ANA Discussion Forum
Post-Treatment => Headaches => Topic started by: MDemisay on October 16, 2012, 07:50:52 am
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Dear Friends,
Last night at about 12:30 am a sudden headache flared up which caused me to go to bed take some headache medication and try to go to sleep, it took me about 15 minutes.
That was unusual for me as it normally takes me half an hour to fall asleep. Should I be concerned? I have been under some stress recently......
Mike
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Mike ~
I would only be concerned if the headaches continue and/or get worse. Stress is a major cause of headaches so your ability to get to sleep faster than usual may have been your body reacting to fatigue from the stress.
As always, 'if symptoms persist, call your doctor'. Hopefully, they won't.
Jim
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Hi Mike,
I have copied what I posted under the topic yellow flag:
During my constant research I spoke to a proton specialist and he recommended that AN patients sleep with a 5% elevation of their head. Reasoning is that while sleeping the brain can swell naturally up to 1 cm. Elevating the head reduces this natural swelling and reduces pressure in the tumor area. How did he discover this? He was treating brain tumors on or near the optic nerve. Some of the patients were experiencing color blindness when they woke, by noon the color had returned. By sleeping with elevated head the color blindness did not occur. He has recommended AN patients go to bed, bath, and beyond and buy a set of bed raisers and put them under the head board. As a side note he was treating these tumors with radiation and warned the patients of only a 15% success rate in preventing blindness, when he went to Proton Therapy the success rate went to 50%. Could not find any proof to back up this claim. I am going to buy some bed raisers to try. This may help with pre and post AN treatments. Worth a try.
And use it does seem to help just dont try sleeping on satin sheets or you will slip on down.
Skip
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Dear Skip,
I noticed that after my operation in 2004, I have had problems sleeping through the night. I resolved this problem myself by adding an extra pillow to my normal flat one.....a special cervical pillow with a special indentation for my neck.... I am able to get a good nights sleep normally, except when I have had a stressful day.....Maybe I should try massage!!!!
I have a king size bed and it would cause my wife a great deal of discomfort to do as you suggested with the bed risers......the most she was willing to do is share a Sleep Number bed (one in which you can individually adjust the firmness of the mattress).. all of this has caused me to long for sleep!!!
Mike