As I write this I am debating just going back to bed. I am currently experiencing a terrible headache and to be honest, for me to say that its actually bad. I have headaches most everyday, they very in severity, but they are always there.
My headaches started the summer between third and fourth year university. I spent the first two months of that summer taking summer school (which I loved!), followed by working in the corn fields in Chatham for a month and then heading back to McMaster for an end of summer field camp course. This was when I noticed the headaches. I had never really had a headache before and I was not handling it well. I was taking a lot of Ibuprofen and trying my best to get through it figuring they couldn't last too long (I could not have been more wrong).
I did not even clue into the consistency of the headaches until my mom mentioned to me one day about going to visit the doctor as I had mentioned to her enough times about my head hurting that she was starting to get concerned. Shortly after the first week of classes, I had enough of my head always hurting and made an appointment at the schools clinic. This was the beginning of a long road to nothing.
I went to the appointment, he prescribed a muscle relaxant type drug and wrote a referral to physiotherapy. The physiotherapy after three sessions determined that she could not do anything, but recommended massage therapy. This was where I saw the most improvement and actually loved my biweekly appointment. A follow up with the original doctor saw a change in prescription and a referral to an osteopath. As the year went on I was taking about 6 pills a day, and seeing the osteopath and massage therapist biweekly. After yet another follow up with the original doctor, an appointment with a neurologist was finally booked and in three months I had an appointment at the hospital.
I was excited to have answers, but more excited to hopefully get rid of these headaches. It was about February by the time I met with the neurologist. At this time the headaches were consistent, a daily pain that I was learning to deal with. They got worse at certain parts of the day and about once a week they actually disturbed my daily routine. The neurologist appointment gave no answers, but I was sent for tests, blood work and an MRI to try and determine the actual cause of the headaches. I was happy to be having this done and thought nothing of it. I went for my MRI at like 3:30 am, the morning of a midterm in downtown Hamilton at the hospital beside the prison (read: scared to death and exhausted), I had blood work done with a room mate holding my hand, and had a number of tests run from looking at flashing pictures to being hooked up to multiple cable in my head.
A month after the tests, I had my follow up appointment to find out the results and hopefully make some steps towards recovery. I went into the office of the neurologist and the med student who was working with him goes over my charts to which she responds, "Congratulations, it's not a brain tumor." Upon hearing this I am completely taken back, no one EVER said it might be a brain tumor. I did not know it was a possibility and on the one hand I am happy it is not, but on the other I am shocked that no one told me before. She could tell that I was confused and quickly followed up trying to explain that that is why I got in for an MRI within a month when the wait list was supposed to be six months or more etc. So with brain tumor ruled out, the neurologist came in with the bad news.
I have had concussion in the past. Yes I knew that, two to be exact. One playing hockey and one playing rugby. They were close together and to be honest what I feared was causing the headaches. In that regards I was thankful to have always been wearing a mouth guard or the end result could have been much worse (I totally support mouth guards in ALL contact and potentially contact sports). However, the tests showed that I had concussions not that they were effecting anything today, just that a concussion had occurred in the past. So again, that was disappointing The results showed nothing that should be causing me to have consistent pain and pressure on my head. He prescribed a dose change on my current medications and wrote in my chart some future medications to try include an anti-seizure med.
I left feeling confused and frustrated. Nothing seemed to work. I continued with massage and osteopath through the remainder of fourth year. Upon returning home to Chatham, I visited my chiropractor which helped slightly and stayed on my medications, introducing the anti-seizure med after a few months of nothing changing. I was confused, frustrated and in pain, but the plus side was that I was learning to cope with the headaches. I figured out that Advil liquid gels in extra strength were the only thing to have ANY effect on the headaches and was determined to not let it effect my day to day routine.
Since then (two and a half years later), I have stopped taking all medicine for my headaches, with the exception of Advil and I have become better at ignoring the pain. When I was no longer on my parents insurance the medicine for my headaches was costing over $300 per month. It was no longer feasible to be taking so much and to be honest, the difference is minimal. I now have more 'bad' headaches, but the constant every day is still the same.
So that is an update, and a long exhausting story of what is going on with my head. I am starting to figure things out a bit, for example, if my neck is in an awkward position and starts to hurt, that will lead to a bad headache, or if I am stressed and tired and my body is exhausted that can effect my head for days. Overall I am thankful that I have been able to rule out anything major, yes the pain sucks, but it could be worse, I don't have a tumor!
