Hi my wife, 33 years old, is experiencing very acute headache, nausea and dizziness. All the doctors we have seen seems to not have an answer for us.
The lead up to the onset of the headache is as follows: My wife had been breastfeeding our 11 month daughter exclusively. My wife had a cough for about two weeks prior to the onset of the headache. She started experiencing some back pain near her left scapula one month prior to the headache. She also flew 4 days before the headache began. On the onset of the headache she had cough several times and after the coughing spell she complained that she felt like her head exploded. A few hours later we decided to take her to the ER to be examined. She had an abnormal EKG and a slightly elevated troponin level. Due to this they admitted her to the hospital. They did a CT scan and everything was normal. They did bloodwork several times during her stay in the hospital and her troponin levels came back to normal. There were no other significant EKG readings so the cardiologist cleared her. In the meantime her headache persisted. The headache was all over the place. Sometimes it was in her sinuses, other times it was on the top or back of her head. She also started to experience neck pain and stiffness and upper back pain. They did a lumbar tap and it came out negative for meningitis. Soon after she was admitted she started to get bouts of nausea and dizziness. The doctors thought that it was from the pain meds (dilaudid and morphine). They gave her antivert and zofran. The only comfort that she could get from the headache was lying down. They did an MRI scan of the head and neck and it came out negative. There was a slight misalignment of her C6-C7 but noting that would explain the pain she was in. While in the hospital she saw a whole slew of specialist (infectious disease - who concluded that she might be postpartum, ENT - conclusion menieres, neurologist - migrane, etc). They couldn't agree since her symptoms where non conclusive. After 7 days in the hospital they discharged her (since she was stable) but the pain in the head was still there. They gave her a short course of steroids (4 days total), antivert and a script for physical therapy and follow-up with ENT. The first few days after the hospital the pain was not as severe (although it was still there) and the nausea and dizziness was under control. In fact, when she went to PT, there was also an acupuncturist in the office who told us that she might be suffering from some form of arthritis that is aggravating her occipital nerve (occipital neuralgia). After a few pins, my wife felt like she was 90% better. This only lasted for a few hours. The on going physical therapy session seemed to have helped as well. He noted that the there she was very tense in her upper back and neck. Any way, the effects of the PT and the acupuncture only lasted for a few hours. When she woke up the next morning the effects would diminish and her pain would reappear (again mostly when she sat down, a little standing up- and no pain lying down). Anyway a few days later, she started to get extremely nauseated and dizzy (she is no longer on any pain meds at this point except motrin- no more than 800mg a day and the steriods had also stopped). She also started to experience some sinus pressure on both sides of her face (this would come and go and we started her oh sudafed which did not help). The PT and acupuncture only relieved the pain in her head and neck. She also mentioned that there are ringing in her ears, the sounds that she hear have an echo. She also feels like there is water in side the ears. So basically thats were we are now. The nausea is extremely bad (zofran doesn't seem to help), the dizziness is still there and there is ringing and echos in her ear. There is pain in her neck and head when standing up or sitting down.
So far these are the possibilities
menieres
occipital neuralgia
migrane
sinus infection
if its menieres/migraine attack do they last this long (2weeks)???
My wife's symptoms seems to follow another post:
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Undiagnosed-Symptoms/Headache-only-when-standing-or-sitting-up/show/980567#post_4583783
unfortunately, I was not able to get hold of the original poster and there was not answer from the forum.
thank you so much for the help....