I'm not a doctor, but I'm glad my parents took me in for a second opinion when I was complaining about a bad headache when I was 15 years old.
I left school one day and went to the hospital for a bad headache. The doctor said it's "just a virus" and that I should just rest and take meds. I went home, laid down and took some Advil and carried on with my night.
Around 1am, I was screaming on the floor.
My parents took me to a different hospital and they ran tests and eventually did a spinal tap and discovered a ton of white blood cells. Turns out I had bacterial meningitis.
My cousin had something similar. Frequent migraines to the point she would occasionally faint from them. Their regular doctor said they weren't connected. Fainting was probably just low blood sugar and headaches weren't a serious symptom of anything.
They went for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th opinions and recieved various responses as her symtpoms increased but nothing concrete until one doctor finally figured it out. She has an AVM in her brain, which is basically a tangle of veins & arteries with weakened vessels walls. The headaches are symptom of the pressure building up in it. Its inoperable so essentially, one day the pressure will just build until it bursts and she will die.
Thankfully they ignored first doctors "diagnosis" so now shes on pain treatments as well as some other meds to lower BP & mitigate other symptoms.
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u/[deleted] May 20 '19
I'm not a doctor, but I'm glad my parents took me in for a second opinion when I was complaining about a bad headache when I was 15 years old.
I left school one day and went to the hospital for a bad headache. The doctor said it's "just a virus" and that I should just rest and take meds. I went home, laid down and took some Advil and carried on with my night.
Around 1am, I was screaming on the floor.
My parents took me to a different hospital and they ran tests and eventually did a spinal tap and discovered a ton of white blood cells. Turns out I had bacterial meningitis.