Headaches that are not from a migraine

For us who get migraines , how would you be able to tell if it was something else besides a m? I get so many headaches and I`m so use to them. I always think what if it was something else like what Brett Micheals has and I just ignored it thinking that it was just another m.

I was watching a show the other day were they were talking about strokes. All of them had headaches and one guy had his at the base of the neck. Same type of symptoms I get with m. These men didn`t do anything right away thinking that it was only a bad headache. One of the wives was saying that now when he says he has a headache or if she does, the first thing that comes to her mind is a stroke.

I have one right now - it is at the base of my skull and it is quite different to M. It sorts of stings, it is sharp and it is quite localised.

It can turn into M, but it is not M at the moment, quite differnt kind of pain.

I have Ankolysing Spondylitis in my neck and this area is all inflamed and painful, I can touch and feel the worse spots on my vertebrae which is causing all this.MY muscles are also painful.
It is infalmmation and my whole head is sensitive and hurting, but it is not M. and I do not think it this is a stroke.

I had this last year, and I am not suspecting anything sinister so far (liek stroke). I wish it stopped hurting me. I have already arranged to have am injection at the base of my skull, and this should help.
I am not sure if thsi is helpful to you Kate, but thanks for mentioning possibility of stroke. Worth to bear it in mind.

Senna

Been explaining this one a lot to co-workers/friends the past several months, because I get both lately. I compare a normal headache to a cut on the hand. It's a consistent pain in one part of the head, or sometimes it moves to another specific place, but it's only pain and I can generally do whatever I need to do during it.

Migraines are more like a severe blow to the head in the way that it throbs, makes me dizzy, nauseated, with visual impairment, sensitive to light, and sometimes goes in and out of feeling 'feverish', either with cold sweats and pale skin or feeling a lot hotter then normal. It's like way too many pain receptors all going off at once and not knowing how to communicate with me, versus just a localized pain in the place with the cut/ache. I'm completely knocked out of commission and often dazed for hours/days afterwards with a severe migraine, but I can't say I've ever had a headache severe enough to disable me - just hurt a lot, but I can only wish all I had to deal with was pain.

I've also read a lot of similarities with migranie symptoms and stroke, or brain tumors, and several other possibilities. I think that's one of the things that's scary about migraines, is I don't know the difference and I probably wouldn't recognize it as a stroke when it is because I'm accustomed to all the symptoms being something else.

Realized I forgot to add about another dozen or so common symptoms, but other people can fill in the rest lol Memory loss is one of them Ironically, I remembered that one. My symptoms usually stick with what I listed above.

Chairish ~ your symptoms do seem very much like mine. . . all of them!

Debbie

Oh my gosh, Chairish, I never heard anyone mention the feverish feeling and sweats before. I'm like that and the neuros all say it has nothing to do with a migraine, then look at me like I'm making things up. It's so good for me to get on here and see other people are going through what I am.
Kate, I'm new to here and I think the same thing sometimes. I'm 53 with all kinds of health issues and when I get a stabbing pain in my head, I just wonder if this is the "big one." I get almost daily headaches but like you some aren't as severe as a migraine although all are one sided. I just keep going figuring I've had them for 40 years so it's nothing new. It might depend on how long you've had headaches.

Noona wrote:Oh my gosh, Chairish, I never heard anyone mention the feverish feeling and sweats before. I'm like that and the neuros all say it has nothing to do with a migraine, then look at me like I'm making things up. It's so good for me to get on here and see other people are going through what I am.
Kate, I'm new to here and I think the same thing sometimes. I'm 53 with all kinds of health issues and when I get a stabbing pain in my head, I just wonder if this is the "big one." I get almost daily headaches but like you some aren't as severe as a migraine although all are one sided. I just keep going figuring I've had them for 40 years so it's nothing new. It might depend on how long you've had headaches.

Yeah, I grow more and more frustrated every day with how little doctors understand. I almost always get the feverish symptoms with a migraine. One night a few years ago it had hit me worse then ever. My skin was as pale as it could be and I was sweating bad, barely able to walk I was so dizzy. I had my roommates at the time bring me to the hospital because I looked/felt horrible. When I arrived, they had 2 or 3 people check me, get my vitals, etc. and they didn't find anything out of the ordinary. There was no fever, abnormal blood pressure, or anything else to indicate something wrong other then how I looked. All they could do was take me in to a dark room and inject me full of morphine for a few hours. It worked, but I was prescribed vicodin for a year after that just to fight my more severe migraines. It's still unbelievably frustrating though that doctors and nurses can't even recognize it when it is at it's worst, much less accurately link other symptoms.

"One night a few years ago it had hit me worse then ever. My skin was as pale as it could be and I was sweating bad, barely able to walk I was so dizzy. "

That's how I was the night I was taken by ambulance to the hospital. Along with that I had heart palpitations. I was diagnosed with vertebrobasilar migraine after a week of testing - MRI, Catscan, stress test, blood tests, you name it!

On another thread I mentioned the book ~ Heal Your Headache: The 1-2-3 Program for Taking Charge of Your Pain by David Buchholz and Stephen G. Reich M.D. ~ you may want to check it out. It listed all of the symptoms I was having as being migraine related. Very helpful.

Debbie

One way lots of people can tell a Migraine from a headache is that a Migraine is made worse by activity, headaches usually aren't. When I'm trying to figure it out, I bend over and touch the floor or sit down and put my head between my knees. If it makes the "headache" worse, it's a Migraine.

Teri

TeriRobert wrote:One way lots of people can tell a Migraine from a headache is that a Migraine is made worse by activity, headaches usually aren't. When I'm trying to figure it out, I bend over and touch the floor or sit down and put my head between my knees. If it makes the "headache" worse, it's a Migraine.

Teri

With the type of migraine I have there are times that I have to keep moving as opposed to not. I guess it depends on the type.

Debbie

newtothis wrote:

TeriRobert wrote:One way lots of people can tell a Migraine from a headache is that a Migraine is made worse by activity, headaches usually aren't. When I'm trying to figure it out, I bend over and touch the floor or sit down and put my head between my knees. If it makes the "headache" worse, it's a Migraine.

Teri

With the type of migraine I have there are times that I have to keep moving as opposed to not. I guess it depends on the type.

Debbie

Yeah, I'm the same way. It's usually about timing for me. It's an odd thing, but sometimes I can kinda 'feel' what will reverse the attack whether it be exercise or just closing my eyes for 20-30 minutes. Other times all I feel is no chance of stopping the train wreck. I'm still trying to figure out the difference by keeping a journal of my attacks, good days, and bad days.

If I'm still in the aura phase or very early in the attack, doing something to get my blood moving has actually stopped the migraine from coming on a couple times. If it's too far in though, I get what Teri describes. If I bend over to touch the ground I'd probably end up falling face down on it. The whole world spins out of control when I lean over during an attack, but it wouldn't bother me at all with just a headache.

Thanks for reminding me about that book too. I'm very interested in it but I keep forgetting. Time to write it down on my forehead or something

A migraine specialist at the Mayo Clinic told me that any headache, once you've been diagnosed with migraine, is a migraine. Each just has a different level of pain/intensity and possibly different characteristics.

Becky

tecky wrote:A migraine specialist at the Mayo Clinic told me that any headache, once you've been diagnosed with migraine, is a migraine. Each just has a different level of pain/intensity and possibly different characteristics.

Becky

It talks about that in the book too. I have nothing to gain from recommending the book - it just helped me understand some things. . .