Post Edited (Tulip) : 10/6/2005 10:38:51 PM (GMT-6)
Hi Tulip,
Welcome. I can empathize with you. I often describe the feeling in my head as "if its going to explode". I would concur with your doctor - though I don't have any medical training just lots of personal experience - I often feel the constant pressure in my head and it can go on for a long time. When it's really bad I take a combination of anti-inflamatory (Toradol) and pain killer (Tylenol 3) to reduce it.
I have found exercise (believe it or not 
) to help. I have found that starting out with low intensity cardio vascular activities and and then increasing intensity helps by building the strength of your blood vessels so they can return to normal size. It is a slow process but it does work.
I hope this helps a bit. Let us know how it goes.
Nicky
Bob,
The Neurologist has done several tests, a MRI, MRA, CT Scan and blood work. All came back ok. The Doc I was going to, specialized in headache....but he passed away. He was really helping me. The new Neuro. is following the same type treatment and agrees that it's inflammed vessels. For a while I was experiencing a pulsating sensation in my head, and the Neuro. said that was vessel spasms, gave me another blood pressure med and it hasn't happened since. The pressure makes me feel so "funny", like I've got a vice on my head. The doc is say "in time", once the cycle is broken, the pressure should be gone and then I have to learn to "manage" it. I've just never dealt with anything like this...it came on all at once like you flipped a light switch. The constant part of it all is what is draining on me. Thanks for your input.
Tulip
i'm exact the same as you its like a vice do u have a tight chest all the time aswell, i've just seen my doc today i am on adalat and propranolol he things something is inflammed, what meds are you taking? how long have you been taking meds for it?, i've only just started about 4 weeks ago.
Rob
Hi Rob,
Yes, sometimes I do feel tightness of chest, but not all the time. I have been taking meds for it for almost two years now. The Neuro. told me that we have to keep trying to we get "my" combination, because eveyone is different...which makes sense. I have been taking Depakote ER, (which he is now cutting down on dosage), Neurotin and Veramapil. The Neurotin is what he's increasing each time. It's helping, but I still feel the pressure every day, but not as intense. I have gained a lot of weight too, I think from the Depakote ( that's why we're cutting that dosage). I was afraid I had heart trouble, but my reg. doc sent me to a cardiologist, because I have a rapid heartrate...but they did a treadmill test...that was borderline....so they sent me for a thallium test and it came back fine. So that made me feel better.
My symptoms really get worse in stressful situations.....but I'm convinced it's inflammed blood vessels....
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate you sharing your experiences. Hopefully we can help each other and someone else in the process.
Tulip
When i saw a neurologist he gave me neurotin (gabapentin) it doesn't do beans my new doctor says this aswell hes never know it to work, he gave it me 2 relax muscle tension cause he seems to think its muscle causing the pressure, its not a drug for inflammed blood vessels???
I've had depokot aswell when i had a psychosis i got fat and i'm still fat now made me very depressed aswell.
them 2 drugs are very strange for inflammed blood vessels they should have no effect, i don't know about your other drug i'll have a read about it,,,,are u fatigued all the time and do you work? i'm 2 fatigued and i don't work now.
Rob
Hi the Veramapil is the same sort of pill i have been given adalat to dilate the blood vessels how long have u had it for???
Have u ever considered the pressure to be muscle?
Robx
Rob,
I don't know if it could be muscle or not, several docs opinions are that it is vessels.
I have gained a lot of weight since being put on the Depakote ER, in fact the doc is taking me off it little by little for that reason. I am fatiqued, but figure a lot of that is the medications. I'm just hoping in time that all this will go away. I have appt. with Neuro. this coming friday. I'm anxious to see what he says / does.
What's your age ? If you don't mind me asking.
Tulip
I am also on verapamil.
I am now on week six and we have gone up to 420mg. I have still been getting migraines nearly daily...I am waiting for this drug to kick in!
Has this medication been helping you at all?
I was diagnosed with basilar artery migraine and apparently this is one of the only med's that work for this type of head ache.
Natchie
I'm 26, do you goto work?
Been like this since i was 21 i'm not the same person don't feel happy no more feel bad everyday its so depressing, thing is i don't see it going away and being like this forever and the thought of feeling like this forever is just pointless eventually i think i will just stop eating and go into eternal life.
I live with parents no1 else in my life can't go and socialize. I'm like when there dead what do i just hang around on my own with this disease. Does your head shake when u talk to people at the back?
