I have been taking doxycycline 100mg
2x/day for 12 weeks for bacterial
prostatitis which is no longer
symptomatic.
Four days ago at around 2pm while at my
desk I noticed a brief painful stabbing
sensation from the right side of my head,
approx. 2 inches above the top of my
temple. The pain lasted 10-15 seconds and
faded away, returning every 3-5minutes.
This lasted for about an hour and did not
recur.
Yesterday, two days after the first
experience, the pain returned early in the
day at the same location. It has
persisted ever since coming at varying
intervals between 5 minutes and an hour.
I can discern my pulse in the pain. It
does not feel deep, as if it is just
inside my skull. I have not noticed any
problems with vision, coordination, or
memory. I have not had any problem
falling asleep or staying asleep. I
experienced the first pain of the day this
morning shortly after waking at my normal
time, prior to putting my glasses on.
There is no pain in my eye. Aspirin 400mg
and acetaminophen 500mg together have had
no notable effect. I am 25 and in average
to good condition with a good diet. I
don't drink or use tobacco, but I do smoke
cannabis on the weekends. Cannabis raises
my blood pressure shortly after ingestion
and this action has no effect on pain
severity or frequency. My BP the day
before the first experience was 120/60.
I have read that doxycycline can cause
elevated intracranial pressure or
intracranial hypertension. On the
possibility that this headache is the only
symptom I am experiencing I have stopped
taking the antibiotics.
Is this consistent with elevated ICP and
if so is there any other step I need to
take or should this resolve on its own? If
not, what else could this be? Is this
history typical of cluster headaches?
Thank you.
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MandMs
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 2268 Location: Strumica, Macedonia
Thanks: 46
Thanked:11
Posted: 06-11-08 03:36am
Headache due to increased cranial pressure
has different quality than the one you
have experienced.
Also, it would be accompanied with other
prominent symptoms like nausea, vomiting,
altered level of consciousness.
Were you experiencing other symptoms?
Did the following attacks of pain vary in
frequency?
Are you suffering from other types of
headaches, too?
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andyp
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 08 Jun 2008 Posts: 2
Posted: 07-16-08 08:09am
A couple days after my opening post I
started experiencing visual symptoms.
Blurred vision at times with changes in
color perception. I could describe it as
everything getting "cartoonish," like the
onset of a psychedelic. The pain was
still present, pulses varying in frequency
and just as debilitating. At this point I
tried caffeine as a diuretic with mild
relief of symptoms. I then read a study
showing that aescin, found in horse
chestnuts, was successful in treating
elevated ICP in well over half of patients
studied. I found a horse chestnut seed
extract with 60mg aescin per dose, three
times what was used in the study. My
symptoms started improving within a few
hours and were completely gone in two
days. I continued to take the horse
chestnut extract every 8 hours for as I
found if I stopped taking it I would start
to feel the headaches again. After about
three weeks I stopped treatment and have
not had any recurrence of symptoms.
|
MandMs
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 2268 Location: Strumica, Macedonia
Thanks: 46
Thanked:11
Posted: 07-25-08 05:46am
The headache or head pains, you have been
experiencing, in clinical medicine is
known as idiopathic (without known cause
or reason) stabbing headache.
It's not related to increased cranial
pressure.
This headache is characterized by brief,
sharp, severe jabbing pains about the head
that occur either as single episodes or as
brief repeated volleys.
Typically, lasts for seconds, having the
shortest duration of all known headaches.
The frequency of attacks varies immensely,
ranging from 1 attack per year to 50
attacks per day.
These pains are usually unilateral,
occurring mainly around the orbit or the
temple.
Although most of the cases are unprovoked,
rapid alterations in posture, physical
exertion, bright light, and head motion
during migraine attacks, are recognized as
triggers in some individuals.
