Chronic tension headache diagnosis and long term management

[Lost_Girl]

Hi I suffer from chronic pain. I have a bone shard impacting a nerve root at c8 being treated with cortisone. I have pain at c5 and c6 that is manageable without anything. However I have a constant headache and pressure in my ears that I have had for pretty much every waking moment for the last 7 months. As a result I have become depressed and I have insomnia.

After a trip to a neurologist I have been advised to cease sleeping medication and strong pain killers. I am now only on antidepressants.

A visit to my psychologist today has alerted me that depression does not cause headaches.   

Has anyone been treated for chronic pain with ONLY antidepressants and did it work?

I havr a referral now to a psychiatrist to check but it not until May. While I see if I can find something earlier I sm keen to hear if this has worked for anyone.

Thanks,

Carol

[Lost_Girl]

Dearest Sherie,

I think had I been attacked like you I would not have been able to move on so readily, in fact I imagine it would have changed my world as it did yours. While you haven't explained the complexities around why you didn't report it I can understand that too. I don't think anyone could recover easily from that.

I also understand that when you married your husband that he provided some feeling of safety and security. That you feel indebted to him for being with you.

The things we have to agree to disagree on is that you mention both you and he see yourself as "damaged goods", where I do not. I see someone who needed more love, more support and more caring. It should have been an honour for someone to be with you not a sacrifice.

I don't know how it would feel to have my world changed as much as it did for you because I haven't lived it. For this reason I do find it hard to understand why you would stay with someone who has changed from a protector into a gaoler, from someone who promised to protect and honour you into someone who verbally hurts you and dishonours you. For me, no matter how much I believe in my marriage vows, if my husband treated me like that and refused to seek conselling and look at changing then I would not stay. The debt I owed would be null and void the minute he changed from protector to abuser. But, like I said, I didn't have my world changed. I do care for you very much and it does hurt to know you are regularly hurt in your marriage.

I also think if you had close friends or even family that knew what was going on they would have you out of there in a hearbeat. If I knew you in person you'd be out of there, I am stubborn and wouldn't take no for an answer 🙂

All said with much love to you. It is ok for us to think differently. It is easier to say when I am not living it. I have the utmost respect for you. You are a real treasure. For all that you have been through and continue to endure you are one of the most giving, selfless, kindest souls I have ever met.

Your friend, Carol

[Lost_Girl]

Hi Wednesday,

I know right! Far to giving are my children. Even hubby has a headache today though I think it is lack of sleep.

Thanks for looking in on me, I do appreciate the well wishes and hugs. I don't think you ever grow out of needing those when you are ill.

Hope all is well with you lovely xx

[Lost_Girl]

Dear lovely Shell,

I had missed you terribly. I was very worried for you. I am glad of your explanation on Sherie's thread and understand. It will help me to worry less.

If you feel up to it, I would like to hear what sort of things you have been doing to pass time.

You are very special to me Shell. You and Sherie and Paul were saviours to me when I first joined and shhhh don't tell anyone but your hugs are still the best 🙂 In fact I am quiet sure you started the virtual hug epidemic, look how valuable it is and all thanks to you!

Love me 🌹

[Lost_Girl]

Hey Pet,

Thanks for stopping by and for the well wishes. It is such a long journey isn't it. How did you go with the new GP?

Hi Narelle,

Thanks for finding my thread! Hopefully I will get rid of it soon. I posted to yours earlier. Hope you are ok.

Hey Mr Woof,

Sorry but I think it may be a fight for nerdiest title and Blue currently plays D&D, I think she wins. I think I might even beat you for 2nd place! Haha.

[Guest_5218]

Thankyou so much Carol - for understanding despite disagreeing, for caring regardless, for your respect and for your very kind words. I feel quite overcome with emotion after having read your reply to me. In fact the tears are falling freely as I try to type a response, so I will keep it brief.

You didnt specifically say how you feel now, but I guess you are still feeling pretty crook. Hopefully with a decent nights sleep tonight, you will feel better tomorrow. And hubby too. Do you have any commitments for the weekend?

Thankyou for being such a good friend. (-:

Sherie xx

[Lost_Girl]

Dear Sherie,

I didn't mean to make you cry! Sorry! Here's a comforting hug for you.

I do still feel horrid. I slept a lot during the day with my 4 year old snuggled up with me, his head resting under my chin and his hands holding mine for comfort. I expect he will turn up out here around 2am unable to sleep and want to come to Mummy's bed for cuddles. I am not tired so I will wait for him, bless him.

My daughter has dance but we have to drop and leave now as "she's a big girl" haha. They all swim on Sun morning but the littlest will stay home.

