For me, icing was not a 'do it when things are at their worse' protocol. I did it any time I could when I had any head ache at all. Plus, I would repeat it throughout the evening. I would rotate between 2 ice packs.

Last summer when I left school and came home to rest I followed that protocol, icing whenever I could, for a couple months. I'm not sure that it helped all that much.

I was diagnosed with PCS over a year ago. I believed many of the symptoms had resolved, but recently I have been under some unusual stressors.

I called my neurologist and the best way I could explain it was, I felt as though someone had picked me up and put me right back where I was after my concussion.

I do get headaches. They are difficult to describe, but in the front of my head where the brain injury was.

I think certain things like stress can worsen symptoms. Like aggravating a wound.

While I don't have any great suggestions for relieving your headaches, I wanted you to know, I deal with them as well.

I hope you can find some relief soon. Hang in there.

Angie

I've had a constant headache for over 3 years now with no break. My accident was Feb 2012 and I've tried so many things, but nothing even touches the pain. (Various drugs, acupuncture, chiropractic, physiotherapy...)

I got prism glasses in January and everyone was hopeful they would help. So far, no improvement. Next steps are vision therapy, which everyone agrees will make my head pain worse, at least in the beginning.

Neurologist wants to try Botox, but it makes me very nervous, so I haven't agreed yet.

I was on topamax for over 2 years but came off it a few months ago. My headaches don't seem worse since I came off, they are just their same old horrible selves. I do wake up more often at night with horrible head pain since coming off the topamax, so it was probably doing *something*.

My head pain is constant though... on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the worst, mine never gets better than a 5 and often sits closer to 8 or 9. Sometimes they are so bad all I can do is cry, which makes them worse. Sometimes the pain is enough to make me nauseous and vomit, but usually only if I over do it.

My blood pressure is low, too, the drs and nurses always comment on it every time I have it done. They often do it 2-3 times because they think its a bad reading.

I've tried icing my neck, constantly and regularly, I don't get any relief from that. I've also tried periods of using heat, no relief either, but it doesn't make it worse and feels nice. (We live in a cold, drafty, old house so the heat feels really nice in the winter!)

So at this point, I'm just kind of resigned to living with it. Its super frustrating and draining and I just try really hard to not over do it and make it worse.

Best of luck to you.
Starr

Ive had a headache for over 8 years.... They use to be real bad now there just part of my life....

I went to the Diamond Headache Clinic, it took a lot of playing around to get something to tone them down....It has made me happier...

I had a headache for 10 months after my accident. It was was a low grade but constant. I was dealing with many other issues that were effecting my life then the headaches.

The doctor gave me a low dose (100 mg) of topamax. This completely controlled my headache. I have very few side effects because of the low dose most lose of appetite.

packersrule - how long were you on the medication before you experienced any improvements? How long before you were completely off of the medication?

That sound really tough, I hope things improve for you.

Depakote has helped a lot with my headaches. I take 500 mg/day, with an option of increasing to 1000 mg on bad days. I tried going up to 1000 mg/day, but it gave me incapacitating fatigue (a pre-existing problem that was exacerbated). I've been on it for about 2 years and it still seems to be helping.

I should note that I've also tried vision therapy, vestibular rebab (via a PT), cranio-sacral therapy (from two different practitioners), regular massage, two different chiropractors (one NUCCA), and Gabapentin. Depakote has helped my headaches more than did any of these other forms of therapy. Icing helps too, though sometimes my headaches are tension-based (eyes and temples), in which case it helps more to apply heat. Sometimes I alternate between heating and icing.

A good trick for heating and icing is to take a few tube socks and fill them with plain rice. If you heat up a rice-filled sock in the microwave, it will retain its heat for quite awhile, and it's easy to distribute it evenly across the area you want to heat. I find that the weight also feels good. You can reheat a sock again and again without destroying the rice or the fabric. I also keep two of these in the freezer for icing, but the freezer has to be set to a very cold temp to get the rice cold enough.

isometheptene, acetaminophen, dichloralphenazone ... has helped me out some

but my headaches are constant low grade to level 8

Im having big issues with being motivated for anything... I used to have such a full life until this... so .....