Headache (!)

As the title suggests, I have them.

Fuck do I have them.

Usually migraines with zig-zaggety lines and words upside down that register hours before as as warning. Painful, but an infrequent visitor thrice a year.

But, lately, it's different.

Very different.

Saturday, I was woken up by the most splitting headache in my entire life. It felt like an axe striking through my forehead and cleaving it in two. Worse than any migraine I have ever had bar none. I could have sworn it was a stroke.

Thanks be to CG for bringing cool wash clothes, pain meds., water, and being there to hear me moan and sob all night then taking the kids bleary-eyed to AM swim practice.

The next day I was groggy, my eyes burned, and I felt hungover. My head felt tender, but I survived. Beaten. On the Couch. All day.

Sunday?

Deja Vu.




Sheer agony woke me from a sound sleep at 4 AM. A hot poker behind my right eye and again the axe-murdered syndrome. CG said he knew one was coming because my breathing changed in my sleep and woke him up first.

My friends? Worse than labor. Yes, my friends, coming from a mama that had a 10 lb. baby, I still say WORSE THAN LABOR. It lasted for an hour.

It left me feeling bruised, afraid to sleep, and with burning eyes.

I reached out to friends on Facebook. I researched on line.

Believe me I'm Dr. Google with the rest of them. I quickly diagnosed myself as having cluster headaches otherwise known as suicide headaches. I was sure the doctor's appointment I scheduled was a mere formality.

Who needs a friggin' medical degree when you have Google.

My doctor friends also from Google University chimed in on Facebook .

{Hi Helen}

Another friend agreed. Many expressed concerned.

Friends, Facebook is sometimes not your friend.

I was told to not be alarmed BUT get to an ER STAT for ct scan. Heh. Something about:

"Sudden, severe headache that is worse than any headache the patient has ever had is the classic red-flag for subarachnoid bleed; however, it can also occur with cerebral sinus thrombosis, arterial ... See Moredissections, and idiopathic intracranial hypertension. Monitor these patients with pulse oximetry, watch blood pressure and ECG closely, establish intravenous access, and obtain an emergency head CT. Elevate the head"

Yikes, second opinions are a bitch! Heh!

I diagnosed through my keyboard on FB that if my brain was bleeding, the headache wouldn't have been intermittent. Call me Google Neurologist, bitch. Hee!

Dr. Helen concurred.

So today, I went to doctor. she was concerned. Very concerned. She said these can be hints of what is to come. She ordered a MRI and MRA just to get a baseline and, "To rule out anything out of the usual."

On lab slip, it said "Tumors and aneurysms."

Fuck! Tumors and aneurysms??? Sounds like sub arachnoid bleed.

Officially alarmed.

Touche, Helen, touche. You are the best Google Neurologist on the planet.

I'll keep you posted...

'lisciously scribed by Scout's Honor @ 11:21 AM