This is from my bio. Its a bit long I know. But after 10 years I have all but given up hope. I'm hoping posting it here will help me find someone who can give me a new idea or a path to some help or relief. Any would be appreciated.
Rich
NOTE: Its not a chemical reaction to pain in the Trigeminal nerve root inside the brain as the neurologists have wrongly concluded as it would be with a cluster headache. If they were correct, the Topamax and other suppressive therapy they tried would be effective.
They keep telling me I'm wrong but can't prove it. I keep proving they're wrong, but they can't admit it. My newest Neuro-god even went so far as to tell me the GON has nothing to do with the top of, or side of the head-and he is the asst. Chief of Neurology at Kaiser! How is that for denial?
Originally injured in 1998 while on the job as a prison guard I have been to 4 or 5 different neurologists who all say the same thing...cluster headaches. They all have the same answer: try this pill, and that pill. None are effective because I have been misdiagnosed. I try to tell them I have Occipital Neuralgia. But since it's a patient with a high school education telling them and they have a God complex they ignore me. So I suffer and get useless brain scans that come up normal. For 10 years I have suffered and it continues to get worse as my condition deteriorates. Nobody will listen, nobody will help. So I suffer day in and day out. Below is what I even wrote out for my doctors. They said it was well written, that's all.
History:
I have sustained neck injuries in 1998 and 2001. None of which were treated properly except by chiropractic care and limited physical therapy. Until 31 May 2008 no MRI had been conducted of the cervical spine. X-ray from 2007 show spurring and decreased disk spacing at the C1-C3 region.
Symptoms:
The episodes usually start with pain and spasms on one side of the neck or the other near the top around the SCM, overwhelmingly on the right side. Rarely does this happen on the left side. What I describe is typical and almost daily on the right side. I get pain across the entire back of the neck from one SCM to the other, approximately 1 or 2 inches down my neck starting at the base of the skull. Shortly thereafter I start to have pain and muscle spasms on the side of the head ranging from above and behind the ear to the temple and even involve the TMJ muscles. Pain or numbness along the Maxillary branch of the Trigeminal Nerve usually accompanies this. Sometimes my molars even hurt. I start to have pain in and around the eye and tearing of the eye, which may suggest irritation of the Ophthalmic branch of the Trigeminal nerve. By this time I am experiencing halo's around lights in my right eye and the eye is starting to tear. My vision is also starting to blur in the right eye. The eyeball itself starts to have mild sharp pain, and then the entire orbital region goes numb and feel swollen. The right nostril feels like it swells and becomes congested with mucous. When the episode is in full effect I am having very painful muscle spasms ranging from my upper right neck, to and along the side of my head up to and including the temple and down to the TMJ. My right eye is visibly swollen and the eyeball is red. The whole of the orbital area feels numb and has reduced tactile sensation. I have slight facial paralysis on the same side and sharp hot pain along the maxillary nerve. The nose is congested and running profusely on the right side. I have lost anywhere from 50% to 75% of my vision in my right eye. The pupils however are even in both eyes. It should be noted that on four separate occasions I have experienced loss of vision in both eyes simultaneously, although with more vision retained in the left eye. These symptoms have lasted as long as 20 hours. Sometimes it stops and then starts over. Occasionally it just stops for reasons unknown. No medication including Rx muscle relaxers, Rx pain medication or Rx symptom suppression medication has proven effective.


Hi Jeepman,
I know a little bit of how you feel being misdiagnosed. I suffered from daily headaches and occipital neuralgia for a year and my neurologist never found the cause. It wasn't until he referred me to a pain specialist that I found that I had arthritis in C2,C3 and C3,C4 of upper neck which was triggering my horrific migraines, occipital neuralgia and neck pain. I know what you mean about your teeth hurting and having sore SCM. I had originally thought I was having trigeminal neuralgia as well but believe based on what my physical therapist says that the SCM muscles are so tight on both sides it causes jaw pain. I have also had temporary vision loss in my left eye and intermittent burning in left eye when the occipital nerve is riled up. I have vasomotor rhinitis when the nerve is stirred up which causes non-allergic burning of my nose. Certain smells particularly perfumes really set me off with an immediate headache. I have had success with a med called Neurontin which is for nerve pain and physical therapy exercises that I have to do on a daily basis. I also usually can be found wearing a heat pack on my neck for sore muscles and an ice pack when the occipital nerve gets unhappy. From the research I have done, people who have arthritis in cervical vertebra or injury as result of car accidents, trauma, etc. can and do have occipital neuralgia and migraines as a result. Hope this helps you at least to know someone else has been there.
PamO
Hi Pam,
Thanks for the response. My problem is getting the neuro-gods to even diagnose me with occipital neuralgia. They keep wanting to diagnose me with cluster headaches because of the involvment of the trigeminal nerve. So I am not getting any effective treatment. I show them signs, my symptoms and the facts but they just wont listen. Its a living nightmare.
again, thank you for your response.
Rich
Hi Rich,
It was a spine pain specialist (orthopedic surgeon who specializes in pain management) that diagnosed me based on my CT scan of my neck and my symptoms(took him all of 10 min). The neuro gods aren't all they're cracked up to be and I think they don't always look at the less common causes of headache and they sure as heck aren't very good listeners. Best of luck to you.
Pam
Hi Rich,
I forgot to mention in my other comments that my neurologist took me off Neurontin for a month when I started having vision problems and started me on Topamax. I had 4 visits to the ER in Nov. 08 because the Topamax (or abscense of Neurontin) caused me to have headaches so horrific I said my goodbyes to my family. Felt like a grenade blew out the back of my head. Maybe your neurologist would consider trying you on Neurontin for your nerve pain since they do agree you are having trigeminal nerve pain. It also comes in generic which is a heck of a lot cheaper than Topamax. Hope you can get them to listen.
PamO
Well Pam, I'm on 50mg Topamax 2x/day now and it doesnt seem to be doing much good. Its used to treat trigeminal pain specifically (though its intended use is an anticonvulsant) so the only thing it had done is decrease the amount of times I go blind in my right eye, but the pain is the same.
An interesting side note. My pain had increased expotentially this past week to the point it involved my right TMJ and both my upper and lower teeth on the entire right side to the point that if I woke up dead one morning I wouldnt be too upset. Day before yesterday morning I noticed the slightest of swelling in the cheek area. I made an appointment to get to the dentist that day. I had an abcess in the top right back molar. A root canal was scheduled for the next morning...yesterday. I am seeing vast improvments in my overall condition and I have no need for the pain meds.
Now this tooth has been sensitive to cold for the past few years, but the dentists could never find any sign of decay infection or any reason for the sensitivity. So I thought it was just a sensitive tooth, or part of my migraine symptoms. If this abcess had been brewing for that long slowly, it could be part of the reason my migrraines were so severe, especially the last 3 or 4 years. I dont have any false hope that my migraine will magically be gone, but cross your fingers and toes for me and hope with me that maybe they wont be so bad now.