Intracranial Swelling – Pressure Headaches – and an Emergency Admission to Hospital

By late July 2010 – what a scarily rapid progression from March 2010 – my head and neck pain was hovering about the 7 or 8 figure now, I couldn’t sleep and was having to fight really hard to keep on top of things at work. As the boss the guys who worked for me quite rightly expected me to be on top form at all times, this was becoming increasingly difficult when all I wanted to do was lie down in a dark room…

I was experiencing severe worsening of the headaches in the morning, when reaching down to pick something up, when sneezing. Basically when doing anything that involved moving my head, left, right, up or down but particularly when bending over. I don’t mean just a little twinge either, the pain scale was now on a 7 or 8 permanently when resting and when doing one of the above activities, it rocketed to a 10 (living hell).

I’d really started to dread having to tie my Army boots in the morning, it literally was an ordeal of pain and if I dropped something, oh the thought of having to bend over to pick it up could easily ruin my day. All of this whilst trying to maintain a front of being on top of things at work – which I think I just about managed although thank God I had such a good team supporting me!

I went back to my GP who correctly – with the benefit of hindsight –  identified that these were classic signs of pressure headaches caused by the intracranial swelling from the tumours in my head having a merry old party and causing my brain to be crushed against the inside of my skull!

What followed was a trip to Salisbury hospital, where I  hung around for a few hours and was eventually discharged having had no tests aside from yet another physical neurological examination which was normal. Apparently I hide brain tumours well. They did give me an injection for migraines which despite telling them at  the age of 36 I’d never had, they still seemed to think was the way ahead. Christ that auto-injector in the leg hurt, strangely enough did absolutely nothing for my headaches. With the benefit of hindsight I should have just called the Consultant I’d been seeing although to be honest, I was in so much pain I couldn’t think straight anymore and it’s not the kind of thing us mere mortals do is it. I would now though, Consultants are like my best pals these days!

I felt thoroughly depressed as I left the hospital knowing all I could look forward to was a return to taking the maximum daily doses possible of neurofen and paracetamol. I had gotten to the point where I was living on blind hope and desperation, in permanent severe pain and starting to despair…

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• Increased intracranial pressure – All Information (umm.edu)