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Started about 4 days ago having severe headaches. Non-contrast CT indicated nothing new. He’s at stage 4-5. PCP administered a Toradol injection today which worked for about 7-8 hours. He thought the headache was coming from the neck but can’t be sure. Has anyone seen this in a LO with dementia and does anyone have any recommendations. Also….This could be a mixed dementia

Hi I work with a client that has vascular Dementia as well can you make sure he's not dehydrated and check his blood pressure.
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Reply to Lovelydot
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datanp97: In order to rule out stroke, he should be seen in the ER posthaste.
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Reply to Llamalover47
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My mother had dementia back in 70’s & 80’s … just before the dementia got worse, she had very severe headaches - her Dr told her & my father ( caregiver) that she would not get them again ( a mystery) and after a week or two they stopped and she never did have them again. I always thought he knew something we never knew…. It was never explained.
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Reply to Paintingjtj
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I have tremendous relief from headaches by using a magnesium glyconate daily. Purchased OTC, 400mg.

Best of luck, headaches are a terrible trial.
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Reply to Isthisrealyreal
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The dreadful thing about headaches is that they are a mystery in all of medicine.
Mix in Alzheimer's, where often the sufferer cannot well describe symptoms, and you have a real dilemma. I am so sorry.

You have addressed this right and so has medical. There has been a CT that shows you are not dealing with immediately identifiable stroke and etc.
The next steps here must also come from the medical team, and I think you need a consult with neuro-psych. Cwillie is correct, that often with Alzheimer's, a patient tends to be shrugged off. You can't have that.

I will ALSO, however, have to warn you that sometimes, when all is said, done and explored, there is still no answer. My daughter has suffered migraines FOREVER and nothing, absolutely nothing including the touted Botox, the injectables, the meditative, have helped, overall. Menopause helped lessen them a bit, so clearly hers have some hormone implications. But I can't fault medical for not TRYING. There simply has not over decades come an answer. And she "lives with them".

I wish you the best of luck. Keep at the doc, get referrals and all tests. They may at some point want to do a lumbar puncture as well. I am very sorry. This pain is difficult to deal with and there can be days when just a movement brings on pain and nausea. I hope you will update us if your research, testing, med-team finds an answer.

Going to give one last hint. Ask for PT consult to be sure this isn't musculo-skeletal in nature. I as an RN had a man (construction worker) in for MRIs and spinal fluid measurement and etc. During backrub I found massive spasm neck and shoulder muscles. A few sessions with PT and getting that muscle released was the end of his headache. Talk about mysteries.
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Reply to AlvaDeer
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My girlfriend suffered from headaches because of glaucoma. She was tpld if she had not gone to the eye doctor when she did, she would have gone blind. Call your eyedoctor.
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Reply to JoAnn29
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I would want to pursue this as though he doesn't have dementia, it used to really irritate me how people in health care would shrug off health issues in older people as an inevitable part of aging without even doing the minimum to alleviate the problem. Thankfully your doctor has ruled out anything major in the brain, but ask to follow up to try to discover a cause that can be treated. In the meantime an alternative therapy like acupuncture may give some relief, I wouldn't try chiropractic on old fragile bones.
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Reply to cwillie
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My late husband(who died at 72) had vascular dementia and never complained of having any headaches.
However, shortly before his massive stroke that he had at the age of 48, he was having real severe headaches, so that was my first thought with your husband.
Please keep a close eye on him.
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Reply to funkygrandma59
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MiaMoor Jan 21, 2025
This was my thought, too.
My mum had severe headaches when she had a cerebral haemorrhage - a bleed at the back of the brain. Yet, I would have thought this would show up in the CT scan.
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In doing a browser search it doesn't seem like headaches are a symptom of or part of vascular dementia. Has he been checked for these other possible causes:

glaucoma
hypertension
trigeminal neuralgia
Temporal Arteritis (Giant Cell Arteritis)
Sinusitis
Dehydration
Meningitis
encephalitis
Aneurism
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Reply to Geaton777
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