My name is Ryan, I am a 24-year-old male, full time health insurance employee and I would greatly appreciate if you could help me in any way possible by just listening to my story and symptoms. I know that I cannot take your response as substitute for a face to face visit with a neurologist but I’ve been waiting months to see a neurologist and I’m still on a waiting list. I’ve visited my PCP and walk in center numerous times and have tried so many different things that they have recommended and none of them have worked. While I appreciate their efforts, I don’t think they truly understand what I am telling them because they are not neurologist. I’ve done so much of my own research on my problem and tried many over the counter solutions, none of which have been successful, that I have become very desperate for any sort of help. I’ve never been more frustrated with any problem in my life. So please, if you would just read my story and any information you can provide me I would appreciate it so much.
     My story starts in June of 2015, when I hurt my wrist playing basketball. I went to the ER where they told me that I sprained my wrist by using it to break my fall. Upon my discharge from the hospital they prescribed me the drug Tramadol. I had never previously taken Tramadol before and really had no idea what it did beside relieve pain. The prescription they gave me had far more than I would ever need for a sprain wrist. Now one of my most regretful decisions of my life was taking this drug. After the first few days of only taking one or two I started to increase my dose. By the 5th day I had taken 7 in one day. I know that this was wrong, and something that I shouldn’t have done, and I am by no means into recreational drugs. But the Tramadol was making the pain go away and making me feel very good, so I did not know when to stop.
     The next day after taking 7 Tramadol, I started to feel strong headaches in my frontal lobe. The only time I had ever experienced headaches before this was when I had a cold coming on so I assumed that was what it was. Before I knew it I was more nauseated than I had ever been in my life. For the next three days I had the worst nausea, diarrhea and headache of my life. From my own extensive research, I can only humbly conclude that I came close to serotonin syndrome. After researching Tramadol and learning of its selective serotonin reuptake tendencies I realized I must have had serotonin toxicity. The nausea eventually subsided somewhat but the headaches continued.
     I always thought that these headaches would go away eventually, but as time goes on I realize something is truly wrong. Even after almost 12 months I STILL have these headaches. They happen almost every day. They are a strong throbbing feeling in my frontal lobe. Sometimes accompanied by neck pain but that is rare. On some days they will come and go and some days they will last the entire day. I have tried to explain these symptoms and what caused them to my PCP and several urgent care doctors but they have only passed them off as “migraines”. They completely dismiss the fact that TRAMADOL is what caused these headaches in the first place.
My PCP first prescribed the drug Topamax. I only took this for 3 days because it worsened my symptoms each time. It gave me the sweats and increased the throbbing in my frontal lobe almost instantly. My PCP recently prescribed me “Amitriptyline”, which upon my research when I got home has the same Serotonin Reuptake mechanism as Tramadol, so I still have not even taken this drug. For a while I would get brief relief from the drug Fiorcet, which is also known as Butalbital. This contains acetaminophen and caffeine and would only provide short term relief. Now it does almost nothing for me. I have been prescribed Sumatriptian (sorry if the spelling is incorrect). This had no effect on my “migraines” either. I think the main issue is that, my problem isn’t migraines, I believe I might have some sort of imbalance in my brain caused by the Tramadol. I’ve noticed that when I drink caffeine the symptoms might go away for a little but they will end up coming back twice as hard. I was taking my prescription Ativan which is a Benzo for anxiety, for a while but this also seemed to worsen my symptoms the next day.
I’ve had an MRI of my head done at my local hospital and my doctor reported that everything was “fine”. I’ve also visited a gastrologist to see if the Tramadol could have had caused any damages on my liver but the only thing he was able to do for me was calm my acid reflux. Still to this day I feel many intestinal issues such as cramps and poor bowel movements. Again I don’t feel that this doctor fully listened to my problems either. One of the other symptoms that I sometimes feel is numbness and tingling in my hands or fingers. My hands commonly feel very cold. This occurs sometimes in the morning of the nights after I take Melatonin to help me fall asleep.
I cannot think of any past issues that could possibly be related to the issue that I am having now. I am 6 foot, weigh 165 pounds, I consider myself to be in pretty good shape. I was in the US Army so I consider myself to have a good discipline when it comes to diet and exercise. I have not had alcohol in over 4 months after realized that it greatly worsened my symptoms. I have never smoked in my life nor have I used any nicotine. I do not use any recreational drugs including marijuana.
These chronic headaches have taken such a toll on every aspect of my life. I’ve spent so much time and money looking for some cure to my problem and I keep failing. I’ve become pretty depressed because it seems that no one is willing to actually listen to my issues and what caused them. I’ve felt more and more like I will never get better, I cannot even remember what it feels like to not have headaches. If you have gotten this far, thank you so much for listening to my story. I know I probably left somethings out that might be vital to knowing what the problem is, and I know you might be very limited to what you can do or tell me but I greatly appreciate any sort of response. Thank you so much.