My pregnant mates dad died of a brain tumour and now my mate thinks she has it...help??

[happyatlast]

Can anyone please help me put my mates mind at rest? She is pregnant with her second child and she has been getting really bad headaches and blurred vision, at the start of her pregnancy she was itching loads and was diagnosed with OC, but she went the other day and they said her bile levels or something were normal now so they dont think it is that, but they dont think its pre eclampsia either cos they say her blood pressure is not high enough.

Now, she is panicking because her dad died of a brain tumour and I dont want her worrying about this during her pregnancy so I am desperately looking for info for her.

She gets bad headaches, has had them every day for about four months, she is seven months pregnant, she gets blurred vision too but not before the headaches occur like with migraines, does anybody have any ideas? She never had any problems like this with her first child and she has never been prone to headaches before, like menstrual headaches, so she is convinced its a tumour??

Any help much appreciated....

It coould be a response to her dad's illness and it is quite common. Probably the best reassurance for her would be a combination of testing to try and rule out a tumour and couselling to help her come to terms with her dad's death.

She should go back to get her BP and urine checked. Bloods done too. Blurred vision and headaches are a classic sypmtom of Pre-Eclampsia. Depending on what your booking BP is, depends on what is classified as high BP for a person too.

It is common for eyesight to deteriorate during pregnancy, and therefore, if she is suffering a bit of eyestrain, that could also give her a headache.

I would, however, press on with the pre-eclampsia thing.

I would get her to ask for a referal to the Neurologist at local hospital not because its likely she has a tumour but because it will put her mind at rest (having been through it all I know

Then as jimjams suggested some counselling maybe helpful

She says they are worse in the mornings, and they get better as the day goes on and when she coughs or sneezes it hurts her head and sometimes her headaches wake her up.

Her dad died about 15 years ago now so I think shes come to terms with it but she knows from personal experience that the initial symptoms her dad had were headaches and change of personality, now obviously she has had a slight change of personality but then she is pregnant so she will have to a degree wont she, she is really panicking now cos the midwife ruled out pre eclampsia?

then she needs a referral to neuro to put her mind at rest as nothing else will get rid of that fear

She is being referred, the doctor did that earlier but you know what its like, you still worry.She has to wait until next week to see the neurologist.

She also has abdominal pain though which is another sign of pre eclampsia, me personally, I think its pre eclampsia, and she also doesnt drink enough fluids which can cause headaches too, but I guess she is just freaking out at the prospect of seeing a neurologist.

never mind thatr it was 15 years ago. If I'd watched my dad die of a brain tumour I think I'd still be terrified it would happen to me, especially when I was feeling vulnerable.

Agree that it needs to be ruled out. Does she have some urine sticks at home so she can keep an eye out for protein in the urine. I would be a badgering the maternity unit a bit if I was concerned I had pre-eclampsia.

Could be tension headaches if it hurts when she coughs. Is it possible that she is grinding her teeth at night?

Or holding her neck in a funny position? Posture does change during pg. Might be that.

Has she been tested for gestational diabetes? I had blurry vision with that and fellt like shite.

jimjams52, I dont mean she is over her dad dying, my dad killed himself when I was 10 so I know its not as simple as that, its bound to scare her, I just mean that she isnt the type for counselling, the same as me, its not like everytime shes had a headache in the past for more than a few days she thinks that she may have a tumour, its only cos the doctors asked her if there was a history of tumours in her family, thats why she started to panic.

hunkermunker, thanks, I will look into that today.

sorry I didn't mean to offend. I recently read about a similar case where CBT had been useful that was all (in addressing the fear of cancer following a bereavement- although it had been going on for longer). Hopefully getting everything checked out will reassure her sufficiently if no physical cause is found.

Message withdrawn

jimjams no offence taken!

I have tried to help as best I can, I never suffered with headaches with any of my pregnancies, infact they were all incredibly healthy ones so I cant really help, I just keep looking on the internet for possible solutions. Apparently hunkermunker, spoke to her about gestational diabetes and the docs ruled that out too??

Its very common for hormones to cause headaches too.

Everytime my hormones stepped up during pg I would get headaches, cluster headaches or migraines.

I suffer migraines anyway. The contraceptive pill used to give me migraines too.

It's not uncommon, if you have a pre-disposition to headaches like I do. Half my family are the same. It sucks.

Worth checking out all the possibilities for your friend though.