Once upon a time, a few mistakes ago …

Hey! Hey! 

So … let’s take it back to January 2024!

It was New Years Day and the words “I’ve got a headache” left my mouth and gained a reaction from literally nobody (no, I was not hungover!). Then again, as someone who has suffered with ✨horrendous✨ headaches for 10+ years, the announcement of a headache was hardly breaking news! 

In fairness, I couldn’t really describe the headache beyond a niggling ache at the back of my head, so brushed it off as being a result of nerves around returning to work in a few days (for the benefit of context, I am a primary school teacher who had been off work for 3 months due to recovering from extensive surgery for endometriosis). Anyway, as a self-professed headache expert, I brushed the pain off and continued to prepare for returning to work.

Not quite the self-professed expert …

About 5 days after the headache began, I started to notice the headache disappearing with about 15 minutes of lying down. Now, in hindsight, that should have screamed red flag, but again, as a self-professed headache expert I reasoned with myself that I was relaxed why lying down and that’s why the headache disappeared. 

By about day 8, the headache had increased slightly in severity and was also making an appearance earlier in the day. Whereas before I wasn’t noticing the niggling pain until mid to late afternoon, now it was making an appearance at around lunchtime. This triggered the clear connection between lying down and being headache free. Another significant moment was my ability to now describe the headache more specifically. In fact I was very specific as I announced to my parents “my brain feels like it’s falling out of my skull!” Naturally, such claims were met by eye rolls and a response of “don’t be so dramatic, Lucy.” Not to give anything away, but mark my words this isn’t the last you’ll hear on that matter! 

Who complains about a headache …

Having complained about once an hour of a headache, it was put to me that I should contact my headache specialist nurse if it was bothering me that much. Again, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but in spite of my annoyance at the headache, I would have still only scored it a 6 out of 10 which by my personal headache pain scale was not severe enough to warrant bothering anybody. After all, who complains about a headache? 

So, instead of asking a very qualified (and very lovely) professional, I opted to consult doctor Google*. As the only symptom I was experiencing at present was a headache that went away when lying down, that was exactly what I typed into Google. Now, if there is a term for like the opposite of health anxiety can somebody let me know because I think I might have it. 

Consulting Dr Google …

Typing “headache that goes away when lying down” threw up a top result which reads:

A headache that improves when lying down is often referred to as a positional headache, or an orthostatic headache. These headaches are commonly caused by a leak of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). CSF is the fluid that surrounds your brain and spinal cord. It acts as a cushion to protect your central nervous system.

Reading this alone probably would have scared most, but not me! Instead, I carried on reading to which I discovered:

When you lose CSF volume, your brain changes position to make up for the loss. Your brain moves when you lie down or stand up. As a result, your brain makes contact with sensitive membranes in your skull that cause head pain.

If you weren’t scared after the first paragraph, I bet you are now! Well I can confirm my lack of health anxiety triggered the completely (un)natural response of “nah, that sounds quite serious, it couldn’t possibly be that!” A combination of my lack of concern (fear) alongside a strange level of curiosity led me to switch up my Google search to “CSF Leak …”

This threw me completely down a rabbit hole of information which continued to trigger a LACK of alarm bells because I didn’t meet any of the listed usual causes including: 

• Lumbar puncture
• Epidural in the spine 
• An injury to the head or spine 

Whilst I learnt a lot and probably become almost medically qualified in this niche area of neurology, I still had no sensible idea of what was causing my seemingly positional headache. 

Lack of health anxiety strikes again …

After much deliberation, I decided a new onset headache wasn’t worth bothering my headache nurse about on the grounds it wasn’t that painful. Instead, for some insane reason I thought an appointment with the GP was the more appropriate plan of action …

Looking back, these poor judgements were probably a sign there was something wrong with my brain, but as I said before, hindsight is a wonderful thing!

It could only happen to me! 

X O X O

Your favourite headache

Next time … the GP appointment with a sprinkling of deep regret! 

Once upon a time, a few mistakes ago ~ I knew you were trouble, Taylor Swift, Red (Taylor’s Version)

**Little disclaimer – I don’t recommend googling symptoms!