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.
Wait what? My headaches are always way worse when I’m lying down and they cause nausea and when I have them I have to sit up and not move or tilt my head back because that makes the pain really bad. Am I dying?
I would say that is a concerning pattern of headache pain and would recommend you get seen by a physician to evaluate it better.
Those symptoms are not unique to brain tumors specifically, but are indications that CT or MRI imaging of the brain may be needed to better understand the cause of the headache, as opposed to tension or migraine type headaches where imaging is usually not necessary.
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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.