Thunderclap headache, big rise in blood pressure
by Linda Christina
I am 50 years old, female. Quit smoking 9 weeks ago. Have a history of high blood pressure, well managed with Ziac. I called my family doctor and he had me take another Ziac and a Xanax and told me to call him back in an hour. After lying down for an hour, I took the pressure again and it was still 176/102. The headache had not eased, in spite of Advil and Fioricet. He had me come in to his office, gave me a different type of blood pressure pill and had me lie down in a room for an hour, with a nurse taking my pressure every 15 minutes. It went down quite a bit in an hour, to 130/92. He told me to stay home from work, go home and get some rest, and if it happens again to go to the ER. It is almost midnight now, I still have a milder headache, and my BP is 132/89. Could the dental work have caused this episode? Another thing to consider is that my sister, who is 3 years younger than me has had 3 aneurisms and has had a shunt implanted to drain fluid. She has been told it is congenital weakness in the blood vessels in her brain and she is at risk for further arachnoid hemorrages. Needless to say, I am worried. This has never happened to me and I am afraid it might happen again. I look forward to hearing from you. Linda Answer: Hi Linda, Thanks for the complete history..it makes it easier for me to see what is going on. Your doctor was on the right track yesterday as getting the blood pressure down was important. I am glad that you stayed in his office until it was under better control. Although this sounds like it could have been a high blood pressure headache, there are a couple of flags here. First of all you have a family history of aneurysm which puts you at risk for one. Other things that increase your risk are the history of hypertension that may or may not be under good control and the history of smoking. Even though you recently quit (what ever you do, NEVER start again) this is your biggest risk factor. Many of my patients who have had aneurysms only had smoking as a risk factor. Secondly, you had a change in your headache profile. Although, as I said, it would be easy to put it down to a blood pressure issue, none the less you need imaging. It would also be easy to say you had a bad migraine, triggered by dental work and your blood pressure went up because of the migraine...but the headache was somewhat refractory to treatment. I would recommend you speak to your doctor today and request an MRI of the brain and an MRA which looks at the arteries and rules out aneurysm. It doesn't matter if you had these done before, this new incident means you should have them done now, within a day or two. A CT of the brain is not sufficient as it doesn't catch small aneurysms. The problem with aneurysms is that the majority of the time, people have a "sentinal" headache a few days or weeks before a rupture. Remember, your risk of stroke is higher too because of above factors and a history of migraine. Best of luck! Mary Kay Betz MS RPA-C Thunderclaps, and resulting vertigo
by Debbie
Hi, about 4 months ago I experienced thunderclap headaches two nights in a row. I literally saw an explosion going off in my head and it was excruciating. My Husband have a Headache for a Month Now
by Melanie
Hy Does the scenerio above sound like you? If not, or if you think you need more information please read about different types of headaches to find out which type of headache you are experiencing. |
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