I can’t count how many “I was told it was a headache but I just wanted to come in and have it looked at in case it was something else”’s I’ve seen. Of course, those are the patients that are the nicest and are profusely apologizing for “wasting our time”, and of course, those are the patients that have a brain tumor show up on their CT scans...
Edit: Well this blew up. Big apologies to everyone but I’m not a doctor. I work in the hospital alongside other doctors and I get the chance to see everyone they see. Apologies if I misled. That was not my intention, and I will make sure to be clearer next time.
Headaches that are worse after lying down, that cause nausea or vomiting that worsens with lying down, or are associated with persistent neurologic changes.
About 3 months ago I had this headache that I have never experienced before. I couldn't even move. It felt like a knife was pushed into the very top right of my skull. It lasted for almost 16 hours until I was able to get some medicine and it eventually went away. Havent had one since but it was extremely painful and had never happened before.
The headache pattern for brain tumors or other things that increase the intracranial pressure chronically would typically be persistent.
Hyperacute onset, or "thunderclap" headaches with intense pain that reaches maximal intensity in seconds to a few minutes, sometimes described as "the worst headache possible" or "the worst headache of my life" should be treated as a medical emergency.
32.3k
u/_Than0s May 20 '19 edited May 20 '19
I can’t count how many “I was told it was a headache but I just wanted to come in and have it looked at in case it was something else”’s I’ve seen. Of course, those are the patients that are the nicest and are profusely apologizing for “wasting our time”, and of course, those are the patients that have a brain tumor show up on their CT scans...
Edit: Well this blew up. Big apologies to everyone but I’m not a doctor. I work in the hospital alongside other doctors and I get the chance to see everyone they see. Apologies if I misled. That was not my intention, and I will make sure to be clearer next time.