Headaches Suck

On Monday, October 25th, I woke up with a headache. Nothing debilitating. Nothing that alarmed me. I didn't even take medication, don't normally, I hate pills. It was this dull pain that filled my entire head and didn't leave me. I went to bed that night and thought no more of it.

When I woke up the next morning with the same headache, I did a kind of "hmmm" but went about my day. I think I went to the gym, taught a piano lesson, my usual stuff. I might have taken something and it might have helped a bit but I know the pain didn't go away for long.

By the 4th day, I wasn't sleeping so well at night. The pain was getting more severe and was waking me up at night. It felt like my pillow was filled with cement. Anything I took worked for a short while, but the pain came back so I stopped taking anything. At night, though, I resorted to taking an old prescription for darvocet just so I could sleep through the pain.

That weekend, I knew it was time to see a doctor. This wasn't normal. This wasn't right. I started going over in my head what could be going on........a week prior to the start of the headache, we'd gone to a theme park, and I'd gone on a roller coaster twice. About an hour later I had my very first aura migraine (no pain--I had taken some meds for a sore ankle that we think headed off a headache). Four days prior to the headache I had a filling removed (I have TMJ).

After getting blown off by my primary doc twice (he's now my EX primary doc) I got in to see an urgent care doctor who ran some blood work and put me on an anticonvulsant drug called neurontin and prescribed the painkiller phrenilin. My SED rate wound up being elevated so I got a referral to a neurologist. A repeat of the SED rate wound up normal (I've learned it can be a fickle test).

Neuro took me off the neurontin (all it was doing was making me sleepy) and put me on topamax--another anticonvulsant. Added zomig for migraine attacks (which leaves me feeling drunk for 8 hrs without all the fun). Ordered an MRI. By the time I have the MRI, I've had the headaches for 6 weeks. The MRI is "normal". HA--shows what they know. Me? Normal? Never ;)

Drugs are also fickle things. For some they are miracles, for others, curses. Topamax, for me, has made my life hell. I went from a fairly competent, intelligent woman, to a stupefied, dizzy, anxious woman with tremors, aphasia, horrendous nausa, and the memory span of Dory from "Finding Nemo". It feels like I'm chewing on tin foil all day, I'm seeing spots, and oh yeah I STILL HAVE THE DAMN HEADACHES!!! I have a new painkiller, talwin, haven't taken it yet because I've had so much to do with the holidays and everything knocks me out. I just keep struggling through the pain.

Originally I was going to tough out the side effects of the topamax and see if it helped but enough is enough. Under the advice of the doctor, I'm tapering down--you can't just quit, withdrawal can give you seizures.

So here I am, 8 weeks later, feeling like I'm no closer to finding an answer to why I'm having these headaches than I was before. A few friends suggested I blog, and who knows, maybe someone out there will have some ideas--I've stumbled on some articles and websites that have saved my sanity.

I don't feel that these are "just migraines". I think there is a connection to the rollercoasters (which all the docs keep blowing off), and maybe my neck and TMJ--I bought a memory foam pillow and started using my mouth splint at night and I'm sleeping more comfy at night (even though the pain returns once I get up). I don't like the idea of popping pills to fix everything--especially when we're not sure what IS wrong. I'm leaning towards more natural methods of healing like acupuncture.....at least I know that acupuncture won't leave me feeling like a hollow shell of my former self.

So there's the back story, most of it anyway. Sorry to be so boring, I promise to be funnier in the future ;)