Need help with 14month headache
 

Hi there, i have had a headache that started 14 months ago, n is now at extreme n i cant get any relief. I had to have another day off today..the pain is behind my ears n sometimes the ear cartlidge, mainly on left side, usually at the back of my head, sharp stabbing pains, today theyr in my forehead, sometimes sore arm and painful neck. Seeing neuro tomorrow , do u think he will help with injections? Bone scan says costovertebral junction arthritic reaction /enthesitis at t1, and arthritic reaction in left shoulder, minor enthesitis in the facet joints mainly on left at c1/c2 , minor hyperaemia in the ac joint. She said my pain is too severe for the findings to be the cause of my 14 month headache

O i have been on constant voltarin n various painkillers everyday now resorting to codiene, had acupuncture, massages n months of physio. Want to start strengthening neck but the small amount of stretches i end up doing only make things worse,

Are you thinking you have TOS?
What ind of work do you do?
Any accidents or upper body injuries to head, neck or shoulders?
Any repetitive motion injury?

explore our useful sticky threads for a lot of saved & important info-
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread84.html

o n also mention the mri showed nothing so im not sure. i was thinkn it was neuralgia, not sure what tos is,

mri says no nerve root issues n everthing on that was fine, not sure what tos is ill look up, i was thinkn neuralgia

I think a pain dr. is what you need. I think injections can help. Where are you located?

Have you been evaluated for TOS? My advice would be to seek out a vascular surgeon with TOS experience for such an eval. Your pain doc can do diagnostic injections but should know immediately if they have effect (even if only temporary). I experienced excruciating headaches and earaches for months (I initially thought I had ear infections) that baffled my primary and pain doc (I eventually had to stop working). We eventually suspected nuerogenic TOS (I had a previous neurologist suspect this in the past). I sought out some vascular surgeons and they found that I had both vascular and neurogenic TOS contributing to the symptoms. Raising my arms was compressing the thoracic outlet and the PT I was doing was making me worse. I had to train myself to drive and sleep with my elbows at my side (not near my head) and wore Intelliskin postural garments to get the aches under control (I still required rib resection surgery).

Try keeping your elbows at your sides at all times (especially driving and sleeping) and see if it helps.

Intelliskin Sound Off

TOS is thoracic outlet syndrome - it's the name of this forum section you posted in , that's why we asked if that was what you have.:cool:

Maybe our Headache forum might be helpful -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum32.html

or
Occipital Neuralgia and other Cranial Neuralgias forum -
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum105.html


You may want to read about trigger points in muscles, they can cause referred pain & headaches depending on the location of them.

@nospam/Marc: I used to get the earaches too. One of my earliest symptoms before I knew what TOS and TMJD were. They are not as bad or as frequent now. Btw I associate them more with TMJD simply due to the jaw muscles coming together around that area (temporalis, masseter, etc.).

If you have vascular TOS your headaches could be due to the compression and blood flow issues. I had them for years almost daily before I had a blood clot from compression and poof they went for a while. They came back in the lead up to my 2nd blood clot and now come and go. My neuro has told me they are related to the restriction of blood from compression. Best to have yourself checked with a good vascular surgeon.

both neck mri n brain mri were totally clear tho the bone scan results were what i said in the post, sorry this reply will b quick, have a migraine today, neurosurgeon put me on epilim epilepsy meds n is just telling me i have a tension headache, guess this is just my normal life now..ive had enough opf it so just going to accpet it. epilim worked for few days n that was it..im in campbelltown sydney australia, thanx everyone for ur help. i will consider the vascular surgeons n neurologists, the arm thing i think is a good point

If it really is a tension headache, or tension is at least part of the cause, I highly recommend a book called "The Quieting Reflex" by Charles Stroebel (which you would have to buy used since it is out of print).

But I'm not recommending this in place of a consultation with a vascular surgeon, which you still need to see.

Good luck.

thanx so much i think it could be TOS as there was some hyperaemia in the clavicle i think which is a sign of the blood flow issue, was mild but this pain im in today down my neck n arm n on top of hand n back of head coz i havent had any codeine til the evening is making me think its TOS even more. other hand has lil pain not much. anyway thanx again, ive tried so hard to get answers, n not happy that the neuro didnt ask me directly what is going on, he just went off what my doc said, n then said "just a tension headache" .. im a cleaner for the army n need my job, n arms r often above my head, so im pretty determinded to fix this. thank god for painkillers taking half of it away for me to work, but dont want to live on tablets, ill talk to physio n also see if vascuolar surgeon will help

well, could be a bit closer to having injections..my neuro wantedd me in n out of his office so quick i didnt feel like i was there, so now i have a pain specialist appointment, as my doc wanted me to see them first b4 vascular. today i have an issue with my shoulder, had to do my work and someone elses, so i had to replace her sergeants rooms with linen which is in big buckets, i didnt want to carry 4 lots of bed linen up all the stairs so picked the big plastic bucket up which had 10 bed sheets n about 5 quilt covers n pillow cases, couldve weight 15-20kg of course i didnt pick it up properly at first as i didnt want to bend my arms, i just took it up one flight of stairs n then after that my shoulder pain got worse, like a stitch cramp u get when ur walking n it goes into ur clavicle n armpit n shoulder then shoulder blade n down arm , my armpit was already sore to touch in the morning. it got worse over the next few hours n when i left work it hurt to breathe, my physio thinks ive done something to the ligament , twisted it or something, n the muscles tightened n were not helpn. i still have to work as we r short staffed n noone would be able to fill my place. n its for the army so the work can not be left undone. just a waiting game now so will just see how i go on monday at the specialist. my physio said the signs of TOS r there, so will have to wait n see how this heals now. ill update as things progress