Rudder Found

So, for a day or so, I thought, great!  I didn't tear any arteries in my neck.  I'm good.  I even used my physical therapy strap once again.  Once.

Because, morning after morning, I awoke with pain in my head and my blood pressure rushing through my neck like high tide.

The ER doctor and the neurologist had seen nothing on my CT scan. So, I had to think some more.

Sure, headaches can be caused by anything from an annoying coworker to a brain tumor.  The hospital had settled on calling my head pain a "migraine," their catch-all for headaches they could not find a source for.  Thing is, I've been lucky enough to never have a true migraine headache.  No history of that.

I couldn't pretend all was well.  I couldn't deny that the spot of referred pain in my forehead was the same as when I have had torn or bulging arteries in my neck, and at no other time.  And the pain wasn't just "in my head"--it was requiring me to take 800 mg of ibuprofen around the clock.  Either high blood pressure or a blood clot coming loose from an arterial injury could potentially cause a stroke, and I am not in the market for a stroke.

Because of an apparent cancellation, I was able to follow up with my primary care physician yesterday instead of in mid-December.  I pitched my theory to her.  Of course, she could neither confirm nor deny, but she did not discount it.  She said it made sense, and could explain my symptoms.  "I'm going to go with that, then," I told her.

You have to understand--I had been wrapping a strap around the back of my neck.  And then pulling fairly hard, as instructed by my physical therapist, while turning my head as far as I could in each direction, in order to help my neck free up space between my vertebrae and become more supple.  This was to prevent the kind of headache I usually get--from tense muscles in my shoulders and neck.  Tension headaches had been disabling me up to once or twice a week.

I think I bruised or irritated the arteries at the back of my neck by doing this.  I obviously did no structural damage that would show up on a scan, but I think I affected them just enough to trigger the symptoms.  Also, in the past ten days, I have been slowly healing.  Which, with my theory, I would. Blood pressure is back to normal.  Pain is intermittent and less severe.  So, that's my story, and, in the absence of more information, I'm sticking to it.

Rudder found.