Quote by Nattysgrama: "Are the headaches a part of depression? Anyone else experience this type of headache?"
Hi. I know what you mean about your headache being in your left temporal lobe. I have always had migraines, like BellaDeb was talking about, in one side of my head, being like a migraine. )Usually on the left side). Luckily, I don't have really intensive migraines anymore but I still do have a pain that sits in the left side of my head. It is hard to describe exactly where the pain is, because when it gets worse, it makes my left eye, my left ear, my left jaw, even my left eardrum ache.
So, I want to let you know that I also have the kind of headaches that you have. My head aches but it doesn't usually turn into a full blown "headache". Constant pain, no matter how small it is, can cause depression. There are medicines that can help both the pain and the depression, so I would like to advise you to try to find a doctor that you LIKE, and give him or her a chance to help you get better.
With a problem like we have, (I assure you, we aren't alone!) there are MANY "trial and errors" that doctors have to try before there is one combination that makes you feel better. I believe in doctors and know they are only human, just like us. They don't know everything because there are subtle differences between each person.
It should make you feel better to know that there are other people who have the same kind of pain. I think that I understand what happens in our heads... we all have the same bone structure, muscle bundles, nerve endings, blood circulation and organs, but during creation, some of the placement of these things vary a tiny bit from the "model".
I think that once a person realizes that there are tiny variations in the body, they can accept the fact some things don't work perfectly or work just like somebody else.
Doctors are trained in what each part of our body is SUPPOSED to do, but they have to do alot of trial and error procedures to find what works best for a person who has a little variation in how their body works. During the worst times of my life, when my migraines were at their worst, my doctors tried heart meds, epilepsy meds, high blood pressure meds, anti-depression meds.... I can't even remember all of the differemt kinds of meds I tried. At first, I felt a little like you and thought they should be able to just "fix me". I was under the impression that my doctor knew everything about my body and my ailment, and could just prescribe the correct meds to make it go away. I hadn't considered the fact that he was only human, too, and didn't know all of the answers.
Luckily, we have the internet now. We can look up all kinds of things and then we can realize the difficulties that face all doctors. However, we can do some of the work ourselves, by talking to others and looking things up on Medline or some other medical site.
I didn't mean to get into so much here but, these last few years, I have been through alot. I had a stroke 3 years ago. I was sent to one doctor to find out WHY I had a stroke. They did tests on my head and my brain. 53 years old, nonsmoker, no cholestrol problems... none of the usual reasons for a stroke. I did learn about my head, all that is in it, and some of the problems that can go wrong in the brain, after I had the stroke. So I was sent to a different doctor to see if the stroke was caused by my heart. More tests and more tests....
During all of this, I was online constantly trying to learn the causes of strokes, what kinds of tests they run after a person has a stroke, what is being looked for and at when they run the tests, which tests come after the first ones, and what and how the tests show. THAT is when I realized that even though we all have similar systems, there are differences. One thing I learned is that certain protocols and certain methods are followed by doctors. Everything that I found about my condition and what should be done, the doctors were already doing. Each test that was recommended, the doctors had already ordered. The possible causes and outcomes were being checked out, according to all the medical journals.
My heart WAS the cause of my stroke. It was a congenital defect. I was able to research what that meant, what the doctors were supposed to be doing, how the problem could be fixed and what the outcome might be. Sure enough, my doctors were on the same pages as me. I was able to research surgery for congenital heart defects and the different ways that it could be corrected. When I met my surgeon, I was able to ask him specific questions and ask about certain kinds of surgery (especially non-invasive). He was surprised that I knew about HIM, knew about the different procedures, even knew about my specific ailment and what was going to be done.
That experience that I lived through just proves that it is better to be knowledgable about what ails you. You are not alone with the pain that you have in the left side of your head, because I have it, too. Most of the time, my pain is managed by meds, and that helps me think about my mom and dad, and how they felt as I grew up. I began to realize that my father, one of his sisters, and his mother had the same thing. My aunt called it "her silly old head" and my grandmother used to have to go to bed, have it dark and quiet. Do you have anyone in your family who has head "aches" like you?
Give your doctors a chance to help you. There are so many new meds that are now available and widely used, and you will have a much better chance of getting some relief, just like BellaDeb said. When you are given one med, if it doesn't seem to work, let the doctor know and it should be changed, NOT increased! So find a doctor and give it a try. Don't be discouraged with your last experience with a doctor because it should be alot different now, or you should look for a new doctor.
Good Luck and I hope that you stay around here. Let us know what is going on with you, what the doctors are trying and how it is working out to help you feel better. Remember that it is pretty impossible to be completely pain free AND depression can accompany any kind of pain. The only thing that I haven't addressed is depression that is manic, because I don't have any experience with that. If you suffer from that, then the topic will be addressed differently, from someone with experience.
I hope that I have helped you understand that you are NOT alone and yes, head pain DOES have something to do with depression.
God bless you and keep us posted.
Trish
