Today will be session 3 of 25 rads and the day after my first session on Tues I had a headache all day. Then had second zap on Wed, and by Thursday morning I had a stinking headache to the point where I felt nauseas with it and I still have the headache today. I didn’t have a session Thursday (yesterday) because it was a bank holiday here so my 3rd zap is today.
I’ve had a trawl round the forum and it seems its probably dehydration so I am trying to drink lots of water which seems to help a little bit.
From what I have read, the majority of people have gone through rads with virtually no problems apart from perhaps towards the end.
My question is, has anyone else had bad headaches from the start or am I just being a complete wuss??
No… you’re not being a wuss! I think you’re probably right about the dehydration. My radiologist told me drinking lots of fluids would help with the feeling of fatigue too. I hope you’re taking some painkillers and not just putting up with the headache. My doc says it’s not much point in waiting for the pain to get really bad, take painkillers at regular intervals up to eight a day.
You’re not being a wuss at all. I did get headaches during rads, not quite as early as you, but they told me to make sure I drank more water than usual. I also think that you can get get very tense trying to hold that position, especially in the early days when you haven’t got used to it yet and you’re a bit worried about it anyway. Hopefully, you’ll relax a bit over the weekend and next week won’t be so bad, but if the headaches continue, then do tell them.
I remember that every day they asked me how I was and I used to answer ‘fine thank you’ as you do automatically, and then one day I said ‘actually I’m not fine today - I have a stinking headache!’. Don’t just grin and bear it - make sure you tell them.
I got bad headaches from rads and looking back, it was caused by having my neck in a funny position and also stress caused my muscles to spasm in my neck and shoulders. You can tell a tension headache by pressing gently on the scalp. If it is really tender, chances are its muscular and a good neck and shoulder massage might help!
I used to find that unless I got my neck and shoulders sorted before treatment commenced I too would end up with a headache . Make the radiologists wait until you are comfortable they wont mind . They do tend to push and pull in order to get you 'just right ’ which leads us to losing our position but talk to them , their there to help you and drink drink drink.That way you cover all the bases.