under my eyes, in my nose and rub it on my neck! Also, Zomig OTC / Prescription runs me about 15 - headache and nausea go away within 30 min.![/COLOR]

 

[ftwildernessguy]

I would NOT recommend using Vicks Vapor Rub anywhere near your eyes unless you are fond of going blind. If your headaches are linked to the weather, they are most likely sinus headaches, as I believe most "migraines" are, but that's my personal opinion. Recurring serious headaches which cannot be successfully treated with conventional OTC meds should be evaluated by a physician. Some of these recommendations are getting dangerous.

 

[des1954]

I too question Vicks on the eyelids. That sounds pretty perilous to me.

Jim - You're absolutely correct about migraine headaches. If you get one or two debilitating headaches (or more) each week, or each month for that matter, it's time to see your Dr. In the case of women...see how your "migraines" correlate to your monthly cycle. While this had no bearing on my headaches, I know several women who, each month, had severe headaches about the same time each month. Upon going to their OB/GYN, they discovered that their headaches were hormone induced, and received successful treatment.....under their physician's care!

I suffered from migraines during two time periods in my life. The first was as a young adult - about the time my severely impacted wisdom teeth were coming in. I finally put 2+2 together & saw an orthodontist (upon the advice of my dentist) and discovered I had a slight case of TMJ. I had the errant wisdom teeth removed, wore braces for 4 years, and had no further problems with headaches other than the occasional sinus or stress headaches.

The second time was back in 2004 when we were building our house. Several times each week I awoke at about 2 - 3 am with a blinding headache. I attributed it to the stress of building our home. This went on for about 3 months until one evening I went into respiratory distress and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. It turned out I had pneumonia in both lungs (no symptoms presented previously - and I'm well acquainted with pneumonia, as I've had it several times in my life). The underlying cause was congestive heart failure. It had been slowly worsening over the course of time - but I was not saavy to the symptoms. Yes....severe headaches is one of the symptoms. I was 49 at the time, with no previously diagnosed heart problems.

So my advice is, if you have constant, recurring, debilitating headaches....call your doctor. There could be a severe underlying cause for them.

 

[Judy in Texas]

My daughter has had migraines for 20 years. Earlier doctors ran MRI's and when they came back OK, they just kept throwing medicines at her without trying to find the cause. Those medicines had side effects that were just as bad as the migraines. The new doctor is sending her to a opthamologist to get checked for something called a pseudo-tumor. Depending on how that turns out, the next step is to get a lumbar puncture to check for increased spinal fluid pressure. The doctor said some people have too much fluid which causes the headaches. The excess fluid can be drained off a couple times a year. While the procedure is painful, you are then headache free for months. Headaches can be so debiliting and it doesn't help when people around you don't believe how much pain you are in.

Good luck!

 

[des1954]

the next step is to get a lumbar puncture to check for increased spinal fluid pressure. The doctor said some people have too much fluid which causes the headaches. The excess fluid can be drained off a couple times a year. While the procedure is painful, you are then headache free for months. Headaches can be so debiliting and it doesn't help when people around you don't believe how much pain you are in.

Good luck!

Judy - My neighbor had this exact situation. The only difference was, in addition to headaches he also was having extreme difficulty with loss of his short-term memory. The lumbar punch proved he had too much spinal fluid. He then had surgery to implant a shunt to continually drain fluid from the brain. The fluid just drains into the body cavity - and he's not aware of the shunt at all. It's working like a charm!

I had a lumbar punch to test for M.S. Worrying about the procedure was more difficult than the procedure itself. If your daughter does have the procedure - make sure she follows the advice of laying down for about 4 hours following the procedure. Just get up to go potty or fix a drink. Other than that - she should stay as flat as possible. If she doesn't - she could get a mack-daddy of a headache!!

 

[Disneylitch]

My daughter had head pain for 24/7 for a over a year. She took a fall at school after a shoulder surgery and her shoulder became infected. To make a long story short, the infection went to her heart and head. After a 2nd shoulder surgery, the head pain began. She was treated at University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins and they recommended going to Michigan Head Pain and Neurological Institute in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She was hospitalized for 2 weeks and came home on daily medication. She also gets 3rd occipital nerve blocks, left and right, about once a year. Her head pain comes from 2 areas. The nerve blocks take care of the pain caused from a whip lash type injury from the fall. The daily meds take care of the other pain. She was diagnosed as New Chronic Daily Persistant Headache Syndrome. We found out that there are a lot of different types of head pain. Many doctors want to group everyone together as migraine, sinus, tension, etc. Something else we found out in Michigan, they call it head pain. They use this term because they feel that a headache can be cured by OTC meds and head pain is a chronic condition. If you say you have a headache, even a migraine, the perception is that you can pop a pill and everything will be ok . Head pain is more difficult to treat.
Before going to Michigan, everything else was ruled out and tried. She went to PT, dentist, opthamologist, had MRI's, spinals, etc. She was even in University of Maryland for a week for treatment.
She is doing well now. She still gets occassional head pain, but she has an abortive medication that takes care of this. However, this med just knocks her out when she takes it. So, I know if she takes it she is in a lot of pain.
Basically, like everyone else has said, have it checked out. If you don't get an answer from the first doctor, keep looking. There is help out there. My daughters neurologist gave her some really good advice, "You must be proactive in your healthcare". This is so true. It took seeing many doctors and fighting the insurance company to get her treatment. She was only 16 when all of this began.
Good luck.

 

[loveDmouse]

Someone in our area was having horrible headaches for a long time and no one could ever figure out what was wrong. Come to find out she had Lymes Disease. Lymes Disease does so many different things to your body and is really misdiagnosed ALOT. My husband was finally diagnosed with Lymes in January after about 14 years of doctor after doctor and test after test. They even tested for Lymes. So many doctors know nothing about it and some don't even acknowledge that Lymes is a problem. It has been really tough and has caused many health problems over the years. He is going on 36 and feels like he is about 96.

 

[2goofycampers]

Migraine remedy by Dr. on Saturday afternoon local radio show.

5 capsules magnesium citrate malate opened and put in 6 ounces of water add to that 1000 mg pyruvate, drink within 30 minutes of onset of pain

Let us know if it works. He swears by it.