Post Traumatic Headaches

My Neurology appointment the other day was an initial appointment for chronic headaches!!

January of this year was by far my worst month! I had reported OVER 30 headaches that month alone!! I decided I needed to take my life back from this and started watching what I eat. It definitely has improved to now having less than 10 headaches a month.

My neurologist said that it makes sense why I can’t have processed foods anymore because of the chemicals that are in them to help preserve them. So as of right now, no processed foods and no chicken!

He did some routine exams with me and my gait and strength are noted well! I have PT to definitely thank for that plus the programs through NCHPAD that I have been active in.

He then looked into my eyes. He found no signs of papilledema and my pupils responded to light appropriately. He has noted that I have had surgery for eyelid closure and I have severe limited movement of my eyes.

He could not due a test to see how my palate is sitting as I have severe limited mouth opening. I told you, my dentist loves me!

My deep tendon reflexes are limited, or poor. Which could mean MANY things, but I’m going with the neural dysfunction!

He also notes that I have a healed bifrontal craniotomy scar! It goes from ear to ear and you can see it when I move my hair. He told me that he saw who my neurosurgeon was and he said that he would let him open his head any day! He fully trusts his work and even said that when he was a resident that my neurosurgeon was a medical student. That definitely made me feel good that he would have him perform surgery on his head :)

He said that speech is dysarthric, but could still understand me when I spoke to him. At one point he asked if I had full facial paralysis or just one side! I simply looked at him and told him that I have 3rd, 4th, 6th, & 7th nerve palsies - he said “full then, okay!” He noted that I have severe facial paralysis. One day, facial reanimation is what I’m praying for!! My sensory motor nerve just needs to start working!

All of this to say, I have post traumatic headaches, sleep disturbance, and pseudobulbar affect. There is only ONE pill that I have to add to the others that can help with ALL THREE of those things listed!! Of course I did not hesitate and said, “YES!”

I will not mention what it is for research will be done and it all be twisted into something negative and used against me - that has been my life the past two years, believe it or not - but the neurologist is putting me on the lowest dose and said for the first week, to get used to it, just cut them in half and take half of one each night.

He also said that I will experience dry eyes and mouth. I have been upping the eye drops and I have ‘dry mouth’ mouthwash!

When I got the pills I opened the bottle and laughed! They are SO SMALL! I showed my husband and he chuckled as well. He then grabbed a knife to halve them for me for the first week. I will post a picture of them at the end of this. Perhaps it’ll bring some laughter to your day!