I've heard of oxygen helping get rid of these headaches, but can breathing oxygen also trigger one?
I fainted in the doctors office when they were taking my blood and they gave me an oxygen mask for a few minutes. Almost immediately when they took off the mask, I got the worst headache I've ever had in my life. It was like someone was stabbing me with a knife in my eye and temple on the right side of my head. It was so excruciating and unbearable, I thought something was seriously wrong, like a brain hemorrhage. It was really frightening. Then it went away after about 20 minutes or so.
Could it have been linked to the oxygen?
2006-09-19 15:37:06 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ General Health Care ➔ Other - General Health Care
I don't believe the headache was triggered from the oxygen, but probably related to the syncopal episode that caused you to pass out. Possibly you had increased bloodflow to the brain after coming to, which can be related to increased migraines. I had one patient with headaches that were absolutely unresponsive to everything from drugs (no results) to chiropractic (relief sometimes). Finally we placed her on oxygen to use at home prn after a headache in the office resolved with oxygen therapy. It helped immensly, until her insurance carrier denied payment for it because it was "not medically necessary", subsequently she stopped and the headaches returned.
2006-09-19 15:45:29 · answer #1 · answered by drcurtis777 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
More likely it was a sudden drop or spike in your blood pressure that triggered both the fainting and the headache--- or the onset of the headache triggered the blood pressure to get out of whack which in turn caused the fainting. There's not a whole lot known about cluster migraine--- I get them too--- but there's definitely a correlation between the onset of a headache and a major, rapid change in blood pressure. And blood pressure changes definitely can cause fainting.
If you only got one, though, it's not a cluster headache. It's a regular migraine. And cluster migraines usually last more like 2-3 hours, not 20 minutes.
2006-09-19 15:44:44 · answer #2 · answered by dcgirl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, the oxygen did not cause it. Oxygen is probably about the only medical intervention that can be done without bad side effects.
2006-09-19 15:45:16 · answer #3 · answered by starting over 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Maybe the mixture wasn't formulated quite right and you were actually oxygen deprived or sucking in carbon minoxide, which will give you a killer headache.
2006-09-19 15:45:48 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You did have a lack of blood in the body (and I do admit it might have only been a tiny amount) so that could have caused it.
Did you fall? If so, you could have hit your head.
Oxygen doesn't really cause any type of adverse effects unless you overdose on it somehow.
2006-09-19 15:42:37 · answer #5 · answered by PrincipessaLHO 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Probably stress and nothing to do with the oxygen!
2006-09-19 15:39:38 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