It all started back in August of 2007 when we went to Alaska. While we were at port in Skagway, I got bit by something behind my left ear. The whole side of my face swelled up along with my neck and I had such a stiff neck that I couldn't turn it. I didn't go to the "hospital" on the ship because I figured they would just give me benedryl. We found some in the store on the ship, it didn't help too much. We figured it was just a bad reaction to some sort of bug. Once we got home everything was back to normal, no swelling, no stiff neck. Shortly after I started to get headaches more frequently. Didn't think it had anything to do with the bug bites. I figured it was a combination of stress from work (was a 911 Dispatcher) and my mother was diagnosed with non-hodgkin lymphoma. She had a real hard time with the chemo, being really sick all the time. Then my grandfather's health started to deteriorate, so I started to stress a lot more. In January of 2008 I was having constant headaches, they never went away. In March I decided to go to the doctor because they were starting to get unbearable. The doctor advised me to stay away from caffeine and certain foods and that should help. Since I didn't get anywhere with my doctor and he completely ignored what my husband had to say we decided that I should change to his doctor so I did.
The doctor prescribed anti-depressants figuring that since my stress levels where so high that could possibly be a cause of the headaches. I was put on several different types and nothing helped. At that point they advised I should see a neurologist. So that's what I did...the neurologist tried me on several different types of medications, had 2 MRI's done and lots of blood work and guess what the medications did absolutely nothing and the MRI's and blood work showed nothing, everything was normal. The neurologist said we need to find a medication that will give you some type of relief so I tried several different migraine medications along with seizure medications and more antidepressants.
The only time I had any relief from this headache in the past 5 1/2 years was when I was in the hospital with pneumonia and put on a high dose of antibiotics. I decided to go see a rheumatologist in case it was something my doctors couldn't diagnose. All blood work from those tests came back negative. I was tested for Lyme's disease 8 times and the tests all came back negative. Apparently I did have mono at some point since that was the only thing that showed up in my blood work. I stopped taking all the medications I was on due to my liver enzymes being elevated.
I believe it was in 2010 that I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. I was put on medication for that and was told I would be on it for the rest of my life. The doctor advised that could have been part of my headaches also.
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