Headaches for almost 3 years! Any ideas?

Brain and nerves
1

Hey! I'm Victoria and I am 17.

I have been getting chronic headaches since December 2012, it all started from a bang to the head.

I have been to the doctors numerous times, only to be given different diagnoses and tablets, such as Sinus problems, which I had antibiotics for, tension headaches, cluster headaches, ect...

I have had 2 MRI's, luckily both are clear.

I have had blood tests for Thyroid, Anemia, and Diabetes.

I have been given so many tablets, but I always have side effects such as getting really hyper, or not being able to sleep.

Here are the tablets I've been given in almost 3 years:

- Pizotifen x4

- Amatriptalyn x2

- Lansoprazole x1 - I also had chest pains, which still come and go, but I've had an ECG for that and all is fine.

- Propanalol x1

- Sumatriptan x3

- Topamax - Started at 25mg, never went any higher....

On the 21st of May I went to the Neurologist, and he gave me the Topamax, starting on 25mg, and he wanted me to increase it to 50mg 2 weeks after, until I get to 200mg a day.

I started getting more depressed ( I suffer from depression anyway, but it was just making it worse ) And I was way too tired to do anything.

2nd of June I went to walk out the bathroom, and my vision went all blury and I fainted, I'm not sure if it was the tablets or not, but my mum made me stop taking them.

Apart from them tablets, I am a really tired person anyway. No matter how many hours sleep I get, I am ALWAYS tired, I always need to have a nap during the day, and even then I still wake up tired.

This has been happening since September 2014.

My arms also ache a lot, and sometimes my stomach has sharp pains, as well as the top of my arm.

I also get tingly hands and feet too.

I'm not sure what is happening, but I just don't feel right anymore, I am always getting told by the doctors to take certain tablets, I never get a proper diagnoses that actually helps me.

I take Magnesium and B2 everyday, but nothing seems to work.

I usually get 2 migrains, if not 3 a week, but the headache is always there, from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to sleep, and the amount of college I have missed because of it is terrible.

2 weeks ago I went to the doctor as I had a tonsile infection, and I had antibiotics for a week, and it cleared up... But It is really hard to swollow food, as if they have closed up, and I went to the doctors about it today (24th June), and they told me there is nothing wrong, but to have a Glucose levels and FBC blood test. So hopefully that will tell them something.

I'm just so sick of going back and forth to the doctors, getting different answers each time. I don't know if there is something up, but I just need help or anything.

Thank you

-Victoria

 

2

Hi it seems like you are suffering alot. I dont know if this will help you or not but it might be worth looking up fibromyalgia i am only saying this as my mother is on amitriptaline aswell and she suffers from sharp pains in the arms and neck and tingling in the hands and feet i dont know whether headaches are a symptom of this condition but its worth looking into.

Also look on the leaflets of all the medications and see if headaches are a side effect.

Taking regular antibiotics is no good as you body builds up a tolerance to them it gets immune so then when you really do need them they dont work the same. I to have had alot of courses of antibiotics.

I suffer with extreme tiredness and dizziness and i have also fainted a few times and like you im not getting a definate answer from my doctors however i was told i had gall stones and had to have my gall bladder removed but im still suffering with the same symptoms however with this i was getting severe abdominal pain.

Hope you get some answers soon as i can imagine it is very draining feeling like that on a daily basis

3

You've really been through it, Victoria.

good points are the MRI, blood tests and ECG show up nothing.

lots of us have found the doctors just chuck pills at us with no proper diagnosis. I have a separate eye problem and the guesses were that thrown at me, in a hospital eye dept by nurses ( as no doctor available even though I had an appointment ) were strange and wildly inaccurate.

start with a diary---- each day what you've eaten, drunk, any meds and how you feel. Try cutting out coffee, cheese, alcohol. In my 40s I had headaches and exhaustion, heaviness in legs and arms. Hospital tests showed nothing. I narrowed it down to gluten intolerance. I cut out all gluten, ate steamed veg, eggs, rice for a month and the difference was amazing. Headaches lifted, energy levels increased. 

Its a process of elimination to find out what is causing the problem. 

Good lyck. 

4

Have u heard off Vestibular Migraines. They are headaches which include dizziness everyday unless controlled by prevention meds. I've had this 3 yrs after suffering with labyrinthitis before hand. Look it up, it's very very common and can get better with the right meds. X