persistent headache ... driving me CRAZY!!!

[imaginaryfriend]

I've had a tendency for headaches over the last couple of years but nothing like this bugger of a headache I've had now for 10 days solid. It's there when I wake up in the morning and apart from the odd hour of respite when the neurofen plus kicks in, it's there all day. It's painful over my forehead like a heavy weight above my eyes and the back of my neck is achy and stiff. I feel a bit dizzy and disorientated and a bit sick. No fever or anything like that.

Has anyone else had a long-lasting headache? Any miracle cures?

Also here are 2 more links for you. They're about a type of headache classed as 'cervicogenic'. If you think these might explain your symptoms then the type of person you'd need to see is an osteopath. Given that you might get your results this week though I'd wait until they come in before doing anything as they may explain the headaches along with the other stuff.

Cervicogenic 1 Informative but quite academic
Cervicogenic 2 More of an easy read!

just back from hols - wanted to see how you were! Glad you survived the scan. Hope the results come soon.

You guys are so lovely, thanks! I've been caught up with this over the last week or so and my headaches have had to take a back seat. But they're still bloody there. I'll look at your two links tonight, thanks again so much liquidclocks. yes, I'd describe my headaches as:

1. heavy feeling over my forehead, very hard often to focus my eyes on anything - I feel like I'd like to close my eyes and overhead lights / bright lights make it much worse.

2. pain in the back of the neck and shoulders.

3. Some nausea especially when the headache is bad.

4. dizziness and disorientation

5. pins and needles and weakness in my left leg - that's there almost all of the time.

Well, I'm hoping I'll be able to get through to the neurologist on Thursday. He may prove to be one of those slippery, illusive medical types though whose secretary keeps fobbing me off!

Just wanted to pop in and say 'hi', IF, as you wait for your results. I'm thinking of you and your dd. hope she recovers really quickly. take care.

Thanks noonar. I guess I phone the neurologist directly? Or try to?

imaginary friend - I saw this before but didn;t post. I hope you get to speak to the neurologist asap. I went through similar 6 years ago (headache, problems with eye-sight, pins and needles, horrendous facial pain) and was diagnosed with MS. Most of the time you wouldn't know there was anything wrong with me. IF (and it's a huge if, of course) the neurologist talks about MS and you need anything at all, let me know - CAT me, as I'm not all that good at checking threads, at the moment. Issymum is another mn-er who knows a fair bit about MS as her husband has it - she's a good source of info and support. I hope they can give you a different explanation - but don't panic if they do talk about MS. And whatever you think and feel, I probably thought and felt it 6 years ago so if it helps to off-load I'm all ears.

twwtswah (long name!) Thanks for this. I do wonder about MS as from everything I've read about it it does fit my symptoms. What kind of headaches did you have? And how are you now?

hi again - need to be quick - must go to bed! my "headache" turned out to be optic neuritis - damage to the optic nerve which in my case was caused by ms, but can be caused by other stuff. It was very focused behind one eye and affected my vision - if I covered my good eye my other one was very blurred (the gp asked me what letters I could read on a eye test chart - the answer was that I couldn't actually see that there were any letters! - that was when she sent me straight to the hospital - they don;t muck about with eyes!). My other main sympton was something called trigeminal neuraligia - damage to the trigeminal nerve, which goes down the side of your face - that was very painful indeed. Both of these were the relapse that led to diagnosis. Other than that I'd had a couple of episodes of prolonged pins and needles. Since that relapse and diagnosis I've been very lucky and have had few symptoms - some pins and needles and numbness, some fatigue above and beyond normal work/kid related fatigue and a few weeks with a very painful and stiff leg. But I am honestly very healthy - I'm training for an 8 mile run at the moment. I hope it isn't ms - but even if it is try not to panic (easier said than done, I know). Pester your neurologist - you need to know where you stand - I remember very vividly that the scan and tests etc was horribly stressful - I was pg with no.1 too. really must go to bed now but do let us know what's happening.

Thanks for this. It's good to hear your story. I don't think what's happening to me sounds totally like ms in that I don't have the relapse / recovery scenario. The pins and needles and weakness in my left leg and foot is pretty much constant although it varies in intensity from day to day. And my headaches are pretty much over my whole head but mainly in my forehead and eyes. Having said that I've also had periods of loss of sensation in parts of my face and also loss of hearing in my left ear which is now resolved so who knows?

On one hand of course I hope the MRI shows nothing but on another I long to have some kind of treatment so I don't feel so unwell all the time. I'm actually going to try tomorrow as I've got some free time to spend repeatedly calling til I get through!

Good luck trying to make your phonecall today - hope you get some answers. (and that DD is feelig better too)

Dd's much better, thanks. I tried to get through yesterday, left lots of messages, but no return call.

good luck for today

Keep trying IF - if there's no response today ring your GP and get him/her to call on your behalf as well. fingers crossed for you.

yes, good luck,IF. they should contact you first thing. it's not fair to expect you to wait any longer. i've got everything crossed for you xxxx

No luck at all unfortunately. I was told today that I would be expected to wait for him to call me if anything showed up that needed discussing otherwise I should wait for my follow-up appointment in January!!!

I'm still going to try again though.

how helpful! We'll tell you you may have some life changing illness, shove you in some claustrophobic tube and do scans of your brain and spine and then tell you not to worry but wait till January! You couldn't make it up!

I guess one of the positives you can take out is that if it was anything really serious you would have heard by now. In the meantime, if you don't get any luck it may be worth asking your GP (as liquidclocks suggested) to call - perhaps tell them how anxious it is making you not knowing. POor you!

