[Barbara2]

I can relate. My first off and on headaches go back several years. MRIs were clear, so I could relax...for a while. One time I had an MRI about 3 months after having just had one. Over time I began to see that when these aches would come (sometimes in the front, on one side, or maybe the back on one side, or sometimes when I turned my head it would cause an ache in one spot; still does; ...or sometimes even a general all over the head headache...)that I need to accept the fact that this is my normal.

More recently, I've had about 3 months of these same aches as described above, only they have been every day, off and on all day long, so much for frequently. I finally asked for an MRI. It had been about 9 months since my last one. Thankfully, it was negative.

After the good report, I thought I should be able to relax and the here and there aches about my head would go away. But they did not. In fact they seemed to get worse.

Today I saw a cardiologist because of high blood pressure. I thought maybe the blood pressure was the cause of the headaches.

After describing the symptoms to her, she said it sounded more like a muscular/skeletal issue. And I do believe she is right. When I put the "Icy Hot" type of sticky pads on my shoulders and up into the neck area, the headaches seem to be far fewer and the muscles feel much better.

Do your muscles ache in you shoulder/neck area? My family doc said that these kind of aches can be treated, and we are going to look into deep muscle treatments for starters.

Hope this helps you to relax. If your MRI in August was negative, wouldn't it be pretty unlikely that a met would manifest itself this fast to the point of causing those kind of aches? As time goes on, these aches may be part of your "normal," too.