Thread by @JinCVarg

#thread
Seeking help for a friend who has suffered long because of headaches, has been to multiple specialists/docs, they treat her temporarily, but her headaches come back in full force. She wants to get to the bottom of this and resolve it. Pls RT tweeps. 1/n @DrJoyeeta

The story is over a decade old. Her migraines started after 6 months after delivering her first child. She went to an ENT doc, who did MRI/CT scan and a few other tests. Reports were normal, was asked to take painkillers, since then she ends up just doing that. 2/n @SonaliVaid

Over the next few years, she realized the pain killers were giving her acidity and many a time, the vomiting also worsened, throwing out any and every medication she took. There were times she had to quickly rush to a hospital to get pain killers through IV. 3/n @HShewade

So she started trying to tide over her migraines without painkillers, it is not like she did not take it at all, but avoided it as much as she could. 4/n @sakie339

When the pain started she would start spending some time in the open-air (without sunlight), hydrating, sipping coconut water, wait till the pain subsided.5/n @netshrink

She also found a pattern, the #migraines were more severe and unbearable during periods. She is a #PCOS patient. She is overweight, has hirsutism, and goes through some horrible episodes of PMS. Her periods sometimes are regular and sometimes irregular. 6/n @SubarnaGhosh

So after seeing it being around her periods cycle, she felt it could be a gynaec issue, and went to a few gynaecologists. They asked her to lose weight & she tries but in vain. But by and large, she eats fewer carbs, more fibre, and protein. She works out 3-4 times a week. 7/n

About 3-4 years ago, she developed a pain in her neck, slowly she realized even that is triggering a headache, the pain even radiated around her hands, she went to an orthopaedic, they said the mild case of spondylitis. She was put on painkillers and supplements. 8/n

She also started doing Yoga, which helped a lot in gaining strength. the pain in the neck and hand had almost vanished. But soon she realized she had become hypoglycemic. She has begun having more proteins, but it isn't helping much. 9/n

Now her problem is, that her headaches continue. starts from the 7th day after her periods, go on till the 12th day. It mostly starts in the middle of the night around 2.30 or 3 am. She is incapacitated for the entire day, she is just sleeping. 10/n

After that, she takes 2-3 days to overcome it fully. and during these days she is not able to work out as well, because she feels extremely tired and drained out. Now she has also begun lactose intolerance. So she has eliminated milk and milk products completely. 11/n

Some more of her observations: when the headache starts at 2.30 am or 3 am, she feels sweaty and hot. she feels dehydrated, she drinks a lot of water then. She has even been tested by one of her gynaecologists for menopausal symptoms, but they ruled it out. 12/n

Recently she moved to Canada, where she met her family dr who got her to consult with a neurologist, who treated it like a migraine and gave her pills. the headache did not go, so her family doctor called it a "tension headache". After that, she read more about it on Google 13/n

The symptoms that Dr Google said are in line with what she experiences, but she also has mild acidity during these days, and it happens between day 7 and day 12 since her periods. What is the connection between periods and tension headaches? 14/n

She is working on her stress levels as well, it has been minimal over the last few months. In the past when her stress levels were higher, she has reached out to psychiatrists and taken help and moved on. 15/n

She wants to get over these headaches, whatever type they are because she is out of action for about 4-5 days a month. She has young children, family, household, and work to attend to. 16/n

Above all, she wants to be able to travel whenever she feels like it, and these headaches are a bummer. @doctorsaheba #medicalTwitter 17/n