When to seek doctor's opinion? Head issues

[Lana]

Hello all,

I have not been here for quite some time, but, of course, something had to come up.
Little less than 2 years ago I had some weird head pains for days, really bad, that would even wake me up from sleep. I saw my doctor at the time , he examined, and he was certain it comes from problems in my neck and/or spine. He recommended neck massages and stretching exercises. And then it simply passed.

This year, for several months already, I have had worsening lower and sometimes upper back pains, especially when i get up in the morning. In the last week or so my neck is very stiff and painful when moved, and now I have had almost for a week a sort of pressure headache , sometimes on one or the other side, sometimes all over. It is not strong enough to take Advil all the time , but I am constantly for a week aware of it and slowly getting more scared. I would definitely think it is neck and spine related ( because back hurts, neck hurts and so on, on and off), but, last nigh and once today I sort of mangled words!!! That scared me to death, and you all know what I mean. Any words of comfort and suggestion would be highly appreciated. BTW ( and Thank God), so far no blind spots, no serious vision problems ( other than my usual dry eyes and prescription glasses), no dizziness, no nausea or worse. But those few times in the 24 hrs of me not properly saying words really scared me. I also had a comprehensive eye exam tenish days ago, and my doctor did not see anything worrying, except new prescription.

Please respond, some friendly words of wisdom I would welcome.

Lana

[jules321]

Try a new pillow! I had something similar and had been propping up a bit while asleep. I got a flatter pillow and was sure to sleep flat, and problems went away.

[Lana]

Jules, thank you so much! Believe it or not, I have for some time suspected that the pillow may be the culprit and I have been sleeping really awkwardly for quite some time! I did start flattening both the pillow and trying the be as flat as possible , both my head and my whole body while sleeping, but I think I already did some damage. I will definitely change the pillow. Thank you again 😊

[Lana]

Me here again, anybody else have a piece of advice for me? Very scared. Now I am 100 % focused on my speech and I believe I mispronounce words more often. Petrified of brain t. Do not want even to say the word.

Have an appointment with my doctor on Tuesday. Is there something that she can do to check if I need to be referred for a brain MRI?

I had one in 2019, and it said " unremarkable", with some normal scattered white spots that the radiologist said is normal with aging. ( btw, I made a weird mistake while typing this too, and corrected it.

[Lana]

Small update: now my right eye has a slight twitch, and the headache albeit mild, is present all the time. I catch myself making weird typos and sometimes mispronouncing words. I know that nobody here can help me, but I am really scared and just want maybe some words of comfort. Does all this constitute the possibility of brain t.? I do not know how to stop spiraling, and the only ( sort of ) consolation is that my neck hurts when I move it, it makes sound when moved, and my back hurts, so there is still a possibility of this being cervicogenic situation. But then, why am I making these cognitive mistakes? Or am I hyper-focusing?

[WiredIncorrectly]

Eye twitting is a natural stress response. It's because you're overly worried.

I have a back pillow in bed for comfort on the laptop. I sometimes fall asleep on it. When I wake up I'm flat, and my head is on the corner of it. When this happens I'll have a sore neck. It has caused migraines that lasted all day. I do better with no pillow at all.

Try that. Give it some time. Couple of weeks.

The best sleep I've ever had was when I split up with the ex and I was sleeping on the hard floor in the living room. I don't know why a hard floor is good, but I would get a good sleep and wake up alive and kicking. I would do it here, but have no flooring yet.

[Lana]

WiredIncorrectly, thank you so much.

I saw my doctor for a long visit and a thorough physical. So, my fears were dispersed, but I obviously have problems with my back, that added to tension headaches. So, she gave me advice what to do for a month and see what happens.