I have vertigo with continuous headaches and pressured feeling in my head. Is it a brain tumor?

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I would like to know some further details about headache and other symptoms:

1) Since when you started to have these headaches? How many years? Did it start only six years ago or used to occur before also?

2) In which part of the head you feel headaches? (You can attach your photo, clicked from a little distance, with hand-kept over part of the head, where you feel headache. Can attach two to three photos from front or sides if headache area is large)

3) What kind of headaches you feel, heaviness, bursting, squeezing, stretching, throbbing, or some other kind?

4) One episode of headache lasts for how long duration (without pain killer tablet)?

5) Do you feel any nausea or vomiting during headache episodes?

6) Is headache associated with any redness in eyes or watering from eyes or nasal blockage?

7) Have you noticed any specific trigger factor or timing for this headache till now?

8) How frequent are these headaches nowadays (before this last one week)? (how many times in a month?)

9) How is the intensity of headaches mild, moderate, or severe?

10) Do you take some medicine (as and when required or regularly) for your headaches? If yes, please tell the name of medications, dosage, and how many times you take it? Also, please tell me other medicines which you are on?

11) How is your vision for distant objects and near objects?

12) Have you undergone CT (computed tomography) scan or MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) for headaches or other tests? If yes, please send their reports as an attachment. Also, send other tests which you underwent before.

Answer the following questions about vertigo and unsteadiness:

1) what exactly you feel during such episodes?

2) Are you feeling the rotation of your surroundings?

3) Are you feeling the rotation of the inside head?

4) once stated, one episode lasts for how long?

5) have you any difficulty walking at that time? If yes, please describe it.

6) have you any difficulty in vision (blurred vision, double vision, or blackening in front of eyes) at that time? If yes, please describe it.

7) Does vertigo or unsteadiness happen simultaneously with the headache? or both happen at different timings?

8) How is your sleep routine? Do you get sleepy soon after lying in bed, or it takes a long time? Once got sleepy, do you have frequent awakenings during sleep? Do you feel fresh on awakening from sleep in the morning?

9) How is your usual mood in day-to-day activities? Happy or toward the sad side (thinking about past events) or the worried side (thinking about future things, irritable or something else)?

10) How is your appetite?

I suggest you do MRI Brain with contrast (bilateral inner and middle ear sections), ECG (electrocardiography), two-dimensional echocardiology, CBC (complete blood count), LFT (liver function test), KFT (kidney function test), T3, T4, and TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone). Get an ophthalmology consultation to look for refraction, IOP (intraocular pressure), or fundus. Please answer the above questions so that I can guide you accordingly.

Hello,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

As per your description of pressure overhead, there can be the possibility of it being a tension-type headache. The unsteadiness, as you say, is not really unsteadiness but felt by you. Also, ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor did not found anything. Such feelings can coexist in tension-type headaches or may be associated with some depression or anxiety. However, other structural abnormalities must be ruled out by neuroimaging.

I suggest you get MRI brain and MR (magnetic resonance) venography with contrast (including bilateral inner and middle ear sections), CBC, LFT, KFT, T3, T4, TSH, and serum Vitamin B12.

Refractive error related to keratoconus usually causes headaches over the frontal area. I also suggest you consult your ophthalmologist again to check for intraocular pressure and fundus examination (to look for papilledema, which is a sign of increased brain pressure). As your head pressure is not severe intensity, it does not need any pain-relieving analgesics. Depending on the investigative findings, we can decide the next decision about medications for this.

Meanwhile, you can try the following steps:

1) Daily jogging 20 to 30 minutes in the morning.

2) Maintain regularity in sleep, wake, and meal timings.

3) Meditations and yoga daily.

4) Deep breathing exercises daily.

I hope this was helpful. Please get back if you have further queries.