Waking up with headaches?

I have the symptoms that nomoremigraines describes as PFO symptoms. I have headaches (mainly migraines that vary in intensity), vascular headaches (sharp stabbing pains lasting from a few minutes to hours), to just your plain ole' dull throbbing headache. I wake up with a headache about 90% of the time as well. I also have a form of asthma, but I've only been told that I have mild allergic asthma...yet I've had attacks that would send most to the hospital (I take a nitroglycerine pill of my dad's when I have an attack). The fluttering feeling is what I would also call palpitations. I stay tired ALL the time, it's not the normal kind of tired either. I am constantly having bronchitis, which is absolutely annoying since I'm in nursing school. Another thing that annoys me is that I'm in the medical field yet no one seems to want to actually dig deep enough to really help me. They just prescribe this and that and I usually have some horrible side effect and have to stop. I'm a 33 year old single mother of three so this all affects me being able to provide for my kids and to finish nursing school without any issues. I also read where it was stated that PFO ususally worsened around age 30 and up, well that's definitly true in my case! I use to not have such a hard time with feeling so bad, but now I almost feel like I'm in my late 60's or older. I have really become depressed over my situation and I am desperate to find an answer, but I have no health insurance and couldn't afford it even if I wanted to. Where's the help for those of us who desperately need it? I mean the new Obama Healthcare won't help me at ALL! I can't afford insurance now so what makes him think I'll be able to afford his new plan???? Really there should be more control over who recieves help, let's take those who are just baby making, drug addicts and so on...just so they can have a medicaid card and dump them off on Obamas plan. They might put on some protection and go to rehab or AA...
Anyway, I'm just feeling at my wits end with my lack of energy, headaches, tiredness, palpations, and about ton of other stuff. If I could afford to I'd definitly go find out if I have this PFO!!

Thanks for the post on that, the public is very in the dark when it comes to new things out there!

I have to use a night guard to sleep as I also clench my teeth (ever since 9/11, I live near by) I couldn't afford the ones made in the dentists office (about $500) so I decided to try to cheap ones sold at our drugstores here. They cost about $25 and are easy to set up with the enclosed directions. I've been using them for a few years now and they have helped a lot
NY VEGGIE

High quality Omega 3 fish oils have dramatically reduced the number of migraines and headaches I get. I am sharing this little history because it might help someone else...

I had been getting migraines all my life since I was 7 or 8 years old. When I was a teenager, I drank a lot of coke and the caffeine made things worse. Particularly withdrawals. By the time I was 19, I quit drinking anything with caffeine. After this, any time I had even the smallest amount of caffeine, it would trigger a migraine.

Around that time, I starting questioning my diet and I became vegan for 10 years. (In retrospect, not a wise move for me.) From 20 to 30, the migraines would come and go. Some months I would get one. Others it seemed like I'd get 2 or 3 in a month. Basically, I'd be in horrible pain and could function for 12 hours or more. I had a horrible sleeping schedule. Stayed up late. Did not eat regularly. Etc. By the time I was 32, I woke up with a headache every other morning. And got a bad migraine about 2x a week.

I avoided alcohol and drugs in my life, including pain-killers. (Everything I tried for pain just made the nausea worse and I couldn't keep them down. That, and they didn't make a dent on the pain.)

This went on for over 3 years. It was awful. I did everything I could to avoid the triggers. I did my best to go to bed early, eat at regular times, and I always avoided caffeine, chocolate, nitrates, MSG, canned tuna (I know, a strange one, but definitely a trigger for some people), red wine, and a few other things. Those things would have made everything worse, I'm sure, but I still suffered tremendously.

One day, researching migraine stuff (again) I read about norepinephrine's possible role with migraines. Then, an hour later, an I read an article about Omega-3 fish oils effect on norepinephrine and other neurotransmitter production. My girlfriend at the time had just bought some fish oils, so I asked if I could try them. At that point, I was waking up with a headache every other day or so. And I was getting migraines about 1.5 times a week. I started taking the fish oils. AND THE HEADACHES AND THE MIGRAINES NEARLY STOPPED. 1 week after I started taking the Omega 3 fish oils, I was shocked that I hadn't had a headache in a week. That was over 8 years ago. And the difference is night and day.

In the last 8 years, I still get an occasional headache or migraine. Probably once every 2-3 months or so for each. And as I see it, they are almost always connected to a bad sleeping/eating schedule (staying up late is a hard habit for me to break completely). I still avoid the migraine triggers religiously... particularly caffeine. But my life is so much better after trying the fish oils. (If you try this, get the high quality stuff. Nordic Naturals is what I used. The cheap brands taste awful and are, in my opinion, rancid.)

Just thought I'd share. I really hope this helps someone else as much as it helped me.

Most of my migraines occur upon waking, or that's when I feel them :), ...unless they are stress migraines. I keep a Maxalt MLT in my bedside table so I can pop it in without having to get up. If I can stay in bed and go back to sleep for 30 min. or so, it takes care of it. Triptans are the only meds that help my migraines.

sounds like migraine to me. You need stronger meds and should ask your doctor about triptans.

