Hi,
I am new to this forum. I have suffered from this painful condition for nearly four years. The pain began in the left temporal region and has progressed to the base of skull, neck and right side also. The pain is constant and is extremely disabling and debilitating. I also get tingling/ crawling sensations all over my head, together with dizziness, light sensitivity, allodynia, poor balance, tinnitus and extreme sound sensitivity, chronic nausea and the obvious sleep problems. Unfortunately i was only diagnosed after 2.5 years of being in constant pain. In my case i think the cause is from extremely tight tense and spastic neck and shoulder muscles. Some of them are so spastic that they protrude noticeable. I have been clenching my teeth for a while and developed TMJ disc displacement as a result. I know this is contributing to the muscle tension but i am not sure how much as i know the condition itself causes lots of muscles in that area to spasm. My condition is getting worse a worse and am not sure what to do. I have no life, am extremely depressed and have just about given up hope. The muscle relaxants i have tried include valerian, baclofen (small dosage for two weeks) and valium (also small dosage for two weeks). The pain medications i have tried include endep, dothep, cymbalta, Lyrica all of which have not helped. I have tried massage, heat therapy, accupuncture, chiropractic adjustments which have not helped either. My Pain specialist performed a pulsed radiofrequency neurotomy of the left greater occipital nerve which also didn't help. I want to try an occipital nerve block but know if it works the results are not permanent and also worried that it will make the pain worse. However I want long term resolution to this condition and am desperate to pin point the precise cause of the nerve compression/ irritation and inflammation to develop an accurate treatment plan. I have looked into vitamin supplementation, particularly methylcobalimin b12 but am not sure if this is safe and proven effective in clinical human trials. Can anyone here suggest any other avenues for pain relief?

Thanks