Posted 1/24/2011 4:24 PM (GMT 0)
Hey all,
I'm so happy to have found this forum and judging from the few threads I have looked through, you seem to be a very helpful and supportive community so I thought I'd see if I could get some advice on my current headache.
I started getting cold symptoms on Thursday evening (my "significant other" was sick earlier in the week). On Friday I had to skip work (luckily they're great about sick days in The Netherlands) but I didn't feel too, too badly. On Saturday I managed to get the dishes done and went grocery shopping with the SO, so I wasn't feeling all that terribly, just normal "man this cold sucks". But yesterday the headache got much worse, and today even more so. I have normal cold symptoms such as runny nose (clear discharge), sneezing, coughing (ouch my tummy muscles), and what seems like sinus pain. I investigated some sinus headache symptoms and apparently a lot of people who think they have sinus headache actually have migraine. So I was wondering if you could please help me figure out what mine is.
My cheekbones and forehead definitely feel under pressure, it hurts to blink and coughing makes me feel like my brain is going to ooze out of my clogged-feeling ears - typical sinus headache symptoms. BUT, I do not have yellow or green discharge from my nose and I can also manage to breathe through my nose (mostly). I also have sensitivity to light and sound as well as nausea, so that makes me think migraine. So, is it possible to have a sinus headache without the yellow/green junk? Or do I luckily seem to have both?
I have been in so much pain that I can't sleep, so I am also sleep deprived which doesn't help. I've also had a hard time eating so that doesn't help either. I usually drink 1-2 coffees a day but I haven't had one since Thursday, and I typically smoke weed every day but stopped that once my cough came on (Thursday).
I haven't taken any medication except for paracetamol (i.e., Tylenol) but it didn't help one bit (it usually never does - I feel like I'm immune to the stuff). When I lived in Canada, I took aspirin + codeine which seemed to help my migraines, but like someone posted in another thread, I used it too frequently (because it actually WORKED) so eventually it started making my headaches worse. So, I haven't really taken anything for my headaches in years and found they'd go away if I got some sleep in a dark, quiet room. But now I can't sleep so I'm starting to lose it. Do you have any suggestions on how I can relieve some of the pain so I can sleep?
Ugh, sorry for the long post - like I said, I'm starting to lose it :P
Thanks for your help.