Any medical professionals awake please? Young adult daughter far from home on own with severe headache and worrying photo (sensitive image). Possible coffee ground emu.

Pistachiomonster · 2026-09-06T23:21:55+00:00

Young adult daughter living and working away from home several hours away. Phoned her for a catch up tonight and she was complaining about a really bad headache for several hours. She then sent me this photo. I did a chat GPT and Dr Google and came up with phone an ambulance this is a medical emergency. Daughter refused to go to A&E, speak to 111 or have an ambulance and didn’t want any fuss. Spoke to her several times and she was insisting it was due to a chocolate brownie milkshake from earlier that day. Does anyone have any advice? Its after midnight and I can’t sleep and she isn’t responding to messages.

WaryCyanStork · Today 02:26

The question about a headache coming on suddenly is checking for a "thunder clap headache", where excruciating pain starts suddenly within a split second, as if you'd been hit by lightening. She would know if that had happened. If you go through the 111 form again, but say no to that question, I think you are likely to get less urgent advice.

It does sound a lot like the migraines I got in my 20s, but I'm not a doctor! Hopefully she'll feel better in the morning, but she should still get checked out. If it is a migraine, she can be prescribed medication for future episodes, and if it's not a migraine, the doctor can investigate.

Francestein · Today 02:25

I am less concerned with the look of the vomit than the combo of headache and vomiting. It’s probably a bug, but if the headache gets worse, or she feels dizzy or has visual problems she should get an ambulance to A&E

BibbityBoppityTwo · Today 01:48

You’re not overreacting. I had headaches and vommiting and ended up having emergency brain surgery. If she’s the same in the morning she must go to the emergency department. If it’s something serious it won’t suddenly get better and will just continue, so if it does she needs to seek medical attention.

Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:40

I don’t know whether I am over reacting or not. I will phone her first thing.

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Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:39

GCAcademic · Today 01:32

The OP posted to ask for advice from medical professionals. I doubt that many of the posters on this thread are. If you need urgent advice, you should ring 111 rather than listen to random people on the internet. OP. I wish that people would state their level of medical expertise on threads like this, or that MN would advise posters starting threads on the Health boards of the risks of doing so.

Thanks unfortunately 111 refused to provide any advice as I wasn’t in the same room as my daughter. I explained the situation and they didn’t want to know.

I completed an NHS 111 online form with my daughter asking her questions that she really couldn’t be bothered to answer the headache and it said to seek immediate medical advice.

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Keepingittogetherstepbystep · Today 01:38

Because this could be serious surely it's better to get it checked out. Hopefully it's chocolate brownies but could be something worse.

I sure wish I'd rung an ambulance when it happened to my mum. We have mine the night before so she blamed that it wasn't mince she has a perforated ulcer.

Not saying that's what this is but it's sometimes best to err on the side of caution.

Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:35

BibbityBoppityTwo · Today 01:26

Did she only vomit once? Has she had ongoing nausea or vommited again?

Edited

At least 4 times

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GCAcademic · Today 01:32

The OP posted to ask for advice from medical professionals. I doubt that many of the posters on this thread are. If you need urgent advice, you should ring 111 rather than listen to random people on the internet. OP. I wish that people would state their level of medical expertise on threads like this, or that MN would advise posters starting threads on the Health boards of the risks of doing so.

BibbityBoppityTwo · Today 01:26

Did she only vomit once? Has she had ongoing nausea or vommited again?

Pieceofpurplesky · Today 01:21

I hope she is ok. We do worry about our kids when they are away from home and ring feeling ill! I get it @Pistachiomonster

Musicaltheatremum · Today 01:17

Patients whose headaches come on suddenly are very articulate about it. It really stands out in the history taking. They describe it as something hitting them hard on the head. If she doesn't know if it came on suddenly or not then likely it didn't

Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:11

She didn’t seem confused more like a quieter more irritated and angrier version of herself probably with the pain of the headache. So a severe migraine might fit especially if she’d never had one before and it blindsided her and with being on her own although she is fairly independent and resilient.

Thanks all

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littlemissalwaystired · Today 01:08

I randomly started getting migraines in my twenties after never getting them before. Mine are mainly linked to my menstrual cycle but they’ve definitely made me vomit at times before. Fingers crossed it’s just that and she feels better in the morning.

