I have no idea what is going on??? I occasionally get a electric-like zapping on/in my right temple. It was about a month ago or so that i first experienced the feeling. It lasted only a few short minutes but the pain was excruciating. It stopped and i never thought about it again until it happened last week and now tonight. My insurance does not kick in until jan 2012 and was hoping for some insight. thanks!!

I started having pains like that when I was 19. It is difficult to describe, but does feel like a lightning bolt shooting through your skull, and can bring you to your knees. I used to explain that much as a heart attack victim clutches their chest in pain, I clutch my head. It took until I was 31 for it to be officially diagnosed as Trigeminal Neuralgia and then the irritation of the trigeminal nerve, which is the 5th cranial nerve, would trigger a longer more intense headache, known as Trigeminal Cephalgia.
They tried Celebrex and Indomethacin, both of which can significantly irritate your stomach, and may or may not work. Tegretol is the most commonly prescribed drug for trigeminal neuralgia, but I personally can't take it because of poor reactions to tricyclic antidepressants. Neurontin worked for me in controlling and preventing the trigeminal attacks, but wound up causing too many side effects, and ultimately, Tramadol was the final choice that has worked well for several years. I still have attacks once in awhile, but not nearly as intense or as often as before.

The best advice that I can give is to keep a journal of when and where your pain is, what it feels like, how long it lasts- For example, "A set of 6 "lightning bolt pains" within 10 minutes, each lasting about 30 seconds, and during that time it feels like..." I found that in the exact moments when the bolts hit, I couldn't see properly, and would feel disoriented, and well, dumb. Like I could not think. And then it would take about 3 minutes for my mind to go back to normal once the shocks had passed. But all of those details will help your doctor determine exactly what is happening.

Something else that is VERY important- keep track on a calendar or a daily journal or log of when they occur, time of day, what you eat/drink., what you are doing when these episodes occur. This will help determine any specific triggers you may need to avoid. I later found that mine often happened while driving at night (which I no longer do) or when I was a teenager, if I'd tried playing a video game- much like a seizure disorder, flashing lights or fast graphics can trigger an episode for me, so I avoid them.

In the meantime, anti-inflammatories help with the pain, and as long as you don't have any blood pressure concerns like hypertension, Sudafed (the nasal decongestant) is a vasocontrictor that opens blood vessels and seems to ease migraine and trigeminal/cluster headaches.

Good luck!

A vasoconstrictor, by definition CONSTRICTS blood vessels....

OOOps. My bad. My apologies. I actually did mean to say constricts, but I know that it relieves some pain.

thanks for the reply
i'm getting so scared!! journaling is a wonderful idea and i'm definitely going to start right away.