Recurring Headaches

by Jennifer
(North Hollywood)

Hi,

Until maybe the last few months or so, 95% of my headaches could be cured simply by drinking a bottle of water, indicating they were brought on by dehydration. But more recently, no amount of water seems to help. I started getting them everyday, starting in the afternoon and lasting until night - sometimes advil was helpful, sometimes not.

I am not big on taking meds so it usually has to get kinda bad before I will take anything, but when this was going on I was taking something every day. I don't like the idea of getting dependent or developing those headaches that are actually from the meds, so I tend to avoid taking them.

I completely gave up caffeine and it seemed like that was doing the trick, but maybe it was something else I did, because now the headaches seem to be back and I have hardly touched any caffeine at all.

To describe the headaches, well, the one I have now is on the right (my right) side of my head only. It is just a dull throbbing, not excruciating, but bad enough that I don't want to do anything. It sorta just seems to shoot through the middle of the right side behind my eye. Additionally I have noticed I seem to have occasional weird light sensitivity problems, but not at the same time I'm having headaches. I'll just get all squinty and blinky and have trouble continuing to look at whatever I'm looking at - a person, or a computer screen.

I think it happens under fluorescents which is unavoidable at my workplace. It passes in maybe 20-30 seconds. There was one time I was seeing things like you see after looking at a light thats too bright - aftertrails kinda - only, I hadn't looked at anything to cause that and it continued for longer than it normally would.

Strong smells bother me as well - like the pungent smell of a scented candle after its been blown out - I can't stand it. My neck is kind of stiff when I tilt my head backwards. And I don't know if this is relevant, but I was diagnosed with mononucleosis and a secondary bacterial infection several months ago and my tonsils are still swollen, they have never gone back down. I can't afford to go to a doctor about it, it was expensive enough for him to tell me I had mono.

The last thing is I recently had some mild head trauma, but this occurred after the original onset of the headaches. I also seem to get unusually tired. I know some of these symptoms match with migraine headaches but I just don't think my pain is that severe, they aren't debilitating. Anyway, I just want to figure out the best thing I can do to deal with these, preventative would be best but anything to alleviate them would be helpful as well.

Answer:

Hi Jennifer,

Well you are right, many of your symptoms do sound like migraine headache symptoms.

If you are having a headache everyday you are probably in status migrainosus.

Fluorescent lighting is a trigger in a very small population of migraineurs, but it sounds like your whole syndrome may have been kicked off by the infection. This headache you have now is part of a viral/infectious disease syndrome.

It is possible that you were having lower level migraines before the mono, and the infection has only made it worse. The headaches will not subside until the infection is treated.

You need to get back to the doctor, explain your financial concerns as there are many good generic antibiotics that can help you. A short course of low dose steroid (1-2 weeks) will also help treat the headache.

Good luck and I hope you feel better!
Mary Kay Betz MS RPA-C