Showing posts with label NDPH. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NDPH. Show all posts

Friday, July 20, 2012

NDPH--a question and an update

I received a question through the blog the other day regarding my NDPH. I realized that I had not written about my affliction since October last year after being diagnosed with the syndrome during September last year.

I was afraid to write about it.

NDPH is new daily persistent headache. It is a headache which is always there and varies in intensity from annoying to incapacitating.

I was blessed with the more annoying part of the spectrum of NDPH. Most days I could function at near 95 percent capacity. I was learning to live with it and trying not to let it affect my life. I chose not to make my blog a litany of things that NDPH prevented me from doing or ways my life and relationships were impacted by the affliction.

I did a lot of research on the web and read about many of the sufferers of NDPH who were incapacitated by the affliction--and I thanked God for being one of the luckier ones.

When I received the "official" diagnosis from the neurologist, he believed that my symptoms would likely go away at some point. Whether they would return was an unanswerable question.

I began watching my diet to determine what aggravated the headaches--chocolate seemed to help and wine deadened the pain.  I began getting regular massages--which I still continue. But I never found a magical direct link.

And then--one day during December, I woke up and noticed that my headaches were gone and had been gone for a couple of days. While I clearly remember when the headache came upon me it is funny that it took a day or two for me to realize it was gone.

I was, as I wrote, afraid.

Afraid it would return--so I didn't tell anyone. But funny thing, the important people in my life--Chris, my wife; my family; and co-workers all noticed and asked me if the headaches were gone. While  I had believed that they were not affecting me much, clearly, they were since so many people noticed the change.

As I write this, I continue to be cautiously optimistic.  My NDPH remains in remission. I don't know why except that I have been richly blessed. My heart goes out to all of those who continue to suffer and while I never had to bear the burden that many of them do, I know that they are truly suffering and that it is easy to run out of hope--because the headache is always there.

Thank you, Hilary, whoever you are for asking the question in my blog two days ago. You have helped to remind me how richly blessed I have been and I pray that you too, find relief from the persistent headache. I wish that I could give you some formula for success--but as you probably already know--there isn't one.

I thank God for my healing.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD




Thursday, October 20, 2011

NPDH - A Periodic Update

Learning to live with the constant headache of NDPH is an interesting and sometimes frustrating approach to life.

I thought things were getting into a good place for the past couple of weeks as the headaches were manageable and, more often than not, I could imagine being almost headche free.

The other day though, for an unknown reson, the hedache decided to really start banging and the intensity has turned up to the levels I had seen when they began. At times, I could not even think.

Fortunately, I was saved a bit by an evening racquetball match which helped me to get ahead of the pain for the evening.

I don't know if it is aggravated by the weather or what--but this week has been bad.

I am beginning to really scrutinize what I am eating, or snacking on, to see if there is a relationship. My acivities are also beginning to shed some light on the aggravators as well. For instance, last evening, while driving in the torrential downpour, it was bad.

Fortunately wine, in small doses, still works to turn the intensity down and dinner really helped.

This morning things seem back to the levels I am more accustomed to--but there is a long day ahead. I will see how it goes.


- Elkridge, Maryland

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

NPDH

Today marks one month of being afflicted with NDPH. I have read that about 82 percent of people with NDPH know the day when their headaches started--and I am most certainly one of those. I even remember where I was, in my gold La-Z-boy chair on a Sunday evening, when my now persistent headache arrived.

Until a week ago, I did not even know that NDPH existed--and the name almost made me laugh when the doctor diagnosed me with this syndrome. Who would call something, New Daily Persistent Headache?

I am not trolling for sympathy--but rather I am reflecting upon how something I never thought about until a month ago and did not even know existed has become a persistent and almost ever-present part of my life.

I am lucky, so far, in that I am not debilitated by the persistent headache. I can function--but I know that even on the best days so far, that I am achieving only about 95 percent effectiveness--and on bad days, I am running about about 75 percent.

From my reading, I have found that usually they do not diagnose NDPH until someone has been afflicted with it for three months--so I am grateful that the doctor made the call early. I definitely fit the profile.

There are bloggers out there devoted to NDPH. One that I have been working through is titled Living with NDPH. I am saddened by many of them because there is not a lot of hope--one person has been afflicted for 14 years. The hard part is that there are three natural outcomes and no medical treatment has been identified to speed achieving outcome number one. The three are:

1. The headaches go away after a while and never return
2. The headaches go away for a while, but return sometime in the future.
3. The headaches never go away. (ugh!)

For my part, I have discovered two things that relieve the pain temporarily--racquetball and wine (beer works too). Coincidently, two of my favorite activities. Alas though, I am pain free only temporarily--but I take time to enjoy feeling almost normal again for the brief respite that I am given. Fortunately, it only takes one or two glasses of wine.

Other than all of this--life is pretty normal. Most days are good days with low pain levels. Some hours are bad--but I get through them.

I know there are a lot of prayer warriors out there praying for me--and I want to thank them because I am convinced that my pain is manageable and low because of your concern and intervention for me.

I am reminded of Paul's thorn in the flesh, from 2 Cor 12:7. While I make no comparison between myself and the Apostle Paul, other than this one, the response Paul received to his prayers in 2 Cor 12:9 is truly something I am holding fast onto: "My grace is enough for you, my power is made perfect in weakness."

Everyday--

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