Pulsing on left side of my head

[cullingsong]

Recently, when I lie down on my left side, I can feel my pulse strong in the left side of my head. If I lie directly on my left side, I feel it in my temple. It gets really strong and is really uncomfortable, creating a pressure in my head. If I lie on my back, but leaning to the left, I can feel the pulse really strong in the back of my head, left side. Same thing happens.

When I sleep on my right side, I sometimes feel a pulsing, but nothing uncomfortable or painful. It is only when I lie down on my left side. I've tried different pillows, different numbers of pillows. It just started happening within 2-3 week. I've also had trouble sleeping the last two weeks, but it may or not be related.

Nothing in my diet has changed. I've been checked out by two doctors in the last couple months, and they both said I seem perfectly fine. However, I didn't mention the pulsing because it hadn't started yet. I had blood work taken a year ago, and it was 100% perfect. Low cholesterol, normal blood pressure, etc. I'm a 27-yo white male.

Any ideas?

[Dr Santos]

Hi,
Thanks for the updates. It is good to hear that your visit to your doctor yielded normal results. With tension headaches, it is important to avoid the stressor or trigger, which is in your case, the type of pillow and position. Such primary headaches usually resolve once the trigger is identified and managed. Take care and best regards.

[cullingsong]

So, when I was at the doctor for a physical, my blood pressure was 124/60. I also had a visual acuity test and refraction, and it was 20/20 with everything normal. I actually do get a lot of tension headaches, and I get headaches when the weather changes.

This is going to make me seem really stupid, but I switched pillows, and the headaches went away. They only appeared when I would lie on my left side, with the left side of my head pressed into the pillow. I switched to a softer pillow, and they stopped. Thanks for your help, but I think it was really just as simple as I had too hard a pillow, and it was pushing on the side of my head.

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. There are various causes of headaches.  These headaches could be due to stress, anxiety, migraines or tension headaches, sinus headaches radiating to the ear, headache usually front of head, on one or both  the sides of temples along with nausea, vomiting, irritability, low blood pressure, sensitivity to lights, sound, etc. aura associated with migraines could include blind spots, blindness in half of your visual field, paresthesia, weakness or visual hallucinations. Your vision needs detailed testing by an ophthalmologist. Hypertension and hypotension need to be checked. An MRI brain is warranted to rule out any intracranial lesion particularly aneurysm and MRI spine for ruling out cervical spondylosis and degenerative disc disease.  Temporal tendinitis mimics migraines including TMJ pain temporal headaches, tooth sensitivity, neck and shoulder pain. Treatment includes injecting local anesthetics and other medicines, moist heat muscle relaxants and NSAIDs along with physiotherapy. Multiple sclerosis would also need to be excluded. Treatment for migraines include drugs that prevent the attack like anti convulsants and drugs which treat an attack like triptans, ergots etc your queries should pertain to all these possible differential diagnoses. Trigeminal neuralgia needs to be considered. If the neurologist and radiologist are suspecting a cerebral aneurysm, they can confirm with cerebral angiography and clipping of the aneurysm could be done. This appears to be due to sinus inflammation through an infection due to postural variation of head, may be accompanied with fever and diagnosed by MRI or CT SCAN. Hope this helps. Take care.

[Nancys61]

Hi,

You definately need to see a Neurologist for advise. Since this has only been going on for a few weeks, this is something new and should be checked out promptly!

Good luck and keep us posted. Nancy