My AD husband, early stages, high functioning, got up yesterday with a sudden severe headache. He doesn't ever have headaches. He was in such pain, he was bent over and could hardly walk.
We went to the ER. Cat Scans, MRI, lumbar punture, ekg, blood work, chest exray all negative. They admitted him to the cardio floor as he has a heart history and was having some discomfort breathing as well.
On a scale of 5 to 10 his pain was a 6. When he had his heart attacks it was only a five. He has a very high tolerance to pain and discomfort.
I am going to ask for a neruo and opthamology consult as he also said his eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head and they are bloodshot. Any suggestions, comments. Thanks so much.
dagma, if you get a diagnosis, please post it. I hope that he gets relief soon.
I have something similar. It hit me Saturday, massive dizziness and fullness of the head and headache so that I had to lay down and I stayed in my recliner and dozed all day and took pain killers. It was a little easier on Sunday, and came roaring back last night, and is better this morning. I talked to some people at work yesterday (it didn't hurt during the day yesterday, so I went to work) and apparently several have had it, or have relatives who have. It's like the head feels so full that it needs to empty for relief from the pressure, and vertigo is bad too. Thank goodness mine is coming and going and not staying. It's like a severe sinus headache plus vertigo, but my nose is clear.
Mary, yours sounds like a migraine. I used to get them. Yes, dagma3, please post when you hear from doctors. When my hb had a stroke at 48, he had no pain as you've described.
Mine has bad headaches almost every morning when he awakens but by the time he's up and moving it's gone, whether or not I give him some Tylenol. We talked about this once before here and many spouses appear to have them. No solution.
We had a thread about bad headaches during the early stages of various dementias about 18 months ago. It turned out that it was pretty common. My husband was given something stronger than tylenol for them by the doctor. Either they stopped, or he no longer understand he is in pain.
My husband is still in the hospital. They have ruled out stroke, heart damage and lots of other things that I can't remember now. He has a neruo consult tomorrow thinking that maybe it is a pinched nerve. Poor thing - has gone through so much. It is funny how his AD works, He seems to LIKE going to the hospital. i think he liikes people taking care of him, not having to make any decisions, doesn't have to do anything but lie in bed and do what they tell him. Now going on a vacation - that is another matter - that he can't do...........Go figure
I waited until I heard from my friend before posting on this discussion.
Her husband was diagnosed with FTD four years ago, and has picked up speed this last year in all symptoms, particularly muscular. For the last week, he has had a debilitating headache. She took him to the eye doctor, who saw nothing wrong with his eyes. He referred him to the PCP, who did a sed rate blood test, and found inflammation in the brain. He referred him to his neurologist, who said he has some kind of brain infection, that if not treated, can cause blindness. He sent him right over to another doctor - he is there now. My friend will call me when they get home later.
Bottom line - No matter what, it is extremely important to follow up on headaches.
My husband is home from the hospital - they did a heart cath and placed two more stents, but he still has the headaches. We are to get a full spinal MRI in a couple of months. They don't want to do it until the stents are healed into place. The doctor says that it is probably a pinched nerve.
Now my question is, would a AD patient fake such pain. He has always been so tolerant to pain, but that is when he was acting as a man his age. At times, he is very juvenile and I am wondering if the pain is being reported by the juvenile stage that he sometimes is in.
The last couple of days in the hospital, he was really enjoying it - loved the food, loved all the people coming in, joking, laughing. I think the doctors were getting suspicious - I was. I have been helpful to him at home, but have not done anything extra to "baby" him. I know this sounds cruel, but this stuff is so cunning. He has conned me before big time, and seems like this event has that flavor at this end of it. I don't think he knows that he is doing it, tho, if he is conning.
I would still do the same thing - take him to the ER and have a work up done. They said that he didn't really have a heart attack, but that the arteries were blocked - they couldn't unblock them before, but now they were able to. But that did not affect his headaches.
He seems a little sheepish. Lord, I just don't know what is up and what is down anymore.
Thanks for your suggestions. We will continue to work on the cause for the headaches. Eyes are ok. .......
This is not intended as medical advice, as I am not a doctor. It is for information only. If you look back in the posts in this thread, you will see that I mentioned my friend's husband and his headaches.
After the sed rate blood test results, they sent him straight to the neurologist, who sent him straight to some other specialist. He was diagnosed with Giant cell arteritis-http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/giant-cell-arteritis/DS00440/DSECTION=symptoms, which can cause blindness, but can be taken care of with a course of prednisone. He is now on the prednisone, and feeling much better.
They were assured that this condition had nothing to do with his FTD. It is age related - average age of onset is 70.
This may not have anything to do with your husband's symptoms. I just thought it was good information for you and everyone to have.
My DH complained of severe stomach pain towards the end of his journey and he went to the ER a couple of times, they couldn't find anything. Like you said, my DH enjoyed being at the ER. I took him to a gastroenterologist and they did an egd, where they look into the stomach, and a colonoscopy and could not find anything wrong. He suggested it might be the AZ. So the next time he complained of serious stomach pain, I gave him a pink mint candy, just one, and told him it was medicine, he said his pain went away. Try it once, and see what he says. If he says the pain went away after taking it, maybe it is AZ pain. Wouldn't hurt. Good luck to you.
Joyce, I have done the same thing - I give DH a tic-tac or two when I think the pain is not real. If pain goes away, it works. If it didn't, I would pursue it. So far, everytime he has had "pain" somewhere, the tic-tacs works!
My sister has had headaches for over two years now. After the 5th episode (aka TIA) they have found the cause or one part of the cause. Previously they did CT (3), MRI, and test to rule out heart attack and stroke. After this 5th episode which turned out to be an ischemic stroke, they found her rt. carotid artery is 90% blocked. But her headaches start in the back and move forward. They found clots in the back of the brain which remain a mystery as to where they came from since the aorta had minimal plaque build up. So, lack of blood flow from whatever cause can be causing the headaches. And with their compromised signals from the brain, who knows.
Thanaks for all you input. Admin- when they did the spinal tap, the MRA and the catscan they ruled out any bleeding in his head. He did have a neurologist - the one on duty - come in when he was in the ER and she didn't see anything significant except his brain atrophy. They then turned him over to cardiac and they did the caths, then back to the neuro and then to the headache clinic spcialist. I was very impressed with the neurologist - she picked up things in his original blood work that showed she was looking at everything. That was about his creatinin which was a little high, but went down after he got the IV.
I think I would do the same thing again, treat it seriously and make sure he got evaluated. I do think that I would have an open mind to what his AD behavior could be doing. His headaches have gone away - I hid the pain med and after the first day, would only give it to him if he asked.
This process is so cunning - keeps me on my toes and getting an education I never wanted, but glad that I have places to learn. Right now, he seems fine, just declining more as he had been before he went in. Will update if anything else comes of this. Thanks for everything.