Why I Fear Headaches

It's been ten long months since my stroke yet every time I have a headache I have a minor freak out moment (actually a few minutes, okay, longer than a few).

A little background... I was violently woken at 3am by my cerebellar stroke. I was fast asleep and then BOOM, I was wide awake. I had very violent vertigo that felt as though my body was spinning out-of-control backward (feet over head) over and over and over again at a fast rate of speed.

I gripped the comforter hoping to stabilize myself, but that didn't work, hell, I couldn't even feel the bed beneath me. I was yelling "Oh my God, help me, help me, help me" to my sleeping husband who had no idea what the hell was going on when he woke.

The entire back of my head and neck were in excruciating pain - worse than any migraine you can imagine. My neck felt as though it had been beaten with a baseball bat and my head with a hammer (not that I have any idea what either feel like, but it's the best way I can describe it).

I didn't go to the emergency room for four days but that's a different story entirely. When I finally made it to the ER, I described the headache (still there but worse) and vertigo in such detail that the ER doc knew something was seriously wrong neurologically. I've read a number of cases where people go to an ER thinking they have vertigo or severe dizziness and are told by doctors, yep, thats what's wrong, when actually they've learned later they've had an artery dissection (vertebral or carotid) and/or stroke.

Anyhow, the point of this post... (and again, I'm not offering medical advice!) Last night I had a headache on the back left side of my head - the side where the dissection and stroke occurred. It didn't feel like a typical headache and it wasn't exactly the same or as excruciating as with the stroke. It's times like these when I wonder if I should go to an ER or if I'm just being paranoid. I struck out the ER option as I wasn't having vertigo or dizziness while doing the "touch my finger/touch your nose" test with my husband.

Should you ever find yourself at an ER for vertigo or dizziness, be sure the doctor performs this test. It was this test that told the ER doc that I definitely had something wrong neurologically. I failed the test as I had Nystqgmus (Wikipedia can show you show what it looks like and describes it in detail). She ordered an MRI and CT scan, but "touch my finger/touch your nose" may have made the difference between being told I had vertigo and to go home rather than being diagnosed correctly!