Headache that won't go away

wasted pixels

Preface: I am uninsured and living paycheck-to-paycheck, so please no "doctor. now." posts unless there is a meaningful, life-threatening risk here -- I'm just getting back on my feet after losing my job a year ago, and medical bills would lead to certain bankruptcy.

Over the last five or six days, I've been developing a headache that doesn't ever seem to go away. It starts out relatively minor in the morning, gets worse in the evening, then fades toward bedtime. 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM seem to be the "peak" hours. It's a throbbing, pulsing sort of pain on the right side of my head, I've used the realistic dummy below to mark the approximate area that hurts:



I'm not on any medication, I'm not taking any pain relievers for the headache, and I'm generally healthy. I have several severe concussions in my medical history, but have never suffered from frequent or lasting headaches. My diet and exercise patterns haven't changed dramatically, my stress level (aside from some minor relationship stuff) is actually dropping right now, and the only major environmental change I can think of is that I'm living in a colder climate and there was a pretty sharp drop in temperature around the time the headaches started. I've pondered whether the difference in climate/atmospheric pressure here could be messing with the damage to my noggin ("feeling it in my bones", so to speak), but that's just a theory.

Is there a doctor in the house?

Sentry

How much water and caffeine do you consume?

wasted pixels

Sentry wrote: »

How much water and caffeine do you consume?

About 64 ounces of fluids daily counting juice and tea. Relatively little caffeine, maybe one pop and/or one coffee a day.

bowen

I'd wager a guess that you have some allergies that become more pronounced in the winter times. Thus, a sinus headache. That's about where I get mine and the pressure is just intense. Feels like someone is just pushing their fist down into my head.

Mad Jazz

Any sensitivity to light or sound? Nausea? Vomiting? Loss of appetite?

It's sounding like a long migraine to me, but take that with a grain of salt since I'm not actually a medical professional. Yet.

Sentry

hm... well, I mean, the only non-medical things I think it might be would be stress or the weather. But it doesn't sound like there's any huge reason to panic. I'd wait and see if it goes away as the weather settles down.

VisionOfClarity

It could be a migraine, it could be from the climate change or it could be a tumor. I know that's dramatic but week is a long time to have a persistent headache, especially if this is a new problem. The closest problem I've ever had that's similar is that when the weather changes extremely I get a lot of pressure in my sinuses and a severe headache on and off for as long as 3 or 4 days sometimes. For that I take an Advil, lay down in a dark room and keep a heating pad on my face. That being said, you're sinuses are not on the top right side of your head so I don't think this will help you.

If I were in you're situation I'd see if Advil helped and if not I would consult a doctor to see if there were something more serious wrong.

Thanatos

Unless you drink a lot, don't fuck around with Advil, and go straight to Extra-Strength Excedrin, or the generic equivalent (should be acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine). If that helps, problem solved.

wasted pixels

Thanatos wrote: »

Unless you drink a lot, don't fuck around with Advil, and go straight to Extra-Strength Excedrin, or the generic equivalent (should be acetaminophen, aspirin, and caffeine). If that helps, problem solved.

I'll take two Excedrin and reply to you in the morning, then, I guess. Thank you for the input so far, everyone.

Except for you, VisionOfClarity, my girlfriend just found this thread, looked at me in horror, and yelled, "IT'S NOT A TOOOMAH!!"

Hahnsoo1

If it were a true classic migraine, I'd actually suggest a combination of naproxen (Aleve) and caffeine (some Excedrin formulations have this, but this is all over the counter stuff). While all of the aspirin-look-alikes work on the same mechanism (i.e. they all work pretty much the same, despite what you may see in commercials), the effect on each person varies (i.e. everyone is different), so shuffle around between naproxen, acetominophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen until you find one that works for you. If you don't want to do that sort of experimental work, just stick with naproxen.

