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 😢

Yes, I’ve had similar symptoms that were down to severe anxiety and a recent diagnosis of PPPD (which I’m mentioning due to you saying your head / eyes aren’t coordinated), it’s a condition that stems a lot from anxiety. Anxiety can cause such severe and very real physical symptoms. At my worst I was dizzy every day, nauseous, ringing ears, my arms and legs didn’t feel like they were mine, tingling sensations in my scalp etc.

Don’t panic. I am currently on a very similar journey but much further along! Definitely Happy for you to PM me and il tell you everything I have been through so far in detail and what hoops I jumped through with medical staff ophthalmology/ orthoptics / neurologist etc . I’d like to help you I just don’t really want to publicly discuss it 🙂 X

Sinus headaches usually feel worse lying down.

I know 2 people who had brain tumours.

One if them had fits as the first symptom, and the other went blind in one eye as the first symptom. Neither of them felt dizzy.

I have a benign brain tumour and I guess the symptoms can differ depending on where it is, but mine was diagnosed after I had a vacant episode about 13 months ago when I just stopped talking in the middle of a phone call. I've had a few of those since and a few seizures where I've lost consciousness and fallen, but medication is helping and I've been seizure free for four months. Other than not being able to drive, it doesn't really have a huge impact on me.
So what I'm clumsily trying to say is, in the unlikely event it is a brain tumour, it can likely be managed or removed.
As well as the suggestions of things like migraines or severe anxiety, it might possibly be some sort of vertigo? Or a build up of fluid behind one of your eyes? Get an eye test and see if that reveals anything while waiting to see the GP, and try not to get too stressed.

You post about your imagined health conditions a lot don't you?

It's not helpful for people to give you reassurances about this. Just feeds the real condition which is health anxiety

What are you doing about that?

These symptoms point to a brain tumour

Why do you say that? google says migraine, allergies, high BP. Tumour wasn't in top results.

Good that you have a GP appt lined up.

Easy things to check while you wait.

• eye exam at the opticians
• hayfever - take anti histamines
• sinus problem - try Sudafed or sinus massage

Btw Specsaves do MRIs of the eyes for an extra £10ish on top of the cost of an eye test

@lrosey I’d never heard of PPPD - it does sound a lot like what I have.

@Throwawaytoday You must have been terrified after that ham sandwich! Thank you for sharing your story. Migraines are awful.

@TooMuchGoogling Let me know how you get on. We can hold each other’s virtual hands 🙌

Thanks to everyone who has left kind and helpful comments. This thread has definitely convinced me that I should take my health anxiety more seriously and should try to get help.

I have had a much better day today, owing to all the people who have written here to say they’d had the same symptoms and found a benign explanation. I am no longer convinced that death is imminent, except in the existential sense.

Having a few medical appointments in the next few days and will post what emerges here for future googlers.

Just drop me a message if you want to chat about it, my symptoms, tests etc. I also have health anxiety and crippling emetephobia so I totally relate to the day to day struggles you experience.

Update so far: physiotherapist has said there is a musculoskeletal basis for my suffering but that may not be the whole story. The GP would like to send me for an MRI, since the headaches are worse in the morning. And my eye test with OCT scan has not brought up anything out of the ordinary, but apparently my vision has improved slightly in one eye (on the side of the headaches) and my glasses are now a bit too strong for me, which probably adds to my discomfort.

I am very relieved by the eye test results and very glad I didn’t have to fight for an MRI. It is now a question of waiting for the MRI - a piece of cake for a health-anxious person like me 🙃

Lot of self help for people with HA. Nothing to stop you trying some of these ideas now.

if it helps at all, there are many benign causes of raised intracranial pressure headaches that aren't brain tumours! (it sounds like this is the kind of headache you're worried about from your description?). if you are overweight there is a condition called idiopathic intracranial hypertension which often occurs in overweight young women, which would need monitoring and treating but would not be life threatening. i hope you find the answers you're looking for x

Thanks, @tamarinda . I am not overweight, and my blood pressure is normal, as measured by GP the other day. Not that this contradicts your comment that there are many benign causes 😌

Glad the results are good so far and that you didn’t have to fight for an MRI. A wait for an MRI can be reassuring as if there were any very worrying signs they would have fast tracked you, though I know that doesn’t help the agonising wait!

@Heroicallyl0st Yes, it’s reassuring that they’re not in a hurry to scan me! Thank you.

Your symptoms could be caused by a lot of things -
anxiety
migraine
sinuses
dehydration
the weather at the moment
your pillow
poor posture

I've actually y got a brain tumour and have had no symptoms at all. It was only noted when I had an MRI when I had a stroke, a year ago.

Please stop keep getting yourself worked up over what is probably nothing at all. You say you're waiting for all those various appointments, but there are many people who are waiting because they have got things wrong with them.

Your symptoms are exactly the same as my work friend. He thought he had a brain tumour and went for MRI’s etc. Turns out he had a pinched nerve somewhere in back of his neck, doesn’t even know how he did it. Poor guy went through hell before the diagnosis though.

When my late partner was diagnosed with a brain tumour, he'd had none of the symptoms you describe.

@mamadoit did you get to the bottom of it? Going through the same symptoms, health anxiety, & fear of leaving my young children at the moment!

Any update?!