Headaches Post AN Surgery

[Larry]

Hi Janet,

I really hope that procedure helps you. As deb said, we'll let you be the guinnea pig. Even if it worked for you, I still have reservations about surgery on my head again - dunno, just have this blockage now. We'll wait on your verdict and see what happens but i will press my docs on the subject and see if anyone here could do it. Hey, might be a good excuse for me to go back to Seattle!!

Oh, and Deb, keep doing those anti voodoo war dances fending off the evil headache spirit.

laz

[Captain Deb]

Here's a video I took of the Headache Monster last night on my hidden video camera.



Ain't he an ugly sucker? Yikes! Makes me skin crawl just lookin' at him!

Capt Deb

[Patti UT]

Mine aren't as bad in the summer, matter of fact, I did pretty good this past summer and forgot how bad they got in the winter.  Stupid weather patterns the winter brings, ugh, I  need to get my head fixed real soon!  It is something I've learned to deal with but it doesn't make for easy daily life.

I hear ya (in my good ear) Static.  I was thinking how great my head had been feeling all summer, our winter came a bit late, so lack of winter storms was keeping my head clear.  Now that it has set in, I'm all wonky headed  with vertigo, no depth perception and the dreaded brainwreck.  If I didn't have kids in school, I'd run away to OZ every winter.

DEeb, that headache monster sure gets around. The big lug.

patti ut

[Captain Deb]

Getting Xmas ornaments out of crawl space under the stairs. Can't find the friggin TREE SKIRT! Root around some more (Dr Love has bad back--he can't do it) Get flashlight--root around some more. Swear and cuss. Look in first box I had pulled out. Find tree skirt. Cuss some more. Head feel like it's going to explode. Cry. Hold head. Lay down. Cry some more. Cuss some more. Ouch. Ouch. OUCH!!!! Five friggin' YEARS!!!!! When will this EVER END!!!!!!

What was that doctor's name?

Capt Deb

[Janet]

Deb,

Google Occipital Neuralgia. Could the trigger be this rather than a true headache disorder? Maybe one sets off the other. I have the exact same trigger. The occipital nerve runs around like a ram horn from the base of your skull, behind your ear and around. Sometimes I wonder if the AN gets in the way of a diagnosis because most occipital neuralgia patients don't have ANs. I wonder if the migraines before surgery were actually this rather than a true migraine and the surgery exacerbated an existing problem. The symptoms are very similar. Could this set off your cluster headaches? Could your incision connect the nerve paths? The occipital nerves run outside the skull. Think electricity and how it works. As always, more questions than answers.

I'm just trying to connect the dots between specialties with given info! There doesn't seem to be any AN/Headache specialists out there.    Janet

[Captain Deb]

AHA! Nerve entrapment. My PT diagnosed me with that one already. That occipital neuralgia thing, along with degenerative disc disease in my neck is just one of a cluster of factors that  give me these "multiple component" headaches. I'm having my neck MRI'd this week just to see how far the degenerative disc thing has gotten and if anything can be done surgically.

Capt Deb

[Static]

That green guy is a nasty bugger!  I was wonderin what the back monster looked like because it seems that I have been hit by that sucker too.  This past Saturday I was being a good girl and going through paperwork while sitting on my bed, got up to get my glasses and couldn't sit back down, the pain was so bad and I have no idea what I did.  Thought it would work itself back out but it didn't and it's still hanging around.  It has been so bad, it was taking me forever to get up from a sitting position and at times it was just easier to not get up because it hurt so much.  I've been home from work for the past 2 days and it isn't looking good for the rest of the week   I can't even romp around with the puppies because I can't freakin bend over or get back up, it's like I'm 80 years old!  Why do these things happen when there are tons of things to get done?  Deb, can't you make a monster to scare these other monsters away???  I'm sure you must have something up your sleeve because these anti inflammatories, muscle relaxers and pain meds are just putting me in never never land!
~Karen

[Captain Deb]

Headache and other Monster Scarer-away-er Monster.  Too bad he's a very lazy Monster!

Capt Deb

[Static]

Actually, he looks like he would give a nice massage LOL!!!

[Captain Deb]

Big ole nasty visit from the headache monster on Wednesday! Woke me up at 3 AM.  That Occipital neuralgia thing--felt that occiptial nerve just throbbing!  Am hoarding my what little Imitrex I have left for emergencies only. Didn't feel the true migraine symtoms till later in the day. By 3 PM it was an emergency and I may have waited too long. I think Janet is right about one thing triggering another. I think what I experience is a domino effect--first the neck thing (cervicogenic), then the occipital nerve thing, then finally the migraine. The whole thing plays out over a few days. All I know is I had a whopper load of pain for a full 18 hours. Yuck!

Capt Deb

[Janet]

Capt,

I hate the middle of the night head pain. I wear a soft neck brace at night. It keeps my chin from going down too far while I am sleeping. It is downward and sideways movement that triggers the occipital pain for me. Before the brace, Indomethacin and Botox, I would wake up in the middle of the night a couple times a week with severe (I do mean severe) head pain in the back of my head. My neck MRI doesn't show any problems in my neck, so I really do think it is the occipital nerve for me.

I am hoping surgery that creates more room for the occipital nerves will stop the problem.

Janet

[Captain Deb]

I'll tell ya, I'm ready to do surgery on myself if it'll get that friggin nerve to quit firing!!!! I can feel it back there just shooting off during one of my "episodes." I do use ice packs and try to numb it. Helps a little. My PT gave me an image of the occipital nerve where it runs through the head muscles and you can see the spot where it starts to hurt! For me this is the middle of a three-part domino-effect headache. 
1. Neck--
2. occipital nerve--
3. forehead, behind eye and all over left head. Often accompanied by nausea and light and sound sensitivity

 I was shooting Imitrex between stages 1 and 2 which worked pretty well, but was really expensive! Around $60 per headache, after I reached my insurance cap of $2000 in May. Can't do that anymore! If I shoot it between stages 2 and 3 it's not nearly as effective.

I talked to my cousin, who works for Glaxo, last night. I told him that what I wanted for Christmas was a suitcase full of Imitrex samples. He laughed and said he'd work on it. I love him, but didn't tell him he was working for big Pharma, the enemy. Watched Sicko last night. I'm moving to France. Or Canada. At the end of the movie was a website for Americans wanting to marry Canadians for the health benefits--www.hookacannuck.com. Nuff said about that'n I guess!

Capt Deb

Capt Deb

[Larry]

Humbug to the headache monster.

Janet, any idea when you are having your surgery?

laz

[Janet]

End of February.  If it doesn't work, at least I tried. The big concern with most nerve surgery is that it can make it worse. This surgery is different in that the occipital nerve isn't touched but more room is created around the nerve. He said he won't make it worse and I needed to hear that. The lessor occiptal nerve is growing in my incision and that one will be revised. (I can live with that pain but I might as well get that fixed as well.) The occipital nerves are peripheral nerves outside the skull and can be a source of a lot of head and neck pain. If you Google Ducic Georgetown you can read about the procedure. My headache neurologist is concerned with my long term use of anti-inflammatories and thinks it would be worth a try.

[Soundy]

As long as I stay on my carefully stack pile of 20 pillows  I am fine at night ..but if I turn and
come off them I will wake with a headache... if it is just starting Tylenol and hot shower
knock it out ...if I wait too long codeine is needed...
and really only four pillows but my husband claims there are so many that there is no
room for him