Headaches and Hospital

[amexdm]

Hello,

I search for answers again and wonder how I was treated at the hospital. I know many others have had worse conditions than I but it seems my hospital didnt recognize my head pain and wonder if that is the cause of my 455 day and counting painful headache.

I went in to the hospital with the SAH and "worst possible headache ever" (10) as they call it and had the SAH. 2 days in coma and 4 days in ICU. They then transferred me to neuro unit. I was on Dilaudid (sp) for pain and it hepled me not have to scream in pain. As I lay in the neuro unit my headaches were a 9 or 10 and I screamed for Dilaudid every 6 hours. 6 days after my SAH the nurses told me the doctor said I could have no more IV pain medication. They gave me Tylenol #3 which is a very weak pain med. The last 7 days in the hospital I suffered greatly in the hospital with a 9 or even 10 headache with no one helping me. I was out of it and no strength and had no will to argue. After my second angio was clear they asked if I wanted to go home and I said yes as they never even washed my incisions or me. My wife had to.

So now i wonder after 455 days of headache if they should have treated it better initially. I could be totally wrong but maybe there is a link to my current problem? The doctors tell me all the time "We don't know everything about the brain" so I am not doubting that they didnt know how to treat my headache. I have tried many meds with different doctors and nothing works. My headache is a 4 by 10am and an 8 by 2PM. Try doing financial reports with an 8 headache. It's not fun. There is one pain med that works for me at least to give me relief. Otherwise, I would be Suffering 24/7.

I know many of you may not remember your time in the hospital or my headache may seem trivial, but I wonder if anyone else experience this same treatment. Being cut off 6 days after your SAH and basically told "suck it up and live with the pain". I believe this has something to do with my long term headaches. Anyone else have a similar experience?

David

[goldfish.girl]

Hi David,

As someone who has had the headaches for over 4 years now, I know there is nothing 'trivial' about them. They can be debilitating & control what you can and can't do each day. Like yours, mine build up as the day goes on & it can be incredibly hard to achieve all you need to that day (and I am not currently trying to work full time as I have them). The worst ones are the ones which are there when I wake up - I know then that the day will be a wipe-out. These are the days when even the pain killers don't help.

I can't answer your theory about the hospital treatment. I did get regular, strong pain medication in hospital but I still have headaches so I'm not sure that it would be related to a lack of meds while you were in hospital? I have been told that for some people the headaches and fatigue don't go away, for most people they do. It looks like we are in the unlucky group But I do keep hope that in the same way as the reason for this can't be explained, they may just stop one day also without any reason being explained.

Michelle xx

[MaryB]

Hi David,

I came home from hospital on pain medication that they were careful when I refilled. I used it almost daily for 3 months I think until the neurologist took it away and said it causes the rebound headaches which were bad for me literally.And yes I was having "rebound" headaches. Mind you I was not work yet. He tried me on a an anti seizure medication- which made me feel crazier. I stopped that and went to GP and got pain medication not as strong but it handled my pain, but did not use it everyday. My head pain went away after 6 months. LIke BAM WOW, gone. Came back differently at 8 months. Now I get a headache from tension, stress and thinking too much, lack of rest and water. Thinking wipes me out, I can't like do taxes type of thinking or balancing anything on a normal day only on GREAT days.

I have said in the past I am allergic to pain medications now. GREAT!! Geez, how unfair is that??? The newest one was like being heavily sedated and I vomited but my headache never went away. I try to sit and relax when I have them even for 5 minutes at work just to stop the process of escalating. If I am having a painful day I take a Celebrex about once a week or a 1/2 of a SOMA muscle relaxer about 2-3 times a week now usually at bedtime or in afternoon.

I will see if I can ask Neruologist tomorrow why some people continue to have headaches & what is treatment for it if he is not rushing me out of the room.

Good luck in the future. Mary

[Winb143]

Sorry your head still aches David.

The Hospital gave me coedine or however its spelt. Hospital would not believe my family that I am allergic to it until I came out

in a bright red rash,

Back to you David have you ever tried paracetamol ? or are they too weak?

Hope head gets better soon David and try and relax Good Luck Pal xx

Stress isn't good for you so try and think happy thoughts, hard I know.

Love

WinB143 xx

Happys thoughts and laughter being sent your way xxxx

[VanessaW]

Hi David

You mentioned that you've had different meds and nothing worked well. I know you had dilaudid which is a similar type of drug to morphine, but did you have morphine or one of its other variants? I was given buckets of morphine which worked pretty well and which I was taking until recently (only had SAH 8 weeks ago).

It doesn't sound like you were treated correctly for your head pain initially as the aim is to get the pain under control somehow. I think it is probably not possible to say if this has resulted in your long term problems.

