Sunday, May 27, 2012

possible upper cervical involvement in daughters migraine

By Shirley Sunday, September 28, 2008

My daughter has been seeing a physical therapist for frequent long term knee pain.  (Turns out she had flat feet.)  Her migraine has been bad for months now.  She told the physical therapist about her migraines and when he found out about a previous neck injury he performed a sitting Sharp-Purser Test.  Her headache pain was relieved by over 50%, it went from a 6 to a 2.

 

There is a chance that when she injured her neck (C2 sublaxation) she did some damage to the ligaments that hold her C2 vertabrae tight to the C1 vertabrae.  This allows the C2 vertabrae to move and put pressure on her spinal/cord brain stem, it can also interfere with the veins, ect. that travel throught the vertebrae in this cervical area.  The symptoms of this are very similar to basilar migraine.

 

My daughter originally injured her neck about 6 years ago and problems from this old injury did not noticably manifest themselves until this last year (if that is the cause of her chronic migraine).  Looking back (hindsight with knowledge is 20/20) the occasional vertigo and motion sickness she has been experiencing for years could be attributed to this cervical problem.

 

We have a very good chiropractor and he didn't catch this so there is no gaurentee that if you are seeing a chiropractor regularly that you may not still have some upper cervical interference that is contributing to your migraine.

 

I do not believe that this is all that is giving my daughter her migraines, I still believe she is getting a monthly menstaul migraine.  I do believe the chronic daily headache (migraine) she has been experiencing for the last 6-7 months is attributed to this problem.  They have all the symptoms of basilar migraine.  The physical therapist wrote a letter to, and called her primary care doctor.  The therapist told the doctor what he found and was recommending that she be seen by a spinal specialist.

 

I have not heard from the doctor on this yet as that same night my daughte broke her wrist and the doctor has been busy getting us help with that.  When it rains it pours.

 

There is also another avenue to follow for possible migraine relief.  Try to find an Atlas/Orthoganal chiropractor in your area,  I think the web site is orthogonality.org or something like that.  I used to work for a chiropractor that specialized in this and while not all migraine sufferers can be helped by this, a large percentage of people that came to us with migraines were helped.  It is worth a try.

 

I hope this may help someone and give them another avenue to get migraine relief.

Menstaul migraine and Lyme disease
Nancy Harris Bonk, Health Guide
9/30/08 10:35am

Hello, and welcome to MyMigraineConnection.com!

 

Current thinking is that Migraine is a genetic neurologic disease. Another route to take would be to have your daughter see a Migraine specialist. This doctor expertly treats patients who suffer from Migraines and various headache disorders and can distinguish what type your daughter may be have. To see our list of patient recommended specialists, click HERE.   HERE is a list of some of the various types of Migraines and headaches. 

 

It is more important than ever now to get our attacks under control, because Migraines can cause brain damage. New research shows people with a long history of Migraines or those with frequent attacks are at greater risk for silent brain damage, brain damage without any symptoms. This article: Yes, Migraines Can Cause Brain Damage  is very interesting.  

 

Certainly neck trauma can trigger a Migraine attack. We have information on trigger identification and management HERE.

 

 

 

 

Thank you for creating a SharePost. SharePosts are a form of blogging, and there are many things you can do with them. You can share an experience, suggest something that's helped you, use SharePosts as a Migraine and headache journal, and many other things.

We also have a discussion forum that you may want to check out. Especially if you have questions or are looking for information, you may find the interaction on the forum to be quite helpful. To get to the forum, just look for the orange box marked "Manage" and click on the Migraine Forums link. Because our forums are maintained by a third party, you'll need to register for the forum. You can use the same information you used to create your community log-in if you like. If you want to go directly to the forum, you can click HERE.

Along with your personal "My Home" page and the discussion forum, you'll find links to a great deal of helpful information and a spot to sign up for our free newsletter on the main page of our site, http://www.MyMigraineConnection.com.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them to the forum or send me a message through my profile.

Welcome again,

 

Nancy Bonk
MyMigraineConnection.com Expert

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By Shirley— Last Modified: 12/06/10, First Published: 09/28/08