So a month and a little bit ago I went to
a neurologists about my headaches I have
been having.
Description of headaches: always on right
side, around top of eye and temple area.
I always(24/7) have a low throbbing there
that I have gotten used to. Then during
the day (and at night I am also woken up)
I get horrible headaches, they can come on
slowly or very fast it varies and it’s a
sharp stabbing pain in that area that can
last anywhere from a couple of hours to a
couple of min. They get worse if when
having one I bend over to pick some thing
up off the ground. I have these headaches
multiple times a day (one day I counted 11
in just that one day) my average seems to
be 5-6 though. (by the way i'm female and
18)
my neurologist didn’t ask for a
description she only went off of my
regular doctor’s notes. She thought I
was having tension headaches. Because I
didn’t have nausea of sensitivity to
light or any symptoms of migranes.
This is what she had me do: stop taking
all otc pain killers (i had been taking
extra strength tylenol twice a day, they
didn’t help) she gave me prednisone to
take for 3 mornings after stopping the
otcs, but I didn’t take them. She
prescribed nortriptyline starting at 10mg
and raising it by 10mg every 4-7 days if
it wasn’t working. She also had me keep
a headache diary
since then: i’m now taking 50mg of
nortriptyline, with no results. I have
not taken any otcs since she told me to
stop. When I went in a month after my
initial appt. She was shocked when she
saw my headache diary. She asked for a
description of my headaches. Then she
took blood to test, I believe she tested:
blood iron levels (in case I was anemic),
thyroid, and hormonal levels. All of my
blood tests came back normal. She also
said she wanted to do a mri. I had the
mri two days ago. I have heard nothing
since then.
I’m worrying myself sick about all of
this, because when they do a mri aren’t
they looking for tumors??? I’m torn
between them finding a tumor just so I
will know what is causing my headaches.
But I also don’t want to have a tumor.
If my mri comes back normal, what will my
neurologist do next??? What if she
can’t find out what is wrong with me??
Please help me before I make myself sick
with worry.
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Georgia59
Moderator
Joined: 11 Apr 2007 Posts: 5539 Location: Along the Mississippi, USA
Thanks: 87
Thanked:31
Posted: 08-07-08 15:10pm
Doing an MRI could be looking for tumors,
but it's also just a pretty routine check
when investigating headaches with a
neurologist. It doesn't necessarily mean
that tumors are likely, just that they're
a possibility.
