Tell me about your headaches

[Flapj]

I've been dealing with annoying headaches for 2 months now. Thankfully they are off-and-on so I get a few days of relief but they are still concerning. I have a doctor appointment coming up. Tell me about your headaches, how long you've had them, what they feel like, and what you feared could be causing them. Also please tell us what words of reassurance you received from doctors!

[BlueIris]

I've had various types of headaches since I was 14 - I'm 43 now. I can vividly remember my first one, as it came on after an afternoon of doing work experience teaching younger students! Since then I've had both tension headaches and migraine, including migraine with aura. Can't lie, the auras freak me out but the migraine headaches themselves are just something horrible that happens. I've been offered propranolol, which has helped, although I don't take it now.

In general, the tension headaches cover most of my head, while the migraines localise around one eye - generally but not always the right. Normally they last a few days, I get maybe one or two a month but sometimes they're more frequent. The biggest annoyance is the violent nausea that accompanies the migraines.

The auras have scared me towards the doctor a few times, but they've never been bothered even when I had three in a single day. Both my parents suffered from migraines, so they're just one of these things I've mostly accepted as an annoyance that stops me doing fun stuff.