R-e-a-l-l-y Bad Head Pain!! Pls Helphelphelp!!

[Big G]

I'm in the gym yesterday doing the same thing as last Tuesday (except pushing it a bit further, as usual). Doing my first set of my first exercise (assisted chin-ups) I feel this pop kind-of feeling in my head. A second later it's hurting REALLY badly and I break out in a sweat. Being the stubborn fool that I am I kept going, finished my workout and went home basically in agony. I slept on and off all night, waking every so often with bad head pain. It's in the back left side of the inside of my head, like my brain is bleeding or something (except there's no nerves in your brain).

Anyway... I woke up this morning feeling much better. I had a slight dull headache but nothing too bad. By this afternoon it had gone. I went back to the gym tonight to do Shoulder&Triceps (Same as last Wednesday). Again, on my first set (this time sideways shoulder raise with 20lb). 5 reps into it BANG it happened again. This time I swear it's worse that yesterday. Instant sweat, massive pain and a merciless throbbing, again in the back left side of what feels like the inside of my head.

What the f*&^ is going on!!? Even as I write this my hands are shaking, I'm sweating and my head is throbbing r-e-a-l-l-y badly.

PLEASE HELP. I hate doctors. I hate hospitals. But, f*^& me, this hurts bad. What have I done? What can I do to make it better?

PLEAESE HELP.

 

[kcoleman]

Go see a fucking doctor, immediately

 

[Mystik]

your brains made out of fat mayb your cuttin to much

 

[Big G]

Go see a fucking doctor, immediately

I can't/won't for two reasons:
1. My wife put us $25k in debt having a gastric bypass in May of '05. She's lost 300lb and is now a skinny little thing, but we still have $15k of the debt left (almost two years later) and I'm not even looking at a hospital until that shit is paid off.
2. My new lousy health insurance policy doesn't cover jack until I've paid my deductible and that's $2,000. Even after that they only cover 60% or 80% or something pathetic anyway. My max out of pocket is something stupid like $4,500 and there's no f-ing way I'm doing that to myself. In all seriousness I'd rather die that live fucked-over by crippling debt.

 

[Big G]

your brains made out of fat mayb your cuttin to much

I'm at around 168lb/8%bf at the moment, having dropped 26lb from 194lb/14%. At 8% I shouldn't be so lean that my head is caving in, surely!

 

[Mystik]

yea but seriously you should try going to a free clinic, could be tumor or brain himraging going on. I dont going to the doc either but if something could be serious its good to take initiative . Your body is no good if your mind is not talking to it. "Aka Dieing"

Maybe your just craving something you've cut back on. I know for me 3 days no dr peppers is instant headache.

 

[Big G]

I called the gym and spoke to a personal trainer (Not mine. I can't afford $100/hr for that shit. I buy training DVDs instead. But anyway...). He told me he'd had a similar experience last year and it turned out to be due to dehydration. Apparently (according to this guy, anyway) your body maintains a level of water in your vertebrae to act as a protective cushion to nerves that pass up to the brain. If the water level gets too low and if you're straining your back/shoulders/neck with heavy(ish) lifting the nerves can get crushed. Supposedly, while the nerves are located inside the vertebrae of your neck, when they're crushed it can feel like the pain is actually up inside your head somewhere. He recommended drinking even more water than I have been and taking a week-long break from weights. He actually said I could still run but I should specifically avoid back exercises. From today's experience it's probably safe to say that I should avoid shoulder exercises too. My concern though is that, with any serious lifting, I end up straining and, you could say, "pulling funny faces." When I do that I probably end up tensing my neck and shoulders too which looks like it's the root of my evil pain. Oh Man! It hurts bad too.

Has anyone heard of anything like that? Or, does anyone else have any ideas on what might be going on? I'd imagine, if it was a pinched/crushed nerve it would hurt all the time and it didn't hurt this afternoon at all. After the agonizing pain of yesterday I slept on&off and woke today with just a dull headache. By this afternoon even that was gone and I felt 100% again. Could this be nerve behavior? I really don't know.

Any advice, theories or ideas would be very, very welcome. I haven't had pain worse than this since my vasectomy doctor basically mutilated me back in '02 (And that was some serious black-the-fuck-out-and-collapse-on-the-floor-sweating-at-the-slightest-touch kind-of pain that lasted almost 18months!). I can't endure long-term pain again. There has to be a simple solution. It's not like anyone has taken a knife to me this time.

 

[Big G]

could be tumor or brain himraging going on"

Surely that'd hurt pretty-much all the time. I was feeling 100% before I picked up that dumbell tonight. I'm tempted to believe it's not anything major like that. I did have a bloodtest done a few months ago and everything came back normal (Better than "normal", to be honest. I was "the picture of health" according to my doc. And they tested for all kinds of things; liver function, antibodies, etc...)

