2006-08-26
[Hi Paula: thanks for the message. Laval Quebec have I lost you for good?]It’s probably another age thing but I’m getting more and more conscious of little pains and wondering what they mean. Of course it isn’t helped by hearing about people near my age ..friends of friends… who drop dead suddenly. Oh – please spare me from hypochondria!
The one that’s got me going at the moment is a pain in the back of my head: even though I know almost for certain what it is I can’t help connecting it with a feeling of tiredness and wondering whether there’s a tumour or haemorrhage building up inside my skull. Because that’s what happened to…well whoever he was that I think I heard about.
I know what it (probably) is because I’ve had it before and had it checked out. It must be at least ten years ago that I went through several months of out patient appointments with an ear nose and throat specialist, all leading towards an operation. It started, just as it is now, with a sharp pain about two inches back from my left ear, above my neck. It’s there faintly all the time and then suddenly becomes quite sharp and fades back again.
The doctor who referred me (aren’t all general practitioners really useless? They only know simple obvious stuff and then refer you to specialists) said it was one of two things – an ear problem or a brain tumour. And as the waiting list for getting brain tumours dealt with was probably longer it would make sense to get the ear checked first.
So I had the hearing tests, and the unpleasant examination with a camera down through my nostrils, and then a MRI scan of my head (no tumour!) and the specialist decided what I had (have) was blocked sinuses at the back of the head. I didn’t know sinuses went that far back! I started on a course of steroids where I had to lie over the edge of my desk (had to be done after lunch apparently) to the hilarity of co-workers and drop fluid down my nose.
Several appointments later the consultant decided to arrange an operation which basically involved drilling a hole down through the back of my nose and sucking out whatever was there. Doesn’t sound pleasant eh?
The operation was booked. Just so happened it was booked for my birthday. And then I discovered they wanted me awake for the procedure. Not looking forward to that at all – OK it wouldn’t be painful at the time and I was kind of ready for the pain after, but I didn’t really fancy knowing what was happening.
It came to the day before and I had to go down to meet the surgeon. He had a look at the scan pictures: “Yes I can see what the problem is – this must be pretty painful. What analgesic are you using at the moment?”
“Nothing. It’s not painful just now. I haven’t had it for a couple of months..”
“You mean it comes and goes? When were these pictures taken?”
And when he saw they were about eight weeks out of date, and heard that this was an intermittent pain he advised me not to go through with the operation.
“We’ll do it if you want but I doubt there’s anything there to unblock at the moment. Opening up the space might stop it happening again but frankly it’s a pretty unpleasant process and you’ll have blood clots for weeks. If it was me I’d just walk out now – you might never get another blockage there anyway.”
Advice taken. I’ve had the problem maybe three times since. I don’t like it but it’s hardly debilitating – it just makes me wonder for a couple of weeks whether there’s anything more sinister brewing.