I think I have a brain tumour

[mamadoit]

I have had a headache for weeks, it is not severe but is accompanied by nausea, a feeling of pressure at back of head, and a bizarre sensation that my head and eyes are not working in sync, which makes me dizzy and foggy. Most worryingly, the headache is always worse when I have been lying down. It responds to paracetamol, but always comes back.

I am a self-confessed hypochondriac with regular health anxiety crises (mostly motivated by fear of leaving my children). These symptoms point to a brain tumour and I am terrified. Has anyone had something similar and had it NOT turn out to be a brain tumour?

Thanks for your support 😢

I have looked up nopanic.org.uk and it turns out they have a helpline - thanks to @HinchcliffeandMurgatroyd for the tip.

Well, I’ve been lying down since starting this thread, which has made my headache worse (the lying down, not the thread!) - but I’ve been awake and not clenching my jaw, so that can’t be it.

Yes, was just migraines

Sitting here going through different diagnoses will only feed your health anxiety - right now you are using this thread to train your brain to believe you are right to fear imminent destruction when that is not true. Which is the opposite of what you need to do if you are to stop having these recurrent crises.

Cognitive behavioural therapy would most likely be the best intervention, or a trauma therapy if this pattern of thinking was originally started by a traumatic experience (e.g. WItnessing the illness of a loved one.)

You should be able to self-refer for NHS CBT.

I’ve had three benign brain tumours, first one being the size of a satsuma. I had absolutely no symptoms until my eye sight started to go (I was 16). Had emergency brain surgery within two weeks of my first eye test.
Brain tumours are very rare, so please don’t just jump straight to that.
Sending love OP, I’m sure everything is fine.

Yes I've had this very recently actually! But my headaches always felt like pressure behind my eyes etc. blurred vision, headaches, nausea. I booked an eye test with the oct test as i read that they can sometimes detect brain tumors and stuff. I'd got myself worried sick! The eye test came back clear and the opticians said it sounds like I'm having migraines but since that eye test Ive not had the bad headaches/eye pain. I now think id got myself so worked up that my anxiety had made my symptoms 10 times worse!!

I would book a sight test for tomorrow based off these symptoms. Get them to have a look at your optic nerves.

I'm thinking neck trauma if lying down makes it worse. Friend did something at the gym thought they'd overdone it. Seemed to repair. Months later started with headaches. Six months later had an MRI. His wife threatened to sue the trust. It was a c2 c3 issue.

An injury doesn't always show up straightaway

I’ve had similar symptoms during a horrible months long bout of health anxiety. Very strange painful headaches, nothing like I’d ever experienced before. Had MRI scans of my head and neck and all clear.

Hope you get seen soon and get some reassurance.

If it is health anxiety, be aware the medical reassurance may only temporarily calm you, because it won’t be speaking to the part of you that’s really worried about something underneath.

If tests come back all clear, look up Owen O’Kane, Nicole Sachs and Sheryl Paul on anxiety/health - all really useful.

@ArabellaDrummond I can’t imagine what you have been through!

Yes - this for me was the "mild" end of what became chronic migraine. At my worst I'm suffering attacks 27 days a month and unable to function for most of them. The milder version was very much as you are now.

Everyone's experience is different. Anxiety can absolutely cause this on it's own, as can various vitamin deficiencies, anaemia etc.

Iron and Vit D deficiencies made me feel very similar!

It was tension headaches triggered by migraines. I was getting migraines with every period for a few days then daily tension headaches in between. Apparently it’s classic for tension headaches to be worse when you’re lying down and not uncommon for migraines to trigger them. I went on the contraceptive injection and that stopped both the migraines and the headaches for a couple of years. Unfortunately they’ve recently come back again exactly like before, no idea why but it’s driving me mad!
I’m going to try acupuncture this time and hope that helps.

@Heroicallyl0st Thank you. Your mention of a ‘horrific month-long bout of health anxiety’ made me laugh 😆 I know what those feel like!

Had same but paid 300 private scan within a week and nothing there on mri- anxiety and drink more water

@WestIsWest Interestingly, I also recently tried to go on the pill, and my headaches became so frequent I came off it - only to get this instead!

I had this headache when I was iron deficient. It was horrendous and I was sure I was going to die. It took 3 months off high dose iron for it too fully go away. Then I got so constipated I got piles!!
please don’t panic and remember lots of orange juice and spinach. No one wants an arse like a cauliflower.

Migraine sufferer here. After my repeat prescription for Maxalt melts was cancelled due to TTC I had to just deal with them.
went to my doctors just over a year later and told them I’d had headaches almost everyday for the last year with the odd migraine thrown in.
Had and CT scan and blood work and the diagnosis was embarrassingly hypotension. Symptoms also include dizziness and nausea.

Drinking more water and adding salt to my diet and hey presto I was ok.

Migraines can cause some very bizarre things to happen and do not always follow the same pattern. The chances are that this is a migraine coupled with anxiety.

I hope that your GP will be able to give you some reassurance.

I’m fine ❤️ I’m now 28 with a nearly 8 month old and living a totally normal life. I have an MRI a year and I have a plastic plate in my skull to try and stop the regrowths, but I am totally fine.

Op I am going through the exact same thing, withe same symptoms and same concern about a brain tumour!

I have been having severe brain fog, dizziness, headaches, tiredness and nausea for about 2 months now. Sometimes it gets better for a week then comes back and I feel like shit all over again.

The doctor has done blood tests which I'm waiting for the results for, and also did an ecg in case there was a problem with my heart (heart rate was very high)

Ecg has came back normal as did a blood pressure test. I had enough eye test done as well and a scan done to look at my optic nerve which came back as normal and healthy, so I would strongly recommending getting in touch with your optician to arrange this.

Just have to wait for my blood results to see if there's any deficiencies. But I am absolutely terrified and keep working myself into panic attacks which make the dizziness 10 times worse!

Nothing helpful to add except I understand what you're going through.

I know you say you have booked to see an ophthalmologist. Do you mean optometrist? If so, you should be booked in as soon as possible if you have described your symptoms to them.

I am extremely anxious and have been treated for health anxiety (really I'm anxious about pretty much everything, once I plug one anxiety, I can immediately obsess about five more - seriously, I am currently 'certain' I'm dying of at least two diseases).

I had exactly the same headaches/fogginess/eye jarring weirdness you describe (but I also had a strange tingle down the right hand side of my face which, of course, I thought was a stroke).

After seeing a neurologist, and an MRI, they found little white calcifications on my frontal lobe (immediately, I thought of death and disaster) but it turns out they are harmless, and they go hand-in-hand with aura migraines and vestibular migraines - and every singe symptom I had had, lined up with them too.

I could just be your migraines have changed shape! As my neurologist said "migraines are not a headache, they are a neurological attack".

To add - one day I got so dizzy chewing a ham sandwich that I was sick in the kitchen sink... you can see why I thought I was dying!