Maybe your just craving something you've cut back on. I know for me 3 days no dr peppers is instant headache.

Instant, crippling, break-out-in-a-frozen-sweat(type-of) headache when you try to lift a weight? Or, I'd-like-some-caffeine-please, not-really-feeling-your-best(type-of) headache?

 

[Big G]

OK... The current thinking is that when I'm exercising I'm crushing a nerve in my neck. It feels like it's in my head but it isn't really. It's a nerve tricking me. If it was something significant in my head there'd be other signs (unequal smile, pupils behaving differently, unequal strength in both hands etc). I don't have any of those prolems. Apparentlly all I need to do to fix it... (incidentally, it doesn't hurt at all this evening but, then again, I'm not lifting either) ...is just wait a week or so and when I return use smaller weight. Any sign of future pain and I should stop again immediately.

I wonder if part of the problem is that when I'm lifting I'll quite often be straining hard in my face and neck too. I'm going to try to stay more relaxed above the shoulder whatever I'm working on.

I'm really hoping that helps out because bigger weights and less reps were on the menu for increasing testosterone levels and bulking up pretty soon.

The good news is the crucifying pain has gone today. I had a dull headache this morning, but even that's eased up now.

I seriously hope I manage to get through the learning curve for all this body-building malarky without serious injury!

 

[Vieope]

You should really go to a doctor. I know you dont want to go there but it is impossible to diagnose your condition through the internet.
It can be something in your brain and you dont want to neglect that.

 

[T0ne]

Whens the last time you took a break from lifting? I had this happen to me before. One day I just started getting bad head aches whenever I did any type of exercise be it lifting or some form of cardio. I took a good week off, and made sure that I was eating and drinking enough before I hit the gym. Other then this advice based on my own personal experience, go see a doctor?

 

[BigDyl]

It's an easy choice. You can either go to the doctor or die.

 

[Big G]

It's an easy choice. You can either go to the doctor or die.

Yeah, right! Dumbass!

 

[Uthinkso]

I'd seriously take a week off and then see how you feel. I agree you should go see a doctor, but you have your reasons and I'm not posting to tell you differently. I don't agree with them, but that isn't what you asked here.

Take a break and see how it feels next week.

 

[Big G]

I am taking a week off. I feel 110% today although I'm not lifting either. I've discussed the situation with a local nurse, several of the bigger guys at the gym, my mum (a first-aid trainer), a couple of personal trainers and some of my workmates. The general census of opinion is that it's definitely a pinched/crushed nerve. It's probably from doing something with too heavy weight and bad form. Even turning your head sideways while doing upwards rows can be dangerous apparently. One guy I heard about hurt himself badly doing exactly that. There is no pain when I'm not working out, so I'm just going to take a break for a week or so. No biggie.

A couple of years ago I built a large paving-stone driveway completely by hand. Before I could start laying stones I had to dig the 40'x12' hole out, 15-18" deep, and refill the hole with gravel. It was about 30tons of soil in total. I didn't have the money to rent a Bobcat and I didn't know how to use one anyway, so I decided to dig it out by hand (Working the land is good for the soul!). It was all pick-axed out of the ground and shovelled into my old pick-up (50-60 loads). It took a month and a half of weekend and evenings after work. I completed 90% without injury then, WHAM!, I pinched a nerve in my hand. It burned like fire, put me completely out of commission for about ten days (It burned to even hold a pick-axe over my head). Ten days later I was still a little sore but I worked around it. It healed completely eventually, no problem.

The fact is, the pain felt like it was inside my head but the injury is definitely in my neck. That's apparently how nerves can be.

I'm going to rest for a few days and and return next week, older and wiser!

Thanks to all of you for your ideas (even if some of them were pretty-much "out there"... doctor or die.... brain made of fat/too lean... need a dr pepper... WTF!? Some poeple! Sheesh!

 

[emitecaps]

Why do people always go to internet boards asking for advice. Come on people this is your health and possibly your life, go to the hospital. It is really a shame that the US doesn't have affordable health care or even socialized medicine so people who have emergency situations can get adequate treatment. I hope what you experienced was a one time only thing and it's nothing serious but I would urge you to see a doctor.

 

[BigDyl]

Why do people always go to internet boards asking for advice. Come on people this is your health and possibly your life, go to the hospital. It is really a shame that the US doesn't have affordable health care or even socialized medicine so people who have emergency situations can get adequate treatment. I hope what you experienced was a one time only thing and it's nothing serious but I would urge you to see a doctor.

Yeah but the US is better because you pay less percentage of your salary toward tax dollars. That way you can be rich, so what if you're dead.

 

[Big G]

"BigDyl" I owe you an apology!

OK. I'm back! Just!

Since my last post in this thread a lot has happened!

Before I get started... "BigDyl" I owe you an apology. The whole "Go to the Dr's or die" thing was actually bang on the money.

