What Causes Right Sided Headaches With Diarrhea And Rash On Leg And Chest?

Posted on Mon, 16 Jun 2014

Question: Hi, I have recently had daily headaches, mainly on the right top part of my head, they have been there for the past 4 weeks. They began during a virus along with diaahorea and a rash on my legs and chest. I was concerned thatthe rash was meningitis as it was non blanching. I am a huge worrier and this caused me alot of stress for a week. During the week my arm would twitch or move involuntarily, at other times a leg and this has continued to date. It seems to happen less or not at all during the day when im distracted but it seems to start again when I am trying to sleep. I have had a few spells of feeling light headed and have felt nausea only a few times over the past 4 weeks. The other thing that has started over the past few days is a whooshing sound in my left ear, I have had tinnitus for the past 10 years but its always been a ringing noise and now I have the ringing and whooshing noise. The noise doesnt bother me but im worried as it has recently changed. I have had 5 gp's and a neurologist all say they put it down to anxiety but this was prior to the change in the tinnitus. I admit that I have been through a few traumatic events recently but it just seems alot to put down to anxiety, ? I have had blood work, urinalysis, chest xray, neurological exam and eye checks, also blood pressure and all have come back as normal but I have not had a ct or mri brain scan. Do these symptoms concern you? I have a bit of a history of panicking about medical things, and often think I have serious illness that turns out to be nothing. Please can you also tell me the characteristics of headaches caused by brain tumours. Many thanks. XXXX

Answered by Dr. Sumit Bhatti (54 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
As below:

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for your query.

1. Atypical facial pain, light-headed-ness, nausea, tinnitus may all be due to chronic sinusitis.

2. Get a Sinus CT Scan done. If the whooshing tinnitus is synchronous with your heartbeat, get a Neck Color Doppler Study done. Get regular blood pressure readings done. Anemia (low hemoglobin), blood sugar levels and Thyroid Function Tests must be done. Remember to get your ears examined.

3. If these are normal, you may treat these symptoms as anxiety induced.

4. Brain tumors usually cause headache only after they start causing pressure changes or when they involve the meninges. They are also likely to continuous headaches, vomiting, loss of function and many other clinical signs. Brain Tumors are very rare.

I hope that I have answered your query. If you have any further questions, I will be available to answer them.

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Sumit Bhatti (14 minutes later)

Thank you for your reply. Somedays the headaches are continuous, are brain tumours the only cause of continuous headaches as the headaches are becoming more and more frequent with me.XXXX

Answered by Dr. Sumit Bhatti (10 hours later)

Brief Answer:
As below:

Detailed Answer:
Hi,

Thank you for writing back.

1. There are hundreds of causes for headaches. Most of these are benign.

2. Since you have no evidence of any underlying disease, these are most likely to be Primary Headaches. This is true in 90% of cases at your age. The cause may not be identified but a Neurologist may be able to identify the type of headache from a full list of details of the headaches. Treatment can then be started accordingly. For example, your history fits in for Cluster Headaches.

3. It is a good time to insist on the investigations mentioned above.

I hope that I have answered your query. If you have any further questions, I will be available to answer them.

Regards.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar