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What Causes Severe Migraine Headaches?
Question: Hello, my girlfriend had a minor obgyn procedure performed a week ago. She had a severe allergic reaction to the lidocaine/epinephrine cocktail and was sent to the ER. One of the symptoms was an intense severe migraine like headache, with which they gave her a headache cocktail that worked. Since then, she has made two trips to the ER because of these staggering headaches, she says they actually send her to tears due to the intensity. The operating physician tells her that it's just a reaction to the operation meds, the ER Dr. tells her that she just acquired migraines and she can't get in to see her primary care Dr. for a few weeks. They ER did give her a migraine type medicine, but apparently it's not working too well. The headache is consistently there and does not go away, but intensifies with stimulus (stress, anger, etc..). What should we do? No one seems to want to help, and she can't keep going on like this. Thanks for any advice
Brief Answer:
Going to need a bit more information
Detailed Answer:
Hello there, Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic. At first blush, I would tend to agree with your operating physicians opinion. The correlation between the procedure, the Meds given, and the start of symptoms is difficult to overlook.
To try and narrow down the cause of your headache, I would like to ask you a few follow-up questions. I'm trying to look for patterns in your headache episodes. Those patterns might help determine what kind of intervention you need.
1) Can you describe the headaches in detail? What sides of the head do they affect? 2) Can you describe the pain?
3) Does the pain involve the neck or spread to the neck over time?
4) How often is she having the attacks now?
5) How long does the attack last?
6) What medications have helped with the headaches? What medications have been used to PREVENT them?
7) What factors can precipitate or worsen the headache? Are there any triggering or relieving factors?
8) Does she notice any visual changes, odd smells or sounds when the headaches occur?
9) Any detail you can give me on the procedure she underwent would help?
10) Can you give me some basic information on her Diet? Caffeine intake? Smoking history? Birth Control? Or anything else you think would be relevant.
This information should help us figure out what your next steps should be in terms of assisting your girlfriend in her care. So I look forward to your reply. I hope this helps.
Vin
Going to need a bit more information
Detailed Answer:
Hello there, Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic. At first blush, I would tend to agree with your operating physicians opinion. The correlation between the procedure, the Meds given, and the start of symptoms is difficult to overlook.
To try and narrow down the cause of your headache, I would like to ask you a few follow-up questions. I'm trying to look for patterns in your headache episodes. Those patterns might help determine what kind of intervention you need.
1) Can you describe the headaches in detail? What sides of the head do they affect? 2) Can you describe the pain?
3) Does the pain involve the neck or spread to the neck over time?
4) How often is she having the attacks now?
5) How long does the attack last?
6) What medications have helped with the headaches? What medications have been used to PREVENT them?
7) What factors can precipitate or worsen the headache? Are there any triggering or relieving factors?
8) Does she notice any visual changes, odd smells or sounds when the headaches occur?
9) Any detail you can give me on the procedure she underwent would help?
10) Can you give me some basic information on her Diet? Caffeine intake? Smoking history? Birth Control? Or anything else you think would be relevant.
This information should help us figure out what your next steps should be in terms of assisting your girlfriend in her care. So I look forward to your reply. I hope this helps.
Vin
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
Answered by
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