When A Thunderclap Headache Hits

No matter where you are, or what you’re doing – they can strike without warning.  You could be anywhere, running an errand, relaxing at home or out with friends – or possibly even at work – when a major pain hits your head and causes discomfort like you’ve never experienced before.  These headaches can closely resemble the way thunder snaps in the sky.  For this reason, this sort of sudden, quite painful headache is known as a thunderclap headache.  Getting these headaches might be a sign of something serious – so you must make sure you see a doctor as soon as possible about it.

Thunderclaps are often described as perhaps the worst kind of headache anyone has ever suffered.  With these, the pain becomes so intense, especially after about a minute’s worth of time.  When you come down with this malady, it can stick around for hours, even days.  The causes of this type of headache vary and could be anything from a bacterial infection like meningitis or encephalitis, to a torn lining in an artery near the brain.  Even issues like bleeding found in the pituitary gland can lead to a thunderclap episode.  You might also have bleeding around the brain, or bulging in blood vessels in the brain – which is known as an aneurysm.  When an aneurysm ruptures, it can lead to stroke-like symptoms, and possibly even death.  This illustrates just how serious it is to get quick attention if you find yourself suffering from one of these headaches.

When you see a physician, he or she will probably put you through a number of different tests to assess how serious your condition is, and what is the cause of your headaches.  Your doctor might send you for a CT scan to get X-rays of your head, or could request a spinal tap, where they take a sampling of fluid from the spinal area to be tested for different substances and figure out if there’s something there that could be causing your headaches.  Other assessments include angiographies (contrast dyes, etc. are administered to get a snapshot of your brain’s blood vessels) and MRIs.

So take heed of the warning signs a thunderclap headache could mean – and take comfort knowing that if you seek medical attention, you have a much better chance of taking care of our issue before it’s too late.