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Living with Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA)

Headaches, Advice?

#1

For the past several months I have deal with a slightly annoying pressure headache that starts at 3pm everyday and lasts until I go to bed.

Things to know:
I work from home and homeschool my son, on the computer/phone/ipad a lot but wear computer glasses. Also take long breaks.
I read a lot. But have glasses for that.
I wear progressive glasses, and recently as an eye checkup.
I don’t have allergies.
I don’t get as much sleep as I should due to pain.
I follow a healthy diet and drink enough water.

So why all the headaches? I want to bang my head against the wall sometimes. IBU doesn’t help. Pain meds don’t touch it. Any ideas?

#2

Wow! Thank you for being so thorough. It means you won’t get suggestions on things that you’re already doing.

One thing you didn’t mention was your posture, and or back or neck issues. That seems like the type of thing that could worsen over the course of the day, because of poor posture or other tension in the neck and shoulders area. And I know you mentioned no allergies although that doesn’t necessarily rule out a sinus headache.

Hopefully you can get to the bottom of this, because headaches are miserable.

#3

@Stoney very true. My posture isn’t the best and true I could have sinus inflammation without allergy issues. I’ll try better posture and some sinus spray for a few days. Thank you.

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#4

I hope you can start feeling better.

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#5

I was thinking neck issues and posture issues. I like you work from home - the posture we adopt over a laptop even on a desk with a proper chair can sometimes leave a lot to be desired. The fact we’re not in a office removes an element of formality too which doesn’t help either.

#6

Another idea is to change your routine a bit. Maybe go for a walk at 3pm and see if that changes things.

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#7

@Stoney Thanks!

#8

@Poo_therapy That is a great idea. Afternoon walk in store for me!

#9

FWIW, once I got rid of the progressive lenses, and went to a single vision lenses with a blue light filter. The headaches diminished allot. Then I put my monitors (I use 3) on an adjustable up and down pedestal and added an adjustable desk so i could work standing. I had a OT design my work station. The secret is to be able not to bend your neck even sleeping. She had me using a cervical collar to practice. I’m at the puter 14 - 18 hours a day…

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#10

That’s interesting about the progressive lens. I wrote them for about 6 years, and never would have thought to attribute them as a cause of headaches. Now that I’ve had my first cataract surgery (no more glasses!) clearly the glasses were not a problem for me. But I can see how they could be problematic, especially if they’re not properly made.

#11

Properly made or not you have to move your head up and down and lock within a ver specific range to be properly focused. Now that I have experienced it, it’s almost like an SMH moment. It makes perfect sense.

#12

Yep, I found mine were because, despite having glasses, I had got my posture so I was sticking my neck forward (like in humpback of notre dame style), to look at my screen. I too work from home, and find that makes it worse, because frankly we are less likely to get disturbed and spend a lot longer at a time sitting in a pretty still position… In fact you just reminded me, I checked my posture, and there was my chin stuck out!

I had a physio explain it all to me and give me both exercises and explain correct posture. That was a godsend, but I must admit if it co-incides with a neck flare, well, I pretty much have to go lie down for 15 minutes every hour or so to take the pressure off those joints. I’d definitely recommend a physio or OT depending on whats easiest to access / you can afford.

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#13

@tntlamb @amielynn38 I had to ditch progressive contacts for the same splitting headaches. I was OK through Wednesday but woke with a headache every Thursday. Every week. For weeks.

The progressive contact lenses are good to help with close reading but not computer-distance. So now I have contacts for distance and readers for up close/computer. Plus anti-glare-coated reading specs have been helpful. I know when I’m inflamed it really changes my eyes’ ability to handle a lot of computer work. Some days one eye will be lazier than it should and my vision might be off that day. Next day it might be better. I talked to my eye doc about this (she has RA) and my GP (she had some weird inflammatory response to an immunization). Both women experience similar difficulties on and off with “eye strain”. My GP keeps different strength contacts on hand and switches what she wears to suit her eyes for the day! She was also on prednisone for a really long time and that’s messed up my eyeballs too.

#longanswer

#14

I plan on seeing my eye doctor to get single prescription glasses. Last night the headache was so bad I had to sit in a dark room with my eyes shut.

#15

@Jen75 Thanks!

#16

@janeatiu That is very interesting. I am going to look more into this.

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