Journal Entry #4 - Headaches - Gina Dierolf

6/10/2019
Journal Entry #4: ‘Headaches’ 

By now I have touched on a couple of the silent or invisible ailments that I live with on a daily basis. There are a few that I have not touched upon and many that I won’t since they are pretty well control. Let’s talk about headaches.

I want to say that I have first started struggling with them about a year ago where I would get this aching in my head, but only on the left side and fairly close to my temple then it would sometimes extended up into my head or around toward the back of my neck. It would come at random intervals and would sometimes keep me up at night, not because they were or are that painful but because I was worried about why they were there.

When I tell people about my headaches I like to describe it as a head pain since to me
they are different, not as intense as a headache.

But either way, whatever they are called they are this annoying and constant dull throb that always seems to come and go. I still experience these. I was seen by a neurologist where I was asked some questions and had gotten an MRI done. The MRI thankfully came back normal but then there's the question of “Where are these head pains coming from and why do I have them?

The neurologist’s explanation was that they were most likely migraines, since migraines
can manifest in weird ways and aren’t always the same for everyone.

The struggle with these pains now is that since I am taking Zoloft for my anxiety I have to limit the amount of aspirin or ibuprofen that I take so normally when I experience these head pains I suffer through and do not take any pills to get me through. I don’t think I have taken any headache medication in the last five months or so.

I have a follow-up appointment scheduled for the end of September, so we will see what happens then.