IF - January is absolutely unacceptable, even by NHS standards - you don't need to know just if somethings wron, you need reassurance that nothing has shown up if that's what happened - ie, you need to know either way! Definitely get your GP on board - tell him/her how anxious you're feeling and that it's making you ill with worry, go overboard if necessary - you need these results.

Makes me so that consultants still behave like this.

Hey Everyone, My name is Saba, and i'm 20. Married but no kids! Currently studying medicine in southampton and i just stumbled upon Mumsnet and it is so fantastic! Thought i'd give a short introduction about myself as i'm a newbie!

The reason for posting in this thread is that i'm suffering from the same symptoms as 'imaginaryfriend'. Again, i dont think it is MS as they are pretty mild symptoms as of yet. I do suffer from migranes, but my persistant headache is much different from my usual migrane pain. its more focused around my forehead and eyes. i also suffer from nausea and the thing that got me worried most is my disorientation and bad balance lately. for example, if bend down to pick something up from the floor, i tend to just sway to the side and have to put out a hand to steady myself. things of that sort. or the whole room will spin and come back into focus suddenly.

I also suffer from epilepsy, but i think that the two are unrelated.

i saw my doctor yesterday and she's referred me to a neurologist and i have an appointment for october 25th! (but hey, it beats january, that is way too long to wait imaginaryfriend! also, i agree with everyone, you have to get your GP to do something, he/she can easily ring up the neurologist to get the results. i;m certain that the key words to get a GP on their feet is to say that this is REALLY depressing you and that you are worried its something serious, so much so that it is interferring in your day to day life!)..

Your posts have been so helpful. its nice to know im not going crazy and there are people out there who know what i'm talking about! you have no idea what relief that brings!

i'm not really sure what tests they can (or will even offer) to do.. last year, due to my epilepsy, i had a CAT scan and various other scans and they showed nothing at the time so i cant see what difference those scans would make now..

anyways.. sorry for the essay guys, i really appreciate you reading this and your time especially.

Hi kaboosh, the January appointment is my follow-up, not that that makes it much better of course. But I got my initial one very quickly. And the MRI date was reasonably quick, it's just getting the results that's a pain. I will see the GP next week and get him to phone for me though if I don't manage to get through myself. I'm vaguely reassuring myself that if anything showed up they'd have contacted me automatically?

IF - sorry you haven't heard anything. From what I hear I am pretty sure that this does mean there is nothing of immediate urgency that has shown up. FWIW my experience of the MRI, results etc was a bit of a hotch potch. I wrote a diary at the time and if I could I'd go and find it for you, but it's inaccessible at the moment, as we have builders. From memory, what happened with me is that I went to GP with the "headache" (ie the optic neuritis) she sent me straight to the hospital to the emergency eye clinic. The specialist there referred me for an MRI. A couple of weeks or so later I had a follow-up with the eye specialist who told me that the MRI had shown some minor demyelination but nothing to worry about - demyelination is the damage to the protective coatings of the nerves that is a symptom of MS. (but, note, this was an eye specialist, not a neurologist). a week or so later I developed trigeminal neuralgia. gp said it was probably "connected" to the headache and sent me to a neurologist. The neurologist, on the basis of the MRI and the symptoms said it was probably MS and sent me for a load of other tests. End conclusion was yes, indeed it was. The reason I write all this is I think it shows how complex diagnosis of anything neurological is. Unfortunately, in many cases an MRI is not a test that gives immediate and obvious answers to neurological problems. (I think there is one exception to this - when the cause is obvious and action immediate). Because it might - as in my case - have only revealed something rather inconclusive - it's not something they can just say here's your answer to over the telepone. So they may be reluctant to tell you anything at all until your alloted 20 mins, or whatever you get, which they have scheduled for January. I've been where you are, and I am in no way trying to justify this horrid, messy business - I'm just trying to explain it a bit. I do think your GP is your best bet, and I hope you can get somewhere with him/her. Is your headache still bad? I hope you're feeling ok. thinking of you lots and lots.

Thanks hatwoman (your name's so long! Oliver Sacks inspired?). The headache's been dreadful lately, so painful and heavy over my eyes that it's very hard to concentrate. My right eyelid in particular is very heavy, twitching all the time, not doing what it's meant to.

I've been reading about 'cervicogenic' headaches though and it does sound very similar to what I've got although how it could be diagnosed / treated I've no idea. And the pins and needles in my foot are still there.

Sorry feeling a bit miserable with it today. Just too many mornings waking up feeling awful and dreading the day ahead.

sorry you're feeling so bad - do go back to the GP and see if that January appointment can be brought forward. You can't be expected to put up with feeling so awful for so long. Are the family being supportive? are you getting plenty of rest?

I don't have much in the way of family, I always envy people who do. One of my biggest worries is how I can manage to cope bringing up dd virtually alone (dp works VERY long hours). And what will happen to me if I can no longer do it / get very ill?

Sorry you're feeling got down by all this IF, I know it must be hard not to think 'what if' but try not to dwell too much before you know what's happening. I think a trip back your doctors is a godd idea - first to try and get the MRI results more quickly and secondly to discuss some more effective pain relief for your headaches that's meant to be used long term - you might be offered (or ask for) some low dose beta blockers or anti depressants, they're quite effective at dealing with 'non-specific' pain and would be better for you than taking all this over the counter stuff. (I just want to say when I first got offered those I took offence because I thought the doctor was fobbing me off as a hyperchondriac but after dong a bit of thinking and reading I found that there is actually good evidence for using that ind of medication with undiagnosed long term headache.)

Please feel free to come and have a rant/whinge - especially if it will make you feel better. to you, hope DP is around and helping out a bit over the wk end.