Over the past two weeks, the severity and frequency of my migraines has been increasing greatly. Today I had a migraine that had a very sudden onset and affected my mental processes for an amount of time. What is odd about these headaches, compared to the ones I normally have, is the affect medicine has on them. I was able to take 600 mg of ibuprofen and lay down for an hour with the result of decreased pain, though it is far from gone. The headache pain generally starts in the front of my head and radiates backwards and to the sides, covering my skull and ending somewhere in my neck or shoulders, depending on the individual headache. I have had these increased headaches/migraines for at least two weeks every day now. The pain itself is mostly pressure, but it does have bolts of pain occasionally and sometimes throbs.
A little about my past: I am currently 23 and I was diagnosed with migraines at 8 after a CT Scan and EEG showed no signs of a brain tumor (thank goodness). Because of my age, my mom chose not to have me on daily prescription medicine. I have not been back to the doctor for my headaches since and only use OTC medication. I have had daily headaches as long as I can remember, though they were much more manageable than now. Only a small number of my migraines have included auras. Most of the moderate to severe headaches include sensitivity to light, sound, and motion and cause nausea. This has been since I was a child.
I have considered going back to the doctor, though it would be difficult financially. For now, I am wondering if anyone has ideas as to what could be causing these new headaches and the increase in pain in the daily headaches, which would give me a place to start researching before an appointment. Any advice would help!
I'd love to be able to help you, but you really need a diagnosis and the only person who can do that is a doctor who can review your and your family's medical history, discuss your symptoms with you, and conduct a complete examination. Nobody can diagnose via the Internet, it just isn't safe. I can give you some information you might want to share with your doctor, how does that sound?
Because you've said your headaches/Migraines (there is a difference, that's why a diagnosis is so important) have become worse and affected your "mental process" as you said, please contact a doctor right away and let him/her know. The general rule of thumb is anytime we have new or different symptoms we need to check in with the doctor - please do that as soon as possible and let us know what they say, ok?
How many days a week are you taking something to relief this pain? A problem many of us with Migraine run into (because we want the pain to go away) and unwittingly create is called medication overuse headache, formerly called rebound. This happens when we take Migraine abortive medications (these stop the Migrainous process) such as the triptans or ergotamines or any kind of pain medication -- prescription or over-the-counter (like ibuprofen)-- more than two or three days a week can make matters worse by causing medication overuse headache (MOH), aka rebound. See Medication Overuse Headache - When the Remedy Backfires for more information on this.
I know how difficult it is when you don't have health insurance to cover doctor expenses. I wish I had an answer for that problem but I don't. I've been down this road before. I can only tell you how I managed, which was to budget very strictly to get the money together for doctors. It is important to get your health in order and live life - you are too young to suffer.