Other than that hubby has new technology to put together. I got a device that will let me watch Stan tv as I have almost watched everything watchable on netflix and those I haven't are on Stan anyway. He got for himself new gadgets to make our internet faster and some other bits and pieces that require installation.

I hope to feel better. I would like to do some craft with the kids. You never know, maybe I will feel better tomorrow.

How are you sleeping Sherie?

[Emmy.]

Oh Carol I understand what you mean about wishing you could be the wife / Mum of your choosing ...but never forget what an amazing wife / Mum you are. Always have been and always will be - regardless of your pain / depression.

I've been having some really bad headaches lately (cause of c2 in neck) I don't know how you function like you do Carol with the pain you must be in. Do you have a special type of pillow at all if you don't mind me asking??

I hope you get to do that craft tomorrow (actually today now hehe).

With love. Emmy x

[Guest_5218]

Thats okay, the tears have stopped now! (-:

Its most unfortunate that you just dont seem to be getting a free run at all, with picking up colds, infections, bugs etc. So it must be really hard to gauge exactly where you are at pain-wise. I guess your immune defences are very low right now, so you will be picking up everything the kids bring home.

Surely you'll get a break soon! Did you end up seeing your GP this week?

I really hope you are feeling up to some craft with the kids over the weekend. The older kids must go swimming most Sundays do they? I seem to recall they often go. It sounds as though hubby will be busy with all his new technology. I guess your daughter has dance practice, as opposed to a performance as such. Otherwise you would definitely be there. Of course she's a big girl! Arent kids funny?

Sleep not good yet, but I think it takes a few days for the new meds to have much affect. Maybe tonight? (-:

Enjoy your 2am cuddles with your 4yo. Then hopefully you'll get a more restful sleep. And tomorrow will be a better day!

Much love to you.

Sherie xx

[Lost_Girl]

Hi Emmy,

Sorry to hear of your neck pain. I seem lucky at the moment that at least my c8 issue is not playing up.

I find an over the counter common anti-inflammatory helps a lot, you could ask the pharmacist about it. I do have a special pillow. I only use one as any more can make it worse. I have a latex pillow, the dunlopillow brand. I chose it because I am also asthmatic. I have heard that the memory foam pillows are also good for neck problems.

I hope you get some relief soon Emmy.

I don't function well at all really. I occassionally have good days and then I rush to do as much as possible while it lasts which is probably not good but gosh does it make me feel useful! Haha oops.

I am going to ask my GP on Monday about a referral to a psych that specialises in pain management. She was reluctant to do this before as we didn't have a diagnosis. As much as my old psych was useful I think 7 months before any significant improvement is too long to wait. I just need to be actively doing something to try and make this better. I have never been a patient person.

Haha Elizabeth, in case you drop by I thought of you then. You and I are a bit the same in wanting to get fixed and get doing stuff. Hope all is well.

I hope you sleep well Emmy.

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Carol, I am glad you related your experience, and your perspective on it all. You're right to love yourself, you are all the things you said, kind and caring and a good person, and more besides. I too like and respect the person I am, and though I'm certainly not perfect, I make the effort to learn from my stuff-ups and better myself through that knowledge; I can live with them for that reason.

I did stay longer than I should have, through dealing with both physical and emotional abuse, though not from lacking a sense of self-worth. Like you I refused to be isolated from my friends and family. I didn't meekly accept the abuse, I fought back both verbally and physically where required. In the end I left not because of him exactly, but because I didn't like who I was in his company.

I'm not sure of your overall experience with others. I grew up with mostly either indifference or negative feedback from others and a general void of emotion in my environment. I stayed in that relationship as long as I did partly because I had no faith anyone besides myself would value me any more than he did, and partly because even aggression for a time had a morbid appeal after the complete vacuum I grew up in. Naturally self-respect eventually won out and I concluded as much as I'd like to have a man in my life, the one I had really wasn't preferable to none at all.

Having depression has been particularly hard on me because I am not a highly emotional person. The above situation came with spikes of anger, but I had a clear sense of cause and effect, and the solution was pretty straight-forward. The relentless barrage of emotion with depression is a rude surprise for someone like me, and certainly the lack of control over it is alarming. Like you, I am a fixer. I just get on with it, I'm not used to being vulnerable or needing anyone else. Thankfully I have an amazing and supportive partner.

I too am future-oriented. I am not unaffected by my past, but I am not consumed by it or inclined to dwell on it all that much as a general rule. To some extent my depression has upset that balance as well, with my periodic sensitivity to triggers. Like you I am mostly in this pickle because I can't control or end the things that are currently making me unhappy. The past I can deal with, because I can face it on my terms.

I appreciate your words to Sherie, as well, and I agree though I haven't your gentleness of expression to get that across so well.

(*end ramble*)

Blue.