In the UK, if a patient has intractable and/or chronic pain, we have pain clinics within hospitals, do you have anything similar there? These are for all kinds of conditions resulting in chronic pain. Sometimes headaches can be made worse by long term medication, perhaps this might be something to examine in more detail for you? It's certainly not trivial.

Wishing you the best

Vanessa

[paul99]

hi dave

im sorry you are suffering one question i would like to ask how much water or fluids are you drinking a day my thoughts are that you maybe dehydrated is it possible you are not drinking enough as many on here say that drinking more fluids help and by sitting in an office maybe you are not keeping the fluids up

[Daffodil]

Hi dave, so sorry to hear the head is hurting so much. there is a lot of press here at the moment that too much pain relief can increase head pain but it sounds like you haven't had any relief at all. I was lucky that when I needed it I got to work with a fantastic Dr who headed up the pain clinic at the hospital just before I had my shunt fitted. At the time They couldn't get my head pain manageable so they trialled a 48 hr slow release mix of pain med and sickness control by sub cutting under the skin. It worked to break the cycle. It is often used as an approach for cancer patients but not often in our circumstances. They explained that by giving the body help to slowly manage the pain over time can help cut the automatic stress reflex which often heightens and extends the pain. I don't get headaches as often or at the same intensity as I was then but when I do I find that I need to drink lots, do my pressure points, take a pill and usually have a long good cry, the combination of all these things often seems to ease it...especially the crying:roll:.

I hope you get it sorted.

[kpaggett]

David,

Pain in general is not that well understood. Some people show no physical reason for it, but nevertheless have severe pain and vice-verse. I wonder if you might go to an actual chronic pain specialist? It sounds like you're getting NO love from your current doc. at all...which seems typical since they don't seem to know how to treat very many of our other chronic symptoms either. I can't imagine working under those circumstances. Have you thought about backing off from full-time hours to figure this thing out? I don't even know if that's a possibility for you. I hope you'll find some relief, it sounds so stressful which, as you know, can exacerbate headaches.

Keep us up to date.

~kris

[amexdm]

Hi all:

Thanks to everyone who responded. It made my day. It can get frustrating. It's nice to know that someone cares. What upset me is I went out to dinner with my wife Saturday. Our number one favorite steakhouse. It is an old school place with music and dancing. We used to go there and dance all night. We got there at 7:30. Had a great dinner. By 9pm, my head was smashing and I needed to leave. Wife wished it was like old days. I cant blame her. What is odd is the music wasnt loud. I just had to leave and lay my head down. Rather disappointing.

GG- I know you have been thru same thing. They are truly debilitating. Maybe they'll go as soon as they came, I agree.

Mary- My head only hurts when I think too. 9 hours a day at work! That is a big part of it but not all of it. Head hurts on Saturday too so I may as well get paid.

Win- Pooh pooh, You cheered me up as always. I felt like I was 100 years old today. Now only 70 . You took 30 years off my life. Paracetemol is not nearly strong enough unfortunately.

Vanessa- They gave me Dilaudid which is supposed to be stronger than morphine. But stopped after 6 days and told me to suck it up. i do go to Pain Clinic now and there is a pain med that works. But at the Pain Clinic they say they've never had an SAH'er. So no experts there.

Paul- thanks yes I buy water by the case. It helps some but we're talking 8 or 9 scale headaches here. Like in the hospital.

Daff-I know many who think it may be rebound headache syndrome, but I dont believe that is me. I tried to start weaning off my pain meds for two days and had a blood pressure spike of 240/170 and could have had stroke. Not ready to try that again soon.

Kris-I go to the Pain Clinic and no one knows about SAH. I guess we are rare. Work is certainly hurting me but I work in a small company and they cannot afford to have me out. I'm just hoping it gets better.

Thanks to all for cheering me up and listening to my whining,

David

[MaryB]

Your not whining David. Wish we could have something to help you.

[Winb143]

If you know when head is going to hurt David, could you not take a pill 1 hour before?

Stupid Win ! hush up !! David knows what's what .

Hope your head gets better soon David and you take wifey out when better.

Sort out head go see someone xx

Love

WinB143 xx xx

Be Well xxxxxxxxxxxx

[Skippy]

Actually Win, thats a really good suggestion - I used to take two paracetamol if I was going out in the evening, just to combat any pain that I might have got - it worked a treat

David hun, unfortunately some people who have a SAH are destined to have headaches for the rest of their lives -my neuro specialist told me there are 3 categories generally - those who never have a bad headache again, those who sill suffer occasionally and those that will suffer chronic headaches. Your brain can't actually feel pain so I doubt that its completely SAH related - I can imagine a lot of it is stress and tension, poor lighting and ventilation (if my office is anything to go by) and not getting enough fluid (water can be boring but it clears the brain and helps concentration).

I know I used to get anxious before going out knowing that I might not last the night, that can also contribute to your headaches.