Crippling headache

[jessbbg]

Please, if you have a minute... I'm not "freaking out" or "worry-wart"-ing... This has simply gone beyond the point of pregnancy headaches or even pregnancy migraines.  Something is wrong, and I'm trying to figure out what it is.  My OB is blowing me off and writing me scrips (i know, find another---easier said than done, my next call is to my GP to have him write orders for an MRI hopefully).  But in the meantime...

I'm looking for any and all thoughts, no matter how far-fetched.  i just want to get to the bottom of this and stop them, it's coming back as i am typing this.  i posted on the July 09 board first since that's when I'm due, but I wanted to hit everyone up for thoughts, so I'm posting here too---so this is taken from that post:


Crippling headache

I had the worst headache (by at least 4 times over anything else I've ever felt) last night... It started about 4:30 in the afternoon and gradually built to a pretty bad migraine, one of my worst... I tried everything there is to try... hot, cold, tylenol, protein, carb, caffeine, copious amounts of water (sometimes I get dehydrated), darvocet... then i researched and thought maybe it was lack of iron... i didn't know there was so much that could interefere with it's absorption (can't take it with milk, or with caffeine, can't take it with antacids, etc)...

So I took an iron capsule... after a little less than an hour, it started to feel some better.  So at 2am I made it to bed and it finally didn't hurt to lie down.  

At 4am, I woke up to pain like I've never known.  It was worse than labor.  It was worse than the car accident.  It was worse than anything I've ever felt... And for the first time in my life i was scared I was going to die.  

This goes beyond "pregnancy migraine"... something has to be wrong... I don't know what.  But something just isn't right... I kept having, on top of the general excruciating pain, a funny twitching pain on the lower portion of the back of my head, just to the left of center, and it sort of would shoot upward... it was really scary.  

Does any of this trigger any ideas or memories or thoughts for any of you?  Please tell me if it does---even if you think it can't be it or is hair-brained... I've got to find answers.  I can't just risk this being a bloodclot or something, I have a 7 year old boy, he needs me---my partner needs me.  

If you can think of anything, please share it.  It has subsided into a low throb right now, but I know it's coming back, since it's not all gone yet.

- Jess

my doctor gave me darvocet already, now he's calling me in a scrip for lortab.  i told them i would rather undergo some tests first, they said try the lortab first, then if it doesn't work we can talk about testing... but if it's cluster headaches (i have suspected for years that i may have them), then simple oxygen therapy will take care of it.  ugh.  and at the same time, if i have a blood clot or an aneurysm, then all i'm doing by not getting an MRI is giving myself less time until d-day (if there is one)... ugh.  i'd much rather have tests right now to rule out the really critical stuff and find answers so that i'm not exposing my baby to unnecessary drugs.

darkest, it does very much hurt more when i move... significantly.  even walking "faster" hurts... i had to slow down and walk really slowly across my office just now because at a normal pace i almost hit the floor.   i could not even turn or tilt my head last night.  it hurts now to do so, but not as bad as it did last night.

the best way to describe it is not "gone".  its definitely not.  i tried to explain it to my partner just now.  i still feel it, almost like hands on my head.  they just don't have their claws buried in my eye sockets at the moment, but the pressure is still there... the back of my head and my neck actually physically hurt right now.  and there feels like pressure, almost as though someone is pressing down and slightly squeezing my skull.  

what i am feeling right this moment is what most people would describe as a bad headache.  But it is so much better than what i was experiencing a few hours ago, that it is strangely comforting... but there is that lingering, almost sinister feeling... when it feels like this, i know it is going to be coming back, it is not over yet.  it's like it's resting, staying back and just sort of idling on the back of my head...

when it's completely over (for however long), there is a complete relief, total absence of pressure or pain.  it's a very different feeling.  

so no, it's not gone, but it is not to where i am speechless with crippling pain.  I can walk, and i can speak some (though that makes it hurt more).  

- jess

The conditions I'm concerned most about would be aneurysm, embolism, blood clot, stroke, tumor... Next being epileptic conditions (some only throw headaches as symptoms, no other sign of seizure), cluster headaches (or similar), and severe sleep apnea...

[Tracy21]

forgot to say the pain killersi got were called cocodamol i dont know if you get them where u live i live in scotland to you might have different name for it but thats the name they were  great try and not worry i know the pain is sooooo bad but it will pass im so sorry you have those head aches and i agree they are worse than labour lol

[Tracy21]

hi i had exactly the pains you have said i wa woke up through the night with this pain in my head it ws so painful it lasted 10 days i would cry every day because of the pain i went to ER because i was overdosing on pain killers because the pain was so bad nothing would help me so when i went to ER they told me to go to the dentist because the pain started in my cheek bone then moved to my head they sent me home with painkillers that i could take while being pregnant they worked but still had head aches so went to the dentist they said i had pregnancy gums didnt know what that meant so went to see my midwife she said it was a sines problem dont know how to spell that lol

[jessbbg]

well, i went to the ER... so far they are saying "Cluster Headaches"

[sweetangel7]

I think the ER might not be a bad idea either.  Last October, my mom got a terrible headache and the people at work talked her into going to the ER because she was slightly disoriented from the headache as well and she described it as white hot pain.  She momentarily lost her vision for a split second too while she was walking to leave the room because she felt so bad...anyways, they feared an aneurysm with the scan they did at the hospital but they didn't have a neurologist to read it so they sent her to the big city hospital and they did an angiogram I think (tubed a camera up into her brain to see what was going on...she can't have an mri because she had previous brain surgery completely unrelated to this they said...it was just like being struck by lightening twice...bad luck!) Well, they found a tumor in her pituitary gland that was pushing on her optic nerve which caused the headache and the momentary loss of vision...regardless...you should get it checked out if it is as debilitating as you are explaining it to be.  You don't want to mask something that could be serious with medication.

[emmy1111]

I agree i would defo go to the ER it will probably be the fastest way to get it sorted. Hope everythink is ok

[bioclock1]

i would def. go to the er. My mom described similar pain an it WAS an anuerysm. I also known a woman who had the same symptoms, went the ER and they didn't do any tests and she died 2 days later.
Not trying to scare the beegees out of you but if it's that bad, please go seek medical help asap! better safe than sorry

[avik7]

do u think if u just went to the ER and told them what was going on that u might get the tests u want done faster? i would try that. hope everything is okay