I have been experiencing a permanent headache for the past 9 months

Hello everyone,

I have been experiencing persistent headache for the past 9 months. It feels like pressure on my head like when you're doing too much exercise and you feel your head heavier and your neck tight.

I wanted to share my story as I thought some of you might be interested in my symptoms, you might also have a similar issue or resolve your problem and want to share.

Everything started last April while doing some pull up exercise at the gym. While forcing, I suddenly had a very strong headache on the left side of my head, what some call a thunderclap headache with an intensity of 9/10 I would say. This strong headache was very intense for a few minutes and got more manageable in the hour. Since this day, I don't feel myself anymore, like my head is heavier than usual most of the time and I feel pressure/tightness mostly on my neck and sometimes on the left side of my face. I never had much headache and never had migraines before that day.

Over the following days/weeks after the first headache, I went to the emergency service where I had a CT Scan done which came back without any issue. I've seen a GP and she told me this is due to stress just like any regular tension headache. I had my eyes checked a few months before without issue. So I've decided to see an Osteopath to help out but without success, then a Chiropractor for a few months and it didn't help either, mostly improved my posture and another Osteopath which thinks it's a vascular issue and not nervous.

Time passes and my headache intensified a bit. Last October and I decided to see a Neurologist which prescribed me an MRI of my head which came back normal. He then decided to prescribe some Propranolol to hopefully regulate my tension/blood pressure which is in average around 130/90.

Today I still haven't figured out my problem. I wake up with a headache and I go to sleep with a headache. I still feel this heavy head, my headache varies from 3/10 to 6/10 in average.

A few other symptoms of my headache which appeared over time since that first day:

• Neck clicking, turning my head sometimes makes my neck click or even crack. My neck is quite tight and tense most of the time
• Pressure on my head, sometimes the left side, sometimes the right side. Sometimes even on the face.
• Tight throat, from time to time I feel like I have something on my throat.
• Jaw/tooth pain
• Chest pressure/discomfort sometimes when I lean forward

I found a few things which intensify my headache, one of them is an increase of blood pressure while I'm doing intense exercise or forcing. After swimming it also tends to intensify my headache for the rest of the day. What relieves it is when I'm relaxed, like when I go in holidays for example, but it's never completely gone.

So far, no solution and OTC medication are not very helpful. I'm going to continue investigating. One option could be due to anxiety but I don't feel very anxious myself, maybe a little. Another option to investigate can be due to my sinus. I often have mucus in my throat even when I'm not sick, dry noise and dry blood in my noise the morning.

It's a tough time for me but I won't stop investigating until I find a solution!

Thanks for reading!

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