Headaches That Last All Day, What Should I Do Posted: 10-10-06 14:43pm
Hi. I'm not sure how to start so let me
begin a couple weeks ago. It started off
late one night with episode of severe
chest pain followed by a episode of
uncontrolable shaking which lasted roughly
two minutes. After that, I experienced
lingering chest pain for the next week or
so. During this week or so time frame, I
also developed a strange numbing sensation
in my left arm/hand and also in the lower
left side of my face. This bothered me,
so I went and saw a doctor.
The doctor did a ekg and determined there
was nothing wrong with my heart. The
numbness in my arm and face was something
he did not have a answer to. He
suspected it could be a pinched nerve or
something else. He also said that these
type of symptoms go away after a week or
two. Finally, he thought I might be
under a lot of stress and that I was
exhibiting signs of anxiety. He
attributed this to my severe mood swings.
So he gave me a few sample packs of
risperdal (risperidone) tablets one
milligram each. For those unfamiliar,
risperdal is a anti-psychotic medication
given to patients with schizoprenia and
bi-polar disorder. He advised I take
half a pill per day for a week, and step
up to a full pill after that. I thought
about it long and hard and decided to take
this medication, because I was really
stressing out over this chest pain and
numbness.
I think the pills made a difference, they
helped with my anxiety. Gradually, the
numbness in my left arm and left side of
my face dissappeared, as did the chest
pain. So for a few days, I was back to
normal again. Until the past couple
days.
At first, it started of as a mild
headache. Followed by pain in my eyes
and sensitivity to light. This continued
for a day. The pain in my eyes and
sensitivity to light went away. But the
headache worsened.
I am no expert on headaches. I cannot
sit here and tell you I am having a
headache right now or whether its a brain
tumor or a bug crawled up my nose and is
crawling around in my brain. I don't
know, i'm just giving examples. It is
hard to put into words the type of agony I
am experiencing. The best way I could
describe it is a tension headache. It
feels like my brain is being compressed.
The sides of my head above my ears.
Sometimes in the middle of my head. It
makes my head hurt just trying to describe
it.
At first I thought it was this medication.
Because anti-psychotic medications
change the way your brain functions and
sends chemicals and stuff ( i'm not a
expert ). So, I abrubtly stopped taking
the medication. In fear that this
headache would worsen. Since I am taking
very low dosages (just 1 mg a day), I
didn't think I would get that much
withdrawal symptoms.
Anyways, I have been off the medication
for two days now. I have a constant
headache that seems to last all day long
into the night. It's starting to really
bother me and I am getting stressed out
again. It makes me sick (nauseous forgot
how to spell the word) to the point where
I don't want to eat. Lying in bed helps,
it seems to make the feeling go away.
That is, until I get back up.
Right now, I don't know what to do. It
feels like I am going insane. I've
talked to a therapist I once saw, he works
with patients who take this medication.
He advised that I might develop a headache
for a few days if I stop taking the
medication. But I don't see how this
applies to me because I stopped taking the
medication because of headaches.
Also, I was taking the medication wrong (i
think). It says to peel back the foil,
and take out the pill. It also says "do
not push the pill out of the foil, this
could damage the pill". I've been
pushing it out of the foil. Also, since
I initially started taking half a pill a
day, I was saving the other half for my
next dosage. This drug website says
"once the pill is out of the package, take
immediatly and discard any remains." I
have been saving the other half like I
said, out in the open. I don't know if
any of this means anything but I thought I
just throw it in there. My therapist
said it doesn't mean anything, it's just a
clever way for drug companies to get you
to buy more drugs. They tell you to
discard the other half so you buy more
drugs sooner.
Please, I don't know what to do or what to
expect. I don't know what's causing
these headaches and I don't know when I am
going to get better. That's what hurts
the most. If I go see a doctor, the most
amount of time he is going to spend with
me is approximatly 15 minutes, in which
case he'll probably tell me to take some
tylenol/advil/aleve/excedrin/aspirin and
call him in the morning. Something like
that. I've tried taking advil migraine
headache medication, seems to make the
pain worse. Two tylenol maximum strength
seem to have no affect.
I welcome any input, comments and/or
suggestions because I am hanging on by a
thin thread. I've already lost my job
because of my illness. And my life seems
to be going downhill. My previous post
in the carpal tunnel section went
unanswered. I don't think I have carpal
tunnel. But anways, I hope someone
answers me. Thanks for your time.