I had this same problem for years. It was not a normal headache, it didn't "pound". It was just a dull steady pain when I woke up, concentrated on one side of my head. Sometimes the pain felt more like it was in my jaw or my teeth. I began getting sinus infection like symptoms, I felt stuffed up, I had drainage down my throat. Doctors could not figure it out. It got to the point where I could not even lay my head back without getting pain in my head almost immediately.
Finally I did some internet research and on a message board much like this one someone mentioned TMJ - Thrombo Mandibular Joint Disorder. I did some research on that and it seemed to describe my problems precisely. Your mandibular muscle runs from the bottom of your jaw all the way to the top of your head. If you are clenching it at night, it gets sore and sometimes inflamed. This causes what feels like a headache even though it's really muscle pain. Since it also runs right past your inner ear when it gets inflamed it can cause all the symptoms of a sinus infection. If your jaws don't line up with each other, for example an over or under bite, there is a good chance you are clenching your teeth at night and don't even know it.
I looked up in the phone booth for a dentist specializing in TMJ and he confirmed I was clenching at night. He had me fitted for an occlusal guard. Yes, it was pretty expensive, but after wearing it for just a week or so the headaches finally went away. I only have to wear it sometimes now, generally when I've been under stress. Make sure you find a dentist that has TMJ experience and make sure you get an OCCLUSAL guard not just a regular mouth guard. An occlusal guard just goes over your front teeth and has a little blocker-thing in it that prevents your jaws from closing. It's physically impossible for your teeth to clench with this, unlike a regular "grinding" guard that goes over your entire teeth and just prevents damage from grinding back and forth.

silke6490 said...
I've been suffering for the past 2 years severe headaches like i've never felt before. the pain is always in the back of my head, and when i lay down it makes it even worse in pressure back there. I've seen a specialist and he told me i have whats called a Hypnotic Headache. The sad part is, its only found in elderly people and I'm 23 years old (beginning to think i really don't have that type of headache). sometimes when i get the headache showers help. i always get them at night, and sometimes (Rarely) i get them in the day. i can tell when i'm getting them because i start with a tiny headache that becomes worse. my family doctor has me taking 800mg of ibuprofen for it since Tylenol and Advil and every other headache meds no longer work on me. these headaches make it impossible for me to do anything because of the pain. I'm not sensitive to anything, no lights or anything. anyone have this problem as well?

I was dx'd with Basilar Migraines. I was waking up nearly every night around 3am with nausea. I had ongoing neck pain that sprang from the top of my neck, bottom of my skull, forward to my eye, cheek, ears. Some times it would be worse than others. Sometimes it would back off and then hit really hard so I could tell the pain was moving from the back of my head to the front. It was also painful, nearly every night, to lay on my head. During the night I would switch positions several times, waking me up all night, to take the pressure off of my head.

After starting the Sumatriptan, I was able to begin Aborting my Migraines. For years I did not know what this was going on with my head. I had a few concussions from car accidents and such. The Abortive medication was not long lasting so I was given Prophalactics. After taking the Cyproheptadine and Val Proic Acid, I have not had the pain in the back of my head like I had before. I do have other Migraine symptoms, some have gotten worse such as tingling on my face and stinging here and there. But over all, I am not having Migraines every day and nausea every 3am-11am.

None of the other Over the Counter meds nor NAIDS helped my head/neck pain. I have had chronic pain from muscle spasms for 25+ yrs and those meds never worked. My Neuro meds are the first meds that actually work for me.

Hope that helps. Like others, I recommed finding a Neurologist for Head/Neck/Vertigo/Nausea pain symptoms.

Are you still having your migraines? I too have been awakening with these awful headaches since my teens (I am 52). Your situation sounded similar to mine, and I was wondering if you had found a cause for the headaches and something to help.

Thanks!
Penny

sorry typo Dr Mary Newport

I didn't get a headache/migraine every day just maybe every 15 days but they lasted 3 days, and I needed another 3 days to get over them, felt like someone had been playing football with my head, it was just so exhausting, worse as I got older, I found some suppositories that zapped the pain but they left me feeling so nauseous for days that I stopped taking them, the only way I could sleep was to take a couple of strong paracetamol & codeine but sometimes even with these the pain would wake me again after a few hours. I was just so pleased to find that the migraines disappeared after going GF(2012) as it was something I hadn't expected. I have lots of back problems,(artrosis L3-L4,L4-L5 & L5-s1,Espondilolistesis L3-L4with estenosis,disc protrussion L4-L5), but this didn't seem to be the cause of the migraines, I suspect that it was something hormonal as I used to get them in the middle and end of the month. Why they have cleared now I don't eat gluten is a mistery, its not due to end of menopause as I still have hormone problems relating to this. I also have Hashimotos auto-immune thyroiditis and lots of the aches and pains I had before being diagnosed(2009) didn't go with the thyroiditis meds but disappeared after GF so in no way would I go back to eating gluten. Now I also try and eat moderately low carb, (not difficult as I cut out most grains and sugar on GF), this also seems to make me feel much more energetic and less tired and bloated. Maybe you should try GF for a while to see if it does anything for you. Your problem could also be due to dehydration as someone above mentioned, where I live it can get to 40ºC in summer and I have found that if I don't drink enough I do get a headache, try drinking at least two liters of water a day plus other drinks, and also cut out anything sweet after say 3pm,(or cut down if you eat a lot of sweet stuff), in case its due to Hypoglycemia, as I have also awoken with headaches caused by this on occasions. Hope you find relief keep me posted how you get on.