Hello, everyone. I’m really hoping that someone can shed some light on a problem that I’ve been experiencing for OVER a 1.5 years. I’m so impressed by the knowledge of some people here that I’m very confident that we can figure out what’s going on, because my doctors have not.
About 1.5 years ago I was prescribed Tramadol for managing pain of an injury I suffered. I’ve had experience with painkillers before so I was popping several an every couple hours for a few days. On the fourth day of doing this I woke up with the worst headache and nausea of my life. The headache was a strong frontal lobe throbbing, burning and tingling feeling. These symptoms persisted for weeks until the nausea finally went away but the headaches did not.
From my own research I can only guess that I experienced something close to serotonin syndrome even though my doctor persists that tramadol alone could not have caused serotonin syndrome. Whether or not I experienced SS, the damage I did in those 3 days has left me with a throbbing headache in my front lobe for OVER 1.5 YEARS now. I’ve been to my PCP, a neurologist, gastrologist and headache center to try to fix my problem but nothing I have tried has worked. I’ve tried gabapentin, amitriptyline, fiorcet, Topamax, basically any OTC headache medicine and all of these seemingly have no affect or adverse affect to my problem.
I must also include that a few days after this started I started a new job, and you can image I had a terrible time focusing with these symptoms, so I began to abuse Adderall. Looking back, this probably exacerbated my situation and symptoms and I have since stopped using it but it was the only thing that kept me going for a while.
I’ve come on here to ask if anyone can tell me about serotonin relating to my situation. My doctors that I have talked to refuse to acknowledge serotonin in the situation or really have no idea what it is. I’ve seen so many excellent and knowledgeable posts about serotonin and dopamine balances I was hoping someone could tell from my brief story if
A. I have a permanent excess or depletion of serotonin
B. If I have permanently damage my serotonin receptors
C. Is there a way to balance my dopamine/serotonin levels
D. Is there a way to figure if I have excess serotonin or too little
Any information would be great. I must also include that anything that would make a normal person feel good such as alcohol, marijuana, painkillers, etc will exacerbate my headaches for several days. Which leads me to think that the dopamine levels associated with things like this may have something to do with an imbalance of serotonin and dopamine.
Thank you for any help you are able to provide.
About 1.5 years ago I was prescribed Tramadol for managing pain of an injury I suffered. I’ve had experience with painkillers before so I was popping several an every couple hours for a few days. On the fourth day of doing this I woke up with the worst headache and nausea of my life. The headache was a strong frontal lobe throbbing, burning and tingling feeling. These symptoms persisted for weeks until the nausea finally went away but the headaches did not.
From my own research I can only guess that I experienced something close to serotonin syndrome even though my doctor persists that tramadol alone could not have caused serotonin syndrome. Whether or not I experienced SS, the damage I did in those 3 days has left me with a throbbing headache in my front lobe for OVER 1.5 YEARS now. I’ve been to my PCP, a neurologist, gastrologist and headache center to try to fix my problem but nothing I have tried has worked. I’ve tried gabapentin, amitriptyline, fiorcet, Topamax, basically any OTC headache medicine and all of these seemingly have no affect or adverse affect to my problem.
I must also include that a few days after this started I started a new job, and you can image I had a terrible time focusing with these symptoms, so I began to abuse Adderall. Looking back, this probably exacerbated my situation and symptoms and I have since stopped using it but it was the only thing that kept me going for a while.
I’ve come on here to ask if anyone can tell me about serotonin relating to my situation. My doctors that I have talked to refuse to acknowledge serotonin in the situation or really have no idea what it is. I’ve seen so many excellent and knowledgeable posts about serotonin and dopamine balances I was hoping someone could tell from my brief story if
A. I have a permanent excess or depletion of serotonin
B. If I have permanently damage my serotonin receptors
C. Is there a way to balance my dopamine/serotonin levels
D. Is there a way to figure if I have excess serotonin or too little
Any information would be great. I must also include that anything that would make a normal person feel good such as alcohol, marijuana, painkillers, etc will exacerbate my headaches for several days. Which leads me to think that the dopamine levels associated with things like this may have something to do with an imbalance of serotonin and dopamine.
Thank you for any help you are able to provide.