Well, my friend with the mystery terrible head pain was diagnosed with
"exertion migraine", and told it would last up to a few weeks. As for what
form of exertion was involved, suffice it to say that it was New Year's Eve
and he and his girlfriend have a healthy relationship. He was taking codeine
and so forth for a few days afterward, but moved on to some sort of new
seratonin agonist inhaled through the nose. It took two weeks, but the pain
finally retreated. I wouldn't have bothered the group with this, but just
the other day another friend of mine, a pregnant woman this time, had the
same occurrence: terrible head pain, such that she thought she must be going
to die, ambulanced to hospital, diagnosis "exertion migraine", NO
painkillers because of the pregnancy, and the pain goes on. By the way,
neither smokes tobacco, is overweight, or has vascular trouble, or has had
trouble with headaches (beyond the norm) before. They are vegetarians--could
it have been exacerbated by some sort of vitamin deficiency? All I want from
the group is any info anyone might have on how common this sort of thing is,
and who's most often (statistically) susceptible, purely out of interest on
my part. Please don't spend precious time on it if you're busy (anybody),
but I am interested.
--Katrina