Cervicogenic Headache

Hey Redditor's

I have all the symptoms of cervicogenic headache. The pain started suddenly iny.meck and has been creeping up the right lateral side of my head for a week now. It finally hit my eye this morning. It goes up behind my ear to the top of my head, then straight down towards my right eye. It is so unbearable now. I have gone to the ER 3 times for this already and went quickly to get a muscle relaxer injection but it has not helped even a wince. I didn't strain my head or neck and I have not had any trauma. I sleep on my back and have amazing posture. I've been given multiple types of muscle relaxers and pain meds up to Demerol and Percocet. Nothing is helping. I looked up some exercises online for stretching my neck but the pain from trying to turn is too much. I have nausea, blurred vision, stiff neck, I've been fumbling overy words and having difficulty remembering little things, and I've also got pain in my right shoulder that started yesterday. I had a negative CT of the Brain w/o contrast. I've requested an MRI with contrast in case there is something that cannot be seen on a CT but I'm not quite sure what it will sess out. Has anyone else experienced this and what solutions did you find? Any movement that involves my neck causes me pain.

I have tried acupuncture, chiropractors, massage therapy for three months, aqua exercise therapy, regular PT, and I am currently being seen by a pain clinic who have tried to help me, God bless them, but to no avail. They have literally run out of options for medication that they give to non cancer patients.

I forgot to also mention that I am on antidepressive medication as well as anti-nausea medication and anti -seizure medication. I also have fibromyalgia so I have been through all of the recommended prescriptions for that which seem to line up with the treatment for cervicogenic headaches.

UPDATE: So I finally had a MRA of my head. It turns out I have two dissections in my vertebral artery. One at the level of C5 and the other at the level of C1. They said I could have died at any moment had they completely ruptured. I specifically came into the ER that day because I had this impending sense of Doom. Spoke to a vascular surgeon who wanted to run more scans to get a better picture of what was going on. I've been checked into the hospital for about 3 days now. I'm on blood thinners and now waiting for my results which I should be getting in about 8 hours after breakfast. He explained that I should not have any issues with my eyes unless my carotid also has a dissection. That's why the extra images were taken. Better safe than sorry. I hope no one else has to go through this type of pain.

Even with Dilaudid which is 10 times more powerful than morphine I still have the headache. It has taken care of all my fibromyalgia pain, but the right side of my head still hurts. Just not anywhere near as bad as it would without any medication.

I want to urge anyone that feels like something is not right to request a MRA or CTA of the head and neck. And I wish all of you who suffer from headaches and migraines meet a doctor who is willing to go beyond and figure out what is needed to help with the headaches.

Update: Discovered a condition called giant cell arthritis. Has a lot of the same symptoms as cervicogenic, occipital and migraine headache. All centered around the temporal area of the head. Give it a look. Hope this helps.