Giving Birth in Your Brain

Don’t let the picture fool you… this isn’t a tale of beauty or wonder. I just couldn’t think of any way to depict this incident in a banner photo. Maybe a picture of an airplane? My face contorted in pain? Or maybe an ear? None of those would make for fitting banners to top this story, so I instead settled for a view of Red Rocks, since that was where I was headed when the incident occurred.

I’m guessing that none of you have ever heard of Aerosinusitis. I certainly hadn’t, which made the incident more frightening, since I had no idea what was happening.

It started innocently enough; we were on our way to Las Vegas for a climbing trip at Red Rocks. When we started our final descent into the City of Neon Lights, I started to get the normal feeling of my ears needing to be popped. Then, suddenly, on the fourth time or so that I went to unpop then, my head exploded in pain. For the 20+ minutes it took to actually touch-down, the left side of my head was in excruciating pain. It felt like a knife was being driven into my left temple, my teeth hurt so much that I thought I had somehow shattered my jaw, the back of my neck was throbbing, the left side of my tongue was numb, my left eye felt like it was going to pop out, and my ear (surprisingly the least painful part since I’m pretty sure it originated from there) was ringing. I had uncontrollable tears streaming down my face, and had to focus all my energy on simply continuing to breathe. I was legitimately concerned about whether I was going to survive, since I cannot even begin to explain the magnitude of pain I was experiencing. But the moment we landed, the pain – thankfully – subsided. It wasn’t gone by any means, but had been reduced to a bearable throb, instead of sharp, overwhelming pain.

Naturally, the moment we were on the ground and I was in a functional state again, I started researching what it was that had happened to me. I quickly came across information on a newly defined headache called Aerosinusitis – a painful inflammation of the membrane in the sinus cavities caused by a difference in air pressures. It more commonly presents itself among people who have a history of sinus problems, or are currently dealing with congestion (which I was).

A helpful facebook page reassured me: “Ever had brutally sharp pains suddenly appear behind your eyes, forehead, your upper teeth, or your head whilst travelling by air? This normally occurs whilst the plane has begun its descent and the pressure in the cabin changes. It can be an excruciating and frightening ordeal – but you are not alone!”

I was immediately reassured by the testimonials of others who had gone through similar experiences. I obviously would never wish this kind of pain on anyone else, but it was nice to find out that I’m not alone, that I wasn’t overacting to the pain, and that it is not harmful.

A few of the testimonials really resonated with me:

• “The first time this happened to me I thought I was dying, I thought I was having a stroke or aneurism. This pain is so bad, no one seems to understand. It is literally the worst pain I have ever had or can imagine.”
• “It’s akin to giving birth in your brain with no pain relief… (I am a woman)”
• “It was a sudden onset pain in my forehead like needles piercing into my brain, followed by the sharpest tooth pain I have ever felt. It continued around my eyes and down my face. My ears also had problems popping but they weren’t hurting too much. I was in tears and I felt so stupid as I think people just thought I was afraid of landing. I have no idea what a stroke feels like but this is exactly what I thought was happening, I am so glad that other people have felt this before, makes me feel a bit less crazy and irrational. The pain eased after landing but I will definitely always take a decongestant in future before I fly.”
• “I would NEVER wish this on anyone… it’s like no other pain I’ve ever felt… feels like someone’s stabbed you in your forehead with a knife or icepick and applying pressure.. The first pain went down my left jaw then up the side of my face to the area under my eye and just left of my nose…”
• “Just happened to me for the first time ever. It’s so unbearable and you feel like someone is stabbing you multiple times throughout the face. Surprisingly, my ears were not in pain like many other peoples are, but my forehead, left eye, and surprisingly, a few of my teeth were in a LOT of pain, like having your braces tightened on one spot, but 100 times worse.”

It took at least 24 hours before the headache went away completely, and weeks before I stopped seeing ‘sparkles’ in my left peripheral vision. The lasting pain, however, is a newfound fear of flying. Now every time I am on a plane, I will dread the descent (as I did on our return trip 5 days later). I hope to never experience this again, but I will never be able to forget it.