My thick head
I’m beginning to suspect my headaches aren’t sinus related. It’s my doctor’s fault, really. She planted a seed in my head last week when she said, “I think your headaches may be caused by something other than sinusitis.”
I’m pretty quick, eh?
And yet, when Singulair didn’t work she prescribed another round of steroids. What do both of those drugs have in common? If you guessed they’re allergy related, you win the prize!* I guess I’ll humor the good doctor for now… long enough to finish off this latest round of ‘roids, but I think I may need to get a little more aggressive on my visit with her next week. (I called the office this morning after a long weekend, expecting my next appointment would get bumped up, or she’d try another approach; so another script for steroids was a bit of a disappointment, particularly when she was the one that suggested they may not be allergy related.)
With Beth pushing the OCD envelope lately, I need to be on top of my game; and in my world, headaches and patience are just about mutually exclusive.
Cheryl thinks I’m having migraines. I’d prefer to delude myself into believing they’re sinus related. Sinuses seem like they’d be easier to treat… and these headaches did start when I stopped taking allergy shots. Although, it was also when I started chemo… and the shots were doing their best to kill me (I kept having reactions to the shot), so I can’t exactly start them right up again. Still, it’s a small sign they could be my sinuses, right? Maybe I’ll try that neti pot again. If nothing else, my daughter gets a kick out of watching.
*No, not really.
Thanks for the reply. I had a nasty bit of caffeine withdrawal when I was in the hospital a few months ago. That was the worst. I’ve had some symptoms of migraines, some for tension, on top of my ever present sinus issues. My doctor and I have been working our way down the list… starting with the sinuses (due to my history).
I hope it’s not your patients that think of you as a pain in the posterior ;-)
My doctor talks a lot, and it’s what has endeared my family to her. If she’s got something to say that helps, I’ll listen all day.
Headaches are almost all diagnosed by history, for instance, headaches on the top of the head that get worse as the day goes on and often related to neck pain or stiffness are known as tension headaches. Headaches with an aura such as visual symptoms (spots or something) before and associated with nausea, vomitting, worse in the light or noise, seeming improved (not removed) in a dark quiet room, that you can go to sleep with (kind of weird if you think of it, go to sleep with pain) and wake up with it still there that dont seem to respond to motrin or tylenol are migraines. Many times I have had patients with rebound headaches, they come when someone takes too many motrin, tylenol, naproxyn over the counter to self treat and are then somewhat dependent on these meds to have only minimal headaches. oh and dont forget the caffeine withdrawl headaches, they are among the worst, that is why bufferin “the headache medicine” used to have caffeine in it. any way, I could talk about headaches all day, some people say I am a pain in the other end. :-)
drmatt