Anextrasetofhands11 · Today 01:08

PinguMoll · Today 00:25

Why is she sending you a photo of her vomit though? Surwly a bad headache is normal once in a while?

That's hardly relevant the OP is asking for advice on the medical issue. She doesn't need to explain why her daughter sent her that picture.

Kirbert2 · Today 01:07

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:01

Thanks we went through the symptom checker and she answered yes to the severe headaches, yes to vomitting but was unsure if the headache came on gradually or suddenly, maybe sensitivity to light bit no other symptoms.

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Did she seem confused at all? Or did she seem like herself, just unwell?

ImmortalNowBabyDoll · Today 01:06

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:01

Thanks we went through the symptom checker and she answered yes to the severe headaches, yes to vomitting but was unsure if the headache came on gradually or suddenly, maybe sensitivity to light bit no other symptoms.

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I think she'd remember if the headache had come on suddenly.

Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:03

ImmortalNowBabyDoll · Today 01:00

She will probably need a day off work. My migraines usually last at least 24 hrs and the next day I deal with the postdrome. Unfortunately for me, the only trigger I can identify is disturbed sleep and hormones and that's not something I choose to experience in the first place!

I hope in your daughter's case she can identify a cause and eliminate it.

Thank you fingers crossed its this. She hasn’t been her job very long but fingers crossed its this rather than anything worse.

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Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 01:01

nocoolnamesleft · Today 00:55

Neck stiffness? Photophobia? Rash? Just occasionally severe headache and vomiting, in people who don't usually get migraine, can be serious. It would be sensible of her to ring 111.

Thanks we went through the symptom checker and she answered yes to the severe headaches, yes to vomitting but was unsure if the headache came on gradually or suddenly, maybe sensitivity to light bit no other symptoms.

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ImmortalNowBabyDoll · Today 01:00

She will probably need a day off work. My migraines usually last at least 24 hrs and the next day I deal with the postdrome. Unfortunately for me, the only trigger I can identify is disturbed sleep and hormones and that's not something I choose to experience in the first place!

I hope in your daughter's case she can identify a cause and eliminate it.

nocoolnamesleft · Today 00:55

Neck stiffness? Photophobia? Rash? Just occasionally severe headache and vomiting, in people who don't usually get migraine, can be serious. It would be sensible of her to ring 111.

Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 00:53

ktopfwcv · Today 00:51

OP you sound anxious. It doesn't matter if pp had the exact same symptoms for the exact same time.

She has a headache or a migraine and has vomited once. She will be asleep, you should probably be too. Speak to her in the morning.

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I know thanks I am she is only 21 and a young 21. She had been sick at least 4 times earlier.

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Original poster

Pistachiomonster · Today 00:52

Kirbert2 · Today 00:49

I'd ring her first thing in the morning to see how she is. Hopefully it is just something like a migraine but I wouldn't be taking any chances with potential coffee ground vomit.

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Thanks that was my plan. She is due in work at 9 so I will try and call her quickly just after 8am if I don’t hear from her. I really need some sleep incase I have to travel to visit her but my mind is in overdrive.

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ktopfwcv · Today 00:51

Pistachiomonster · Today 00:50

Thanks did you have a severe headache lasting over 6 hours accompanied by vomiting similar to this each time? What was the solution.

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OP you sound anxious. It doesn't matter if pp had the exact same symptoms for the exact same time.

She has a headache or a migraine and has vomited once. She will be asleep, you should probably be too. Speak to her in the morning.

ImmortalNowBabyDoll · Today 00:50

Pistachiomonster · Today 00:48

I don’t know if I, ChatGPT and NHS online and Dr Google are all being over the top or whether it is a migraine and she will sleep it off I just wish she wasn’t so far away.

Getting a migraine isn't related to being sickly or getting ill a lot. It's just something that randomly happens. It is a shock the first time.

If she goes to A & E she will be left sitting in a brightly lit, noisy, uncomfortable room on a plastic chair for hours.

There's nothing I can imagine that could be worse for someone with a migraine than going to A & E.

Philmitchelle · Today 00:50

Looks like termite droppings.