[tp3454]

I am new to this forum. My best friend has been a great support system for me. she found this forum. I have been getting the run around from drs. I just want to figure out what is wrong with me.

I had 2 concussions in my younger years (dont recall the age due to memory losss) from child abuse. I had 3 concussions from 16-18 years old from football. I had another 3 concussions from 18-24 from 1 fight and 2 car accidents. My headaches started at 16. I am 35 now and I have had a pretty constant pain of 3-5 for the last 19 years. I was having attacks at night that escalated to 8-9 when it was extremely warm weather and during stressful times in my life. I have learned to manage it on my own. Pain killers have not helped. I do smoke weed (legally in california) to keep my daytime headaches at bay so I can work. I tried extremely hard to hide this pain from everyone around me for so long. People thought I was crazy. I just didnt know where and who to turn to. My last concussion was about 6 weeks ago when I fell off a bike. I do have contusions in my head. Drs say that is causing my pain but I think there is more to it than that.

My attacks have mainly been at night. They start around my eye and then the forehead/temple area. After about 2 minutes into the attack, my whole head is pounding. For the first couple weeks, I will have 4-6 attacks at night that last about 5-7 minutes and get to 7 pain level. The worse are the 3 attacks a night that last for 20-30 minutes that reach 9s in pain. Those come for about 2 months. Then the last couple weeks/month they go back down to 7-10 minutes on the 7-8 pain level. I usually am restless and walk around during the pain but I have fractured my ankle so I am stuck on my couch writhing in pain. I do notice my mood through the day affects my headaches at night. It is hard to be positive in this situation but I try with every bone in my body to be positive when I can. I have had a couple suicidal thoughts during the attacks just to end the pain. Although I have never done anything to harm myself. I just want to find an answer to help me and my family/friends help deal with this. I have severe insomnia, about 3 hours a night of sleep. My roommate just suggested melatonin. I took it last night after my last attack and was able to get 5 hours sleep. The previous night, I took melatonin early, but the attacks kept me awake and the melatonin kept me groggy and miserable. This has affected every area in my life. My self esteem, my work, my relationship with friends and overall love for life is diminished. I have noticed depression recently. When I was younger, I was treated for depression but it didnt help my attacks or pain so I stopped.

It is a great feeling to find this forum and find all of you with similar problems. Having my best friend/roommate support has helped me cope but the lack of answers is still in back of my mind.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thank you for your time and help.