Pamela I feel saddened to know you are carrying this non-stop headache monster with you.... I had non-stop headache due to head injury from the wreck and it lasted for months, then abruptly stopped. It was not stim caused as it preceded the stim by five years. I would not have replied due to the dissimilarity of our situations, but just wanted to weigh in to offer up hope for a tomorrow without the headache pain.

Prayin it will all be well and whether causation be isolated or not that it stop.... just stop.

Hi Mark and thanks for the weigh in, yes I have had the headache long before the SCS implant, just post the car accident, but of course it was never picked up that I hit my head against the side of the car door until I began CET with my psych, some 4 years post the accident itself. I just wonder if anyone else feels the SCS adds to it.. I'm just feeling very frustrated. I'm trying so hard to find positives and want so much to do things, until I get answers to the things that are troubling me, moving on just seems that much further away. I guess my SIL comment about meaningful has stung more than I thought!

I'm so sorry for your unrelenting headache - I had a migraine once that lasted for nine months and I was miserable - I can only imagine how frustrated and "over it" you are after having been in pain for so long.

I honestly don't have any helpful thoughts or experiences, but I wanted to let you know I'm praying for you. I understand the desire to just be able to DO something again. My want-to-do list is so long, and every day I wake up determined that today will be the day I make some headway . . . I usually don't, but I start out every day with the best of intentions. I think that is the key for me - to keep hanging onto the hope that "today" will be different.

Praying for pain relief for you today.

=Becky

I can't think of any reason the stimulator would exacerbate the headache unless it's directly affecting the same nerve, or working well enough that pain is seeking other avenues of perception.

However I can speculate that the stress of the whole life-changing event of getting the stimulator could exacerbate the headache—even if the stimulator is relieving pain elsewhere. It's a big change, and big changes are/can be stressful.

I'll defer to the experiences/opinions of the experts on this.

Doc

The never ending headache has returned with a vengeance. I'm thinking I'm bound for a seizure. So does my GP. Why she didn't refer me to the neurologist I saw in 2012 is beyond me. Perhaps she thought I would go to the hospital as she suggested. Only GP's don't understand what it's like to go to ER as a chronic pain sufferer, we are labelled drug addicts. The only way to get decent treatment in hospital is to be referred & admitted under a treating specialist. Going armed with a letter from my GP will have seen me sitting in the waiting room for hours on end with no help at all and more importantly no access to pain relief.
DB is suffering severe depression and anxiety, he's curled up in the foetal position. I'm unwell, I'm in pain, but I've done the washing and now I have to yet again do his dogs welfare. He has this week off. I've suggested he go to a wellness break. NO was his answer, I got quotes to give help round the house. NO. I'm at the end of my tether, my dried up tears have found their way back I'm crying as I type, I don't think I want to live like this anymore. I can't live like this. DB thinks giving up alcohol was going to wave a magic wand and make life bearable for him, he's realising with or without alcohol he is a depressive. Maybe as I've long suggested bipolar. It's like living on the edge of a merry go round up and off of the eggshells down and the eggshells shatter. Only it's me that's shattering. He's sucking me dry, my every living moment is spent supporting helping him. I can't see the point in living like this anymore at all, my family couldn't care less about me unless they want something, DB only needs me to care for his needs, the animals need me to feed and clean up after them. I'm just a slave to everyone else but if I mention it, I'm a terrible selfish person. I've been a slave all my life trying to get my mothers approval and love, now I see the pattern with DB I'm a slave to his every whim and temper. Why is it people only want to know you when you are well and happy. But when your not they disappear like dust bunnies into the corner of the room. My head is hurting terribly, I feel disconnected and sad. Sorry everyone .

Feel quite ill with the headache, going to bed. Have to be well enough for work tomorrow. Say a prayer for me xxx

Pam, you may have come up with an area that needs looking into... DB being Bi-polar.... Would be good for both of you if he would look into getting diagnosed and treated.

Always in my prayers...


Gerry

Headaches are receding but I'm experiencing increased aura type symptoms. DB calls them spinnies, the only way I can describe it, and have done for many years is to say, it feels like my brain is a little boat floating about on the water and a sudden wave makes the boat tilt and bobble madly before settling again. It's very disconcerting. I used to get them a lot when we lived in London and I had a very stressful job, only now they seem much more pronounced, but it's probably just me noticing them more. The other aura is smell, I experience strong foul smells, when I had the last grand mal it was faecies I kept asking everyone if they could smell poop, checking my shoes and those around me to see if anyone had stepped in doggy doodo but no, it was just my noggin playing tricks on me. This time round I can smell urine. I think I'm going nuts!

There is good news though, I'm not gobbling Panamax every 6 hrs, I'm down to 2 on occasional days. Now I'm off to wash my hand n feet again along with another load of washing to deal with the imaginary urine stench!!

"I'm a terrible selfish person. "

Pamela, I hope that it is OK if I offer you a respectful challenge about this.

From everything that you have shared here you are an honest person. But, as far as I can see you are about minus infinity as far as selfishness is concerned.

You do a lot of domestic tasks around your home. You care for DB. You care for the members of his family. You care for your dogs.

I see a pattern there which is that you are a completely non-selfish person .

That is good that your headaches seem to be improving - I hope that this continues .

My dear sister
Your seeking for your mothers love
Oh how you touched a nerve
I have given up
It wasn't to long ago
She told my baby sister
She was never wanted by my mother
She was scheduled for an abort
My father interspersed a confirming call
Done
So done

I mentioned to you my daughter would also have aura in smell form
Hers was a smell of bleach
Soon after she would suffer a siezure
Sometimes it would be in the back of her throat

Headaches a big time sign a seizure was going to happen
Hers would increase in pain until migraine material would lingers for a short while and then she would say her I go and sure enough a seizure
She would tell me her headache would pop
after a seizure it would be gone just like that
This is what I hear you describe
Praying for you
I so understand
"This is not a way to live"
A slave I too allowed myself this kind of behavior not any more it hurts withdrawing from the ones we love to death
Something I had to do
I would hurt more with them in my life
How can that be
But it's my life
Hold on dear sister
Hold on
With each breath we take is our destiny final destination to be with Heavenly Father
Oh how happy we will all be
Love
Me

P.S. Along with aura i the sense of smell is just one of her auras
Along with the above she has constant visual aura hers she says is like a kaleidoscopice she will always have them
The way she controls her seizures is with. VNS implant wears a magnet on wrist watch like when she feels one coming on she waves it over the VNS above left breast and what this does is reboot her brain
Yup
Reboot the brain
Her vocals are temporarily affected very raspy
I feel all you pain
All of IT!
Paying attention