In the late fall of 2009, Dr. Jake Lanning, a well-beloved professor at a northern Utah university, began suffering from tension headaches--a normally mild type of pain characterized by tightness or stiffness in the shoulders, neck, and the front of the head with tension or slight pain at the back of the head and around the forehead.
Dr. Lanning was no stranger to serious medical conditions. He was a long-time sufferer of epilepsy, had a history of heart palpitations, and had battled all kinds of chronic pain due to troubles with a tilted pelvis.
That meant that he was not about to go running to the doctor over a headache. After picking up some over-the-counter pain relievers, he tried to shrug off the problem.
But as the conditioned worsened, his vision began to be affected. He mentioned it in passing to Lucas, his TA, who happened to be majoring in neuroscience.
At Lucas' insistence, Professor Lanning made an appointment with his physician, who in turn recommended him to a neurologist for Magnetic Resonance Imaging--an MRI--to examine his brain to see what was amiss.
Strangely, the MRI did not turn up any conclusive results. Jake thought that was the end of the ordeal--that the headaches were a phenomenon that would go away on its own. But the neurologist was not satisfied and ordered another series of tests.
The results were staggering. It turned out that Professor Lanning had a series of growths on his vertebrae, which were causing undue pressure on his cranium. That was the underlying cause of not only the ongoing headaches but also the blurring vision.
Though the growths are not cancerous, they could have wreaked havoc on his spinal cord and ultimately his brain had they continued to go unnoticed and untreated. Dr. Lanning is now tremendously grateful for Lucas, who urged him to see a physician, and for his neurologist, who was persistent in finding the root cause for those seemingly minor headaches.
The good professor has a surgery date scheduled for this summer--about seven months after the pain began. He is expected to make a full recovery and will be teaching in the fall, about which he is, as ever, enthusiastic.
But let his story be a cautionary tale to any who read this--don't neglect the health troubles that arise, no matter how minor. Don't talk yourself out of seeing the doctor just because you are busy or are afraid of being embarrassed if it's nothing. After all, Jake Lanning found out just how serious a headache can be.
Author Resource:-
OSF St. Joseph's Medical Center (http://www.osfstjoseph.org) offers the best Bloomington neurology.
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.alltimeinfo.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
