Tim Dowling wakes with mysterious scalp and neck pain as family offers little sympathy

Tim Dowling wakes at home with a strange head pain that he describes as not quite a headache, telling his family it feels “like I walked through a low doorway and cracked my skull on the frame” or “like an invisible hand is holding me up by the hair.” His wife and his son respond with little sympathy, telling him to “look it up” rather than urging him to see a doctor.

He recounts previous odd ailments — a misnamed “hot hand” that made things seem hot to the touch and a “phantom phone” created by a creaking hip — and worries about describing his current symptoms to a GP. The pain slowly migrates across his head from back left to right front; his son, having looked up causes, suggests “muscle tension leading to pains to the scalp” from a trapped nerve, stress or poor posture.

Dowling’s sleep is disturbed and he dreams of asking a doctor in a crowded room about a sore throat, later comparing taking advice in a dream to “asking AI.” Reluctantly he goes outside to help his wife in the garden, shaping bushes into spheres even as the effort turns his neck problem into a lower back problem, and later finds himself lying on the sofa unable to move.

What happens next is unresolved: the scalp pain eases a little then shifts, he has not sought a professional diagnosis in the account, and he is left reflecting on simpler days while coping at home with the migrating discomfort.

Key Topics

Health, Tim Dowling, Scalp Pain, Neck Pain, Hot Hand, Phantom Phone