What a Headache!!!

What is causing these HEADACHES and how do I make them go away?

When did the headaches start?

Hard to say.

I spent the summer of 2007 in Liuzhou, studying and travelling and exercising every day and I was very healthy. Then I started working in Ningbo at the end of October and I stopped exercising completely since all I did was work 7 days a week, 10-15 hours a day.

... I just remember thinking, as soon as we get these pumps shipped on Christmas day I can have a day off. But of course we had to work 7 days a week the next week to get the next batch out and the week after that and the week after that....

And in January Ray came to visit and I wasn't feeling so well. It occurred to me that I had had headaches every afternoon for about 2 weeks. And it continued for about a month. And I often felt car sick in the car or bus. Then I went back to Liuzhou for the spring festival and I felt really sick again and spent most of a day in bed. So, finally, my first experience with a chinese hospital was in Liuzhou on New Years day. But they didn't find anything wrong with me. I came back to Ningbo and had more tests . . . blood tests and CT scans,The CT Scan was cool. Can see the inside of the brain. Luckily no problems inside my brain. The little balls at the top of this picture are my eyeballs. And the dark holes on the sides are the insides of my ears. :)

Then my company's general manager said that his father is a traditional Chinese Medicine doctor and he could do accupuncture for me. I am very curious about chinese medicine and i have seen accupuncture many times on TV, so I was very interested in trying it. So I did. Actually, the doctor seemed more nervous about it than I was. He put one needle in my hand and twisted it around until it hurt really bad. Then he did the same thing with a needle he stuck in the base of my scull. But then I don't know what happened because I passed out. I found out later that he was really nervous that chinese bodies and american bodies aren't the same and he might not know the right place to stick the needle. So NEEDLE-LESS to say I won't be trying accupunctuire again soon!

But that doctor did suggest that I had 2 more tests done at the hospital. An ultrasound of the blood vessels in my head and neck and an MRI of my neck. I thought that my brain might be pregnant for a minute, the ultrasound made the same swooshing noises like a baby's heart beat. Just joking. But the doctors looked at the MRI and said there was a big problem with my neck. But of course nobody could explain to me in english what that problem was and how I could get the headaches to go away. They just said, this problem won't go away easily.

So, since I got all this news just a couple of days before I was scheduled to go to America on a business trip, I decided to take the MRI film with me and find somebody in america that could tell me what it meant in english.

First, I went to my eye doctor in Michigan to make sure that my eyes weren't the cause of the problem, but they weren't. Then I went to a chiropractor and found out what the MRI had uncovered. Of course she wanted to do more X-Rays, but finally I know that I have some bones out of position in my neck and pinched nerves and the start of arthritis in my neck and my neck isn't as curved as it should be. Lots of problems with my neck apparently.

But, the headaches are tension headaches caused by really tense muscles in my neck and shoulders. This is partially caused by the bones out of alignment and pinched nerves, but more by my computer. Laptops are bad for ergonomics. Either the screen is too low making you bend your neck or the keyboard is too high making you tense your shoulders constantly.

The chiropractor said that she would recommend I go to a chiropractor 3 days a week for 6 weeks to get the bones back in the right place and fix the pinched nerves. But the arthritis or pointy fronts on the bones can't be fixed. I just need to do lots of things to try to slow down the arthritis so it doesn't get worse while I'm still young.

So I came back and was super busy for 2 weeks hosting some Ford customers and explaining all of our problems and how we plan to fix them in the future. And so far I haven't yet found a chiropractor here, but I have found a great massage place where the masseur told me, without having seen my x-rays the exact bones in my neck that were out of place. So I figure if he can feel my problem with his hands, he can help me fix it.

Unfortunately I am finding thought that the massage makes me feel great the night i have it but my neck hurts again the next day. So, I think massage really only relaxes the tight muscles unfortunately. I don't think he is helping the bone problems much at all. I will try to find a chiropractor and see if that helps more. But maybe work less, get more exercise and enjoy life more will do just as much good. I'm trying to do that too.

But at least I know what was causing the headaches and the massages do seem to be making the headaches less frequent...