post craniotomy headache

[gbyrne]

My husband had a partial craniotomy for a GBM 2-1/2 weeks ago. He is getting extremely bad headaches quite often which the pain pills and/or ice were helping but are no longer helping. He said his head feels very tight. Keeping his head elevated helps keep him from getting them. Any suggestions to deal with the pain? It is a 7 or 8 0n a 1-10 scale and he isn't sleeping or able to do anything when he has these. This one started about 12 hours ago and still no relief.

[gbyrne]

We went to the ER yesterday and they did a CT scan and there wasn't any bleeding. There was still quite a bit of swelling so they put his steroids back up to 8 mg  day. We had been tapering them and he was down to 4 a day. They gave him hydromorphone which helped until 2 AM and then the headache came back and the drug isn't helping. The surgery was done at UCSF, 350 miles away. We have an appointment back there on Friday. Thanks.

[vega1318]

Did your husband have another scan since getting these headaches?   Make sure he doesn't have a small bleed that's increasing his intracranial pressure.   Tightness in the head is never a good sign and should be checked out.   It could be that he's just having post-operative pain but it should not be position -related.   Go to your neurosurgeon or better yet, speak to them on the phone, tell them to meet you in the ED for another CT head.