While migraine can present spontaneously later in life, usually classic migraine is present at an early age. My best guess for a unilateral headache that occurs near the winter time at colder locations is cluster headache. The wikipedia page is frightfully crammed full of useless information about it. Everyone that I know who has cluster headaches all have them in the winter time. Most of them use oxygen (breathing pure oxygen for some sufferers can alleviate the symptoms during the early stages).

mts

if its a migraine try to have cup of coffee, typically the caffeine will help it. it sounds more like an allergy thing since it builds up all day

DVG

Just from personal experience, head to the grocery story and check your blood pressure. It doesn't normally have any symptoms, but when it starts to go high and stays there for awhile you can get daily headache. It's how I found out about mine. It's a good free first step to checking for a problem.

Also, if it comes back high, take a deep breath and take it again. BP can vary widely in the space of a couple minutes. The stress of having your BP taken can raise it as much as 30 points (called white coat syndrome) and give you a false-high.

Hypatia

It could be caffeine withdrawal if you haven't had any lately and you're used to getting some daily.

It could also be a migraine like people said, does it feel better if you're in a cool, dark, quiet place?

rfalias

Increase caffeine, lower sodium for a few days, see what happens. Prolly migranes, triggered by stress or work or light or ..... you get the idea.

-Phil-

Maybe check your blood pressure at a local pharmacy or fire rescue station?

matthewb

Do you slouch? Use a computer alot? If so, when your sitting at the computer consistantly do you lean primarily to your right?

A few months ago I had a similar issue in the same spot on my head, but on the left side. There was no pain, it was just pressure, and sometimes now it comes back for a little bit, but only faintly.

I was all freaked out about it being cancer, until I eventually went to the doctor, who said he couldn't detect any of the simptoms of brain cancer, but asked if I slouch when I'm at the computer, which I do, and I'm at the computer alot.

He suggested to go see a physical therapist, to get a massage, so I went, and the therapist said almost straight away that there was some problem with my muscles in my upper back, neck and skull. ( I couldn't tell you what the problem was.) And that it was all on the left, and asked if I lean to my left when sitting at the computer. (Which I do, because where I sit at my desk sort of cuts into the desk, so there is two sides for me to lean on, and because my computer is mostly to the right...I lean to my left.) She even found a certain area in my neck, that when she poked it or pulled it or SOMETHING, the pressure in my head suddenly hurt very sharply, right on the pressure.

So I was eventually sent to a chiropractor who picked up whats wrong instantly, and so I've had to go back to him every few weeks so he can do his back cracking thingo...

So, are you sitting down alot? Leaning in a certain direction? Hell even when I stood up I'd lean to my left, and my feet would even naturally point to the left when I laid on my back.

So, thats a possibility I guess, if you feel it's a possibility for you, I can only suggest you sit up straight at the computer! and try to never slouch, and make sure you don't lean in any direction. :winky:

I also suggest getting a gym ball so sit on at the computer, start off just sitting on it 15 minutes a day and slowly increase the amount of time spent on it.

Also certain foods could be causing the problem, caffieine and greasy food.

Well, that's my only suggestion, good luck!

Edit- I can no longer drink coke, as I get a migraine a short time afterwards, and the pain is only at the spot where I get the pressure.
DAMN CAFFIENE.

Foomy

how is your vision? I know before I got glasses and when I start to need a new ones, I get headaches a lot from all the squinting.

just a thought.

Thanatos

Really, throbbing pain and the relatively small area it effects points to it being a migraine, though the lack of sensitivity to light and sound points away from that. The thing about headaches is that they are, at best, incredibly mysterious to medical science. No one has any clue why some people get migraines and others don't. No one knows why some people don't get "brain freeze" from eating too much cold stuff too fast, but the people who don't get brain freeze also never get migraines. No one is really sure what causes "brain freeze," for that matter.

Like I said, though, best guess for your headaches would be a migraine. Here's the thing about migraines: the list of things which can't trigger migraines is probably shorter than the list of things that can. Caffeine, for example, frequently helps with migraines, yet it can also be a migraine trigger. So can chocolate, changes in the weather, a variety of food and drinks, stress, booze, lack of food and drink, etc.

How often do you eat during the day? What do you normally eat? Something you may want to try: fasting for a day (skip breakfast and lunch, drink nothing but water). If that helps, it would tend to point to some sort of food trigger for the headache. If it doesn't help, try eating more often during the day.