Please help!!
Posted , 9 users are following.
I've been suffering from headaches for over 8 months now, been to GP God knows how many times and have been given 5 different medications. Seen a neurologist who was no help whatsoever! I googled my symptoms and temporal arteritis came up. Went back to my GP yesterday and told her I think this is what I have. She didn't really believe me as she said I'm too young to have it (I'm 25) Anyway she agreed to send me to have my bloods taken. The next available appointment isn't for another 2 weeks! I've been reading up about it and have read that it's important to start treatment straight away. Surely I can't wait 2 weeks for a blood test? I've suffered everyday for the past 8 months and can't bear to wait any longer! I just need to feel better again, and by reading other people's stories it looks like the tablets make you feel better almost straight away!
0 likes, 26 replies
EileenH joanna99037
Posted
I'm not going to say you are too young to have it but, while it is possible, it would be very unusual at the age of 25. The vast majority of people who develop it are over 50. Your doctor has agreed to do the next step and do a blood test. If there was anything you had told her that really concerned her she could have sent you to A&E at the hospital.
The people on the forum who say the tablets make you feel better straight away probably have polymyalgia rheumatica - a related but different illness. And believe me while they do make you feel a lot better because the pain and stiffness is relieved it isn't a miracle cure even at the relatively low dose of pred used in PMR. In GCA (another name for temporal arteritis) the dose used is much much higher and is used for up to a few years - it isn't just a week's course of tablets and everything is hunky-dory. This all comes with a lot of side effects so no doctor would just use it without very good reason.
GCA isn't just headaches - there are other symptoms which you don't mention which are part of the diagnosis and in fact a neurologist would probably have recognised GCA. In some countries it is neurologists who care for GCA patients. If you were to have any of the other GCA symptoms then your doctor would refer you to a specialist again.
But let me assure you - there are no illnesses for which just popping a pill will make you feel totally better again. I know this is what the modern world thinks will happen but I'm afraid the real world is a bit different.
tina-uk_cwall joanna99037
Posted
anyway that's all by the by, I'm simply mentioning it as I appreciate just how anxious you must be feeling as you have these symptoms and the medical profession currently have no answers.
however, although I am not an expert, it is highly unlikely, but not impossible, but highly unlikely that you have gca, so calm right down re the medication question.
have you been to the opticians. Have you requested a head scan? If at the end of the day your GP cannot find an answer then they must explore every possible avenue by referring you to other specialist departments to establish a diagnosis.
i'm sorry that I have nothing else to add but I hope you get an answer very soon. Regards, tina
sue-dorset joanna99037
Posted
I can understand your frustration at not getting anywhere with a diagnosis and at having to wait for 2 weeks for a blood test.
You say you have headaches, do you mean migrate type headaches or what? GCA head aches are quite specific. (I know) Is your scalp painful to touch, even gently; washing or brushing hair very painful; jaw claudication (painful to move, almost impossible to eat without crying); pains like having a tight bandana around your head; blurred or disturbed vision in one or both eyes? Do you feel fatigued, not tired, but fatigued. Do your shoulders and/or hips hurt so much that you can't turn over in bed at night? Do you have pain that normal painkillers don't come near to alleviating?
If you can answer yes to some of the above then you may well have GCA despite your age, and you need to get back to your GP and convince her.
Keep a note of what pains you get, and when, then you'll have all the info when you need to refer to it.
I hope it's not GCA, and that you soon get a diagnosis.
joanna99037 sue-dorset
Posted
My doctors just don't seem to be in a rush to help me be diagnosed!
EileenH joanna99037
Posted
If, in the meantime, you could go to an optician and ask them to examine the back of your eyes to see if there is any sign of trouble there. If you have any worse visual symptoms then don't hesitate to go to A&E and ask for help there.
sue-dorset joanna99037
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EileenH carmel83758
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tina-uk_cwall EileenH
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david14272 EileenH
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ptolemy david14272
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david14272 ptolemy
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ptolemy david14272
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EileenH ptolemy
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ptolemy EileenH
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I remember in the good old days when you could get a GP appointment by queueing up on the day at the surgery and you were given a number. Those were the days.
EileenH ptolemy
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Even though the hospital OH worked at was at the centre of a transport network, it was a work of art to get there using public transport! When it was built, the first "all PFI" hospital I think, although the new hospital was lovely there were fewer beds and fewer parking spaces - because of course everyone wants to catch 3 buses minimum to get to an out patient appt or visit the wife. and you can have a heart bypass as an outpatient...
The best bit was that a section of the old hospital was to be kept as it was "only" 10 years old (the windows were falling out but whatever) so despite my husband pointing out repeatedly that his department was on a different level to the main hospital so what was going to happen when bringing very poorly patients from the wards to him for diagnostic tests and they had to go OUTSIDE to get from the A&E entrance to his department it was completed and then they went Oh-errrrrr and had to build a sort of stair lift that took a bed.
Plus if you went to the OOH doctor which - quite sensibly - was based at the hospital, an ambulance had to be called to take you the 50 yds from the OOH clinic to A&E if you needed to be admitted.
You couldn't make it up...
ptolemy EileenH
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EileenH ptolemy
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I'm so glad I'm not the only one who feels that way...