Hello everyone, this is my first post here. I've read through a lot of your concerns and experiences and I feel kind of guilty in having to ask this here... but here it goes.
I'm a 22 year old italian female and I've been suffering with near-constant headaches since the 10th of June.
They started very aggressive at first, had them only in my right temple and only when I stood up and they were made better by laying down, which at first made me consider a CSF Leak.
But with time they became more generalized, giving me a terrible sore scalp (to the point where brushing my hair is incredibly tedious), head pressure and hitting me mostly in both my temples. My temples are also sore to the touch when I get these headaches - although I can't see bulging or lumps.
These past few days I've also had eye pain which isn't excruciating but very annoying, almost like my eyes are constantly dry and it's difficult to move them. I haven't noticed particular changes in vision, but sometimes I have to strain a lot in order to see from a bit far away from me. I associated this with the fact that I have to work on my computer a lot, but it doesn't feel like simple eye-strain. It feels like I have a very thin black layer on my eyes, if that makes sense. Almost like TV static.
One thing I should mention though, is that the headaches go away with over the counter painkillers. Be it aspirin or ibuprofen, they work and the headache subsides. The problem is that it comes back the day after and I really don't want to spend my life taking NSAIDS, especially given the complications that they bring. I've read somewhere that these painkillers shouldn't work with GCA, but you never know.
I've already been to the ER twice, had a CT Scan and MRI (all clear except for infected sinuses, but I have no other sinusitis symptoms? No fever, no congestion, no ear pain...) and I've talked to my GP multiple times, begging him to at least refer me to a neurologist because these headaches are making me severely depressed and unable to function like a normal human being. He thinks this is only stress, which angers me, because it's clearly not, since I suffer from depression and I know very clearly when my pain is brought by stress, and this is not it.
I'm scared to even bring up the possibility of GCA because I know he probably won't even know what it is, and if he does, he'll say that I'm too young to have it... but all my symptoms point to GCA, the temple pain, the eye pain, the strange blurriness, the pressure. I even completely lost my appetite.
I guess I came here to hear your experiences and see what I could do, because nobody seems to believe me.
Again I apologize if this seems in poor taste, because many of you have suffered through much worse than me...
Thank you for your time and patience in reading this