[JBuckl]

I"m seeing a doc soon to switch meds. My headaches I believe stem from the nerves in my neck. I get burning, stinging, aching pain in my face and often get hot. I'm wondering, would an anti-eliptic like gabapentin be best? or an Anti-depresant?

I also have that head sensitivity to bumps, jarring, etc. which I think is really something in my neck. Is there anything that helps this? It got better for a long time then a bike ride brought it back. Is it damaged soft tissue? Pinched Nerves? Or something else structural?

Has anyone ever had a nerve decompression surgery? Theres a doc called Dr. Ducic who does it.

Thanks for any help!

[Mark in Idaho]

Nerve decompression surgery is only for extreme cases. I doubt the subtle neck injury you have would qualify. I doubt you could even provide enough evidence for a surgeon to operate.

Regarding meds. You have to be willing to experiment. Some work better than others but is depends on the individual.

A better angle might be to find a doc who does Botox head ache injections. They can be very expensive, though.

Head aches would be an off-label use of gabapentin. I doubt anti-depressants would help with cervicogenic head aches at all, if that is what you have.

Have you tried icing your neck consistently to see if it helps ?

[SillyRugger]

Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho

Have you tried icing your neck consistently to see if it helps ?

Mark, how often do you recommend icing the neck in a 24 hr period? I'm doing it about once per day right now, but I'm sure that's not enough.

[Mark in Idaho]

Icing needs to be much more often to be helpful. You need multiple ice packs to do it. 15 minutes on, 30 minutes off is what my chiro recommended. Do it each evening as much as you can, maybe 4 cycles or more. The vitamins sticky has my recipe for making cheap crushable ice packs.