Head feels like it will explode daily. Severe cognitive difficulties

Hi @nathansmith7143. First so sorry you are going thru this and thankful you have found this site. Everyone has insight and thoughts to hopefully help you. My head pressure/cognitive symptoms with post covid sound like yours. Ruling things out took years for me and led to histamine reaction as one attributing factor to it. It takes time and diligence noting foods, reactions, symptoms to get full picture yet worth the knowing and ability to adjust foods/spices/activity to relieve indescribable pressure/pain and cognitive impact. Wishing you the quickest relief and healing journey🌈

This MRI was of my head only. As far as I remember, the report came back clear for the MRI, but I can double check.

I have worked with 2 different neurologists. The first neurologist insisted on me having an EEG for seizures despite me never having a seizure. The second neurologist prescribed me gabapentin and baclofen because he thought I was just dealing with a chronic tension headache. The drugs he prescribed did not help whatsoever. I haven't had my carotid arteries checked, but where would I get that checked? I may have had Covid when I was in the 8th grade, but my symptoms began to occur when I was a Junior in high school. I had one Covid shot last year (during the second half of the year) just in case this was somehow Covid related, but I felt no different over time after the shot.

I have had plenty of blood work, but a lot of that work was done with a functional medicine doctor who was insistent that I had a mold infection (despite the treatment plan not working). I will have to check in with my family on the blood work side of things.

No alcohol or drugs. My recent diet consists of whole grain berry cereal for breakfast, protein and fruit (mainly chicken and apples) for lunch, and whatever my mother makes for dinner (always homemade. For example, one dish is chicken tortilla soup). I am not one for sweets or junky food. I will say that my diet hasn't consistently been as I described throughout the time I've been suffering, but I haven't noticed any symptomatic reactions to certain foods. I generally do drink enough water per day, although recently my stomach doesn't tolerate too much food or liquid. The most I can do for exercise is walk right now and even then it is hard to push through the symptoms, but I still try despite how unenjoyable the symptoms make the experience.

I will say that one antidepressant (Cymbalta) made me temporarily feel more motivated despite my symptoms still always being present. However, after increasing the dosage, my anxiety and headaches increased in intensity, and I had to wean off the drug. I also tried TMS therapy for depression. 30 sessions of it led me to no change.

I am lucky to have family support to help me advocate whenever I am struggling to advocate for myself. I wouldn't be this far without my family support.

So are you suggesting that I eliminate histamines in my diet to see if something changes with my symptoms?

@nathansmith7143
You could check with a cardiologist or vascular specialist to ask about your carotid artery health/blood flow. You may benefit from a cardiovascular exam due to your symptoms and having Covid/covid shot.

You may want to consider an EEG. It would just check your electrical activity in your brain to see if something shows that could be behind son of your symptoms. Definitely check the brain mri report in detail for impressions of any brain matter and vascular changes.

Some of your symptoms can me tied to your cervical spine. Have you ever had an injury in sports or fallen? You should see if your neurologist would consider sending you for a cervical spine MRI and referral you to an orthopedic specialist if anything shows up. Any compression of spinal cord, nerve roots and nerves can affect blood flow to brain and spinal cord.

@nathansmith7143
Did you have any major event happen in your life that may have triggered your change in health?

Keep in mind that the Covid spike protein and Covid mRNA shot have been found to affect teen boys/young men and their cardiovascular health. I did not get my son vaccinated due to his heart defect but he had Covid 2 times (2021 and 2022). He seems to now have some long COVID symptoms that have worsened over the last year or so. Not sure if this could be behind some of your symptoms.

Hello. The headaches do not go away when I lay down, but I do feel the need to lay down a lot in order to tolerate the pain and pressure. The headaches are the worst later in the day (typically in the evening). I am out of breath when I exercise and I cannot push through the headaches if the exercise is intense. I do walk from time to time which makes the headache harder to tolerate. I don't have a lot of pressure in my life that would act as stressors. I am primarily concerned with my health as of right now.

Nathan, you seem clear that whatever stress you feel is a normal response to health issues. Shortness of breath while speaking is a significant clue since doesn't seem to be anxiety issued.
I'm not experienced, so
If I were in your situation I would ask for imaging studies with gadolinium contrast to help rule out spinal fluid leakage.
Shortness of breath while speaking can be one of the symptoms, especially when found in the presence of headache located in the back of the head that worsen toward evening.

Since you mention the cervical spine, do you think CCI could be possible? I've heard that vagus nerve compression ties into CCI which could contribute to some of my symptoms. As for your question, I was in the marching band and once fell over back first with a drum on. Other than that, no injuries.

I reviewed my MRI results, and the results are clear. My ventricles are normal in size and position. The only abnormality is a mucosal cyst or polyp in the left sinus. I got the polyp checked out by an ENT doctor who said that it was nothing to worry about.

I have had a spinal tap if that rules out a spinal/CSF leak. I am not sure though.