Rob
Natchie
I'd give that tablet abit longer thats quite a high dose, i hear alot that people don't respond to drugs or do i mean that the drugs are pants.
Rob
I am 31.
I have been getting migraines since I was 9 years old. I am originally from Australia, now living in NYC. When I was younger i used to have a doctor come to my house to give me injections for my migraines...they were soooooo bad.
I have always had the aura, hallucinations, nausea, vomiting..etc....from my childhood till about my early 20's the migraines were severe and i had them atleast once or twice a week..with a day or two afterwards to recover.
In my late 20's until now, I still got migraines...but no where near as dramatic. i would know the migraine was coming on..and it would and i would be down for a day or two...but this was only happening maybe twice a month.
Since September, I have been having these horrific migraines...which have now been diagnosed as Basilar Artery Migraines. I understand your frustration. I am just taking it one day at a time. taking each day as a new day to heal and maybe achieve a headache free day!
I try to get the right amount of sleep, I have stopped drinking, changed my diet to a trigger free diet, taken up yoga...when I can....taking my medications and doing my best to cope with a situation that SUX!!
Hang in there Rob, Just do the best that you can do each day, that is all you can hope for...
I feel for you.
Natchie
Hi Rob and Natchie,
I sure appreciate your responses. The Veramapil was given to me because my blood vessels in my head ( on the RH side ) were having "spasms". This has corrected that. I still feel head pressure every day. Not near as intense as when all this started. The Depakote Er has helped me, but it made me shake, hair thinning and terrible weight gain. So the doc is taking me off this little by little. My cholestorol is now high. The doc just told me it was going to take a long time to get "rid" of this. A slow process. I do think there's light at the end of the tunnel now though.
Hang in there Rob. There was a time I felt totally hopeless. I have been working during all this. Many days, just trying to get through the day and when I got home, headed straight for the couch. There was a time I was afraid to drive, that's when the vessels were having spasms. That was a real weird feeling. I'm 44.
Take Care.
Tulip
No fortunately, I do not have a family. I have however have been unable to work or do much of anything for the past 6 weeks. I am feeling much better this week...so planning to go back to my life next week. getting back into everyhting very very slowly.
You have to keep going until you find a way to manage your pain. Don't stop until you do.......
Natchie
My problem is my crap mood day in day out of having my head squeezed.
Tulip did u have flu before this head pressure came on i did.
How did u feel not going to work natch sorry to hear u have no family if that was me i wouldn't carry on, i guess u have hope of meeting someone.
I do have family...siblings, mother..but they are in Australia. I mean't that I have no children of my own. I do have a husband who is very very supportive and understanding.
Not being able to work has been the worst thing for me. I am normally very motivated and driven and busy...I do feel like however that I am at the beginning of feeling finally back to normal....we will see.........
This may help, probly won't, but I'll tell you anyway. I am 26yrs old and have had migraines since I was about 11, with chronic daily headaches starting about five yrs ago. I've been to many doctors, tried many meds and alternative therapies, pretty much anything I can get my hands on. And nothing has worked. It was making my life soooo hard and I was definitely miserable a lot. Then I started a job working as a filed biologist (I was completely afraid of failure due to missing days because of head pain, but I did it anyway), and for the first time, my headaches were much much better. I went from having daily 2-4 headaches and a weekly 9-10, to daily 1-2 and only two 9-10 migraines in four months! After I left, the headaches went right back to what they were before. The difference in my life there was that I was getting more excersise (non-cardio) then I have ever gotten. The excersise was walking through water 7hrs a day for the first 2 months and the just walking 7hrs a day for the last two months. The only other thing that was different was that I was taking wellbutrin to quit smoking, but I stopped taking that before the field season was over. With my job now there's no way I can get that kind of exercise, so I have to wait until the next field job to see if tons of exercise really was what did it! It also made me really happy (although maybe that was because my head felt so much better and I was on anti-depressants!)
Hey Sauer,
Thanks for your reply. I really need to add the exercise to my daily activity. I don't exercise at all. I have gained a lot of weight during all this....I attribute some of it to the Depakote ER and then a lot to me for eating and not exercising. These headaches drain me of so much that I just don't have any energy and get up an go ! Do you any of you just feel totally exhausted because of the constant headaches ?
Thanks for everyones relies. Keep 'em coming.
Tulip