Letters to a Neurologist - To Which Are Appended Brief Replies, Purporting to Set Forth Concisely, the Nature of the Ailments, Therein Described With Remarks, on Their Appropriate Treatment (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Letters to a Neurologist: To Which Are Appended Brief Replies, Purporting to Set Forth Concisely, the Nature of the Ailments, Therein Described With Remarks, on Their Appropriate Treatment

I met at the shore this summer one of your pa tients, who told me how much relief she had got from following the plan of treatment you outlined for her in New York last winter She made me prom ise that I would write to you and describe my symp toms and ask you whether or not I may look for ward to any relief from the suffering which for twenty years I have borne with little fortitude.

When I was fifteen years old, parenthetically, I am now 37, happily married and blessed with three children, I began to have headache. Periodi cally since then, first once a month, later every two weeks, I have had attacks. I was nearly I4 years old when I first menstruated. When I have a headache at the time of my period it is more intolerable, but aside from this I have never been able to satisfy my self that there is any relationship between them. They have so overwhelmed me that I am out of commission for nearly a week. The first two or three days from the pain and then another day from the prostration which now always follows. When the headache first came the pain was located betweenthe right eye and the temple. F rom there it would gradually spread over the right side of the head and sometimes extend even to the other side. The truth is, that after the pain has been present for a few hours I am so miserable and unable to give thought to anything save to the struggle to live through the attack, that I can't say just Where the pain is or is not. When the attacks are severe they are apt to be preceded by nausea and vomiting. This occurs less frequently now than formerly. Some times, also, before an attack, I experience an indefinable sadness and depression not attributable to anything in my surroundings, which occasionally lasts as long as two or three days. At other times before the attack I experience a very peculiar dis turbance of sight. I am not sure that it should be so described, for the sight does not seem to be really affected. What occurs is that just before the pain sets in or, simultaneously, there seems to be a small black spot which ¿oats around in my field of vision. Every time I move my eyes it moves too. At times when the pain in the head comes on with unus ual severity and rapidity this black dot seems to be transformed into a small ball of light. On a very few occasions this light seems to have had a zig-zag movement. Lately I have had, in addition to head ache, a great deal of trouble with digestion, gas forms in the stomach and intestines, and I think that it must be that that causes so many queer sensations in my abdomen, ¿uttering, distention, sometimes so great as to necessitate removal of stays and loosening of waistbands. I have also got very much run down and nervous. I cannot do the things socially or in my family that I could a few years ago, for if I do I am so used up that I am sure to get a headache. Perhaps I have said enough to give you an idea ofmy case, but I must tell you what has been done for me, or rather, how I have been done by your confreres.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Product details

• Authors: Joseph Collins
• Publisher: Forgotten Books
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2018
• No. of pages: 150
• Dimensions: 152 mm x 229 mm x 12 mm
• Weight: 359 g
• Subject: Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Lifestyle, personal development