I waited about ten days before going back to the gym again. I figured I'd work on legs. That way it'd give my neck a chance to heal up.

Like a dumbass I started with squats on one of those nautilus(type) machines. It wasn't until I got 10reps into the first set (and my blinding headache back from nowhere) that it occured to me that I have a huge weight balanced on my shoulders... right by my neck!

I walked out of the gym slowly, white, sweating & in pain.

It was lunchtime, so I went back to my office, called my doctor and got an appointment for 3:45pm. After explaining my symptoms and having some blood sucked out I was on my way. Nothing prescribed. They were just going to run some tests.

By lunchtime the next day I'm feeling 90%. My head is aching a little bit, but it's not horrible. I can't stop wondering if I'm getting the pain because I'm fucking with my neck or simply because I pick up a weight. What could be going on!?

I decide to go back to the gym to try something different. I'll just use r-e-a-l-l-y light weights and just go super easy. It works. Kind-of. The pain in my head increases from, like, a 3, to a 5 or 6 but it's not a full-on 10½ like before!

I do some light bicep curls, assisted dips blah blah blah and all of a sudden I hear "Will Big G please come to the front desk" over the loud-speaker. I wipe the sweat off my forehead and set off to find out what's going on.

I find my wife, on the phone, clearly stressed, but with precise instructions... "You need to go to the hospital immediately. Your kidneys have shut down. The doctor's office called and said you're badly dehydrated. He said you need at least 6 liters of liquids via I.V. ASAP or you could die."

FUCK!

I spend 33 years of my life eating pizza, drinking waaaaay to much beer and smoking cigarettes and I never get sick. Ever! I decide to get "healthy." I spend 4 months lifting weights, running miles and miles, eating like I've never eaten before and reading page after page of body-building and nutrition books to hear that I'm to "get to the nearest hospital... or ... die."

The irony alone almost killed me!

To be continued...

 

[freydo]

It sounds like an exertion headache, you strain something in your head and it causes migraine like headaches. I've had this happen and went to a neurologist and heart specialist and had tons of tests done. In the end all they told me was that it was a strain due to not breathing properly and like any other strain you need to take time off and allow it to get better. They told me to take it easy for a couple of weeks and take advil for the pain. You should get it checked out though because it can be a sign of serious problems.

 

[Dumby]

That's pretty intense Big G. I get similar headaches during football practices. Of course we're talking about losing 5+ lbs of water per practice for weeks a time, but I've never encountered anything like it. I experienced an extremely similar situation, but mine was a pinched nerve in my back which was caused by my entire back being out of alignment, as well as my hips, knees, and shoulders. 6 years of football with no chiropractor work had spelled disaster, and my entire body was pulling in difference ways which was pushing muscles together and pinching nerves badly. I had my doctor "shock" me for 30 minutes to an hour in 2-3 different places on 2 different occasions which hurts like hell in some spots and makes your body twitch badly. It loosed me up though and allowed him to reset everything. Feeling better than ever.

 

[Mista]

I remember reading this post a while ago, I have since been getting light headed after doing the last 1 or 2 reps. On Saturday I was doing a PB on shoulder press. Was going for 3x5 but on the last really pushed out for 6. As soon as I lowered the weight I felt a pop in my head, instant severe headache which had me holding my head for several minutes. I continued to workout after. I think I better get checked out.

 

[BoytonHeavy]

I don't know exactly what causes this, but I must admit, I had something similar last week, I went to the gym feeling a little tired, not totally recovered from a previous work out, then I proceded to do deadlifts, and after a few sets, I did a set with 405lbs, and as soon as I lifted the weight, I felt like I had no energy at all, but being the fighter that I am, I struggled and strained to achieve 5 full reps, but I did noticed I felt something inside my head, but I ignored it. It wasn't too bad, like a mild headache, I ignored it, but I took it ''easy'' right after that, throughout my work out. Then I go home, showered, ate, went to sleep, I slept a lot, then when I woke up, Bam, I had this terrible, dull headache that wouldn't go away, the worst part is, everytime I lifted a weight, or did something physical, it would hurt again! It felt like I had strained a vein inside my brain, like a vein was damaged from too much pressure or something. I'm fine now, but I've decided to be a little more careful now. When I train, I don't strain so much anymore, I let the muscle do the work, don't put pressure into your head, to the point that your face is turning all red, let the pressure be in your muscles and in your belly, against your weighlifting or powerlifting belt, and make sure your are breathing in and out with every rep. Being too hardcore could end costing you your life. I'm lucky to say I'm totally fine now, totally pain-free. I also prayed to God to heal this for me, maybe he did, who knows?..lol...But anyways, it could be dehydration...Or maybe it could be something a lot more serious than that...Whoever is feeling pain, stop training altogether, and go to the doctor!
Your life is important!