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Ice pick headaches?

1 reply

itsstillhotinperth · 01/10/2017 16:14

Had what feels like an electric current of severe pain that lasts a couple of seconds from top of head above ear running down side of head very frequently this afternoon and evening - probably over 30 times. Usually get a couple, infrequently, but this is horrible. It's like the pain is flashing down a nerve

Has anyone experienced the same or could it be something else ? Took a couple of nurofen but it's done nothing...

OP posts:
InappropriateGavels · 02/10/2017 16:12

I have a thing called Paroxysmal Hemicrania (very rare), for a couple of years it was believed that I had Cluster Headaches, so I went through a very long time of the usual Cluster Headache treatments which didn't work. The incidence rate of Cluster Headache is one in a thousand, where as with Paroxysmal Hemicrania it is one in fifty thousand.

The only way you will find out for sure if you go to see your GP and request to see a neurologist. They scan you and try you on different medications.

Cluster Headaches in most people will respond to one of the following
Sumatriptan or Zolmitriptan as an ordispersible, nasal spray or subcutaneous injection but never as a tablet as they are too slow acting.
Oxygen taken via a non-rebreather mask.
Verapamil is a preventative medication used lengthen the gaps between attacks and it works in up to 95% of people diagnosed with Cluster Headaches.

Painkillers will NOT work for any form of Cluster-type headaches. Opiates may also trigger it, alcohol is a trigger too.

I remember my first one like it was yesterday, I was coming out of a tube station and I thought I had been shot in the face. I now get them anything between once every three months and once per week.

I found out a couple of months ago that they're not Cluster Headaches, but instead the far rarer PH. I can be treated for it, but the only treatment is Indometacin which is the most harmful anti-inflammatory available. Short-term use only, so a week at a time to clear up the headache, but the upper GI side effects are vile. That said, it's done wonders for my joint problems.

The pain I've experienced with PH has at times made me blind, left me totally paralysed down one side, rendered me unable to speak, put me in A&E once. At one point it was so frequent over a period of a couple of months that it almost drove me to suicide.

I'd sincerely advise you to see your GP as soon as you can. If it turns out you do have Cluster Headaches, you don't have to live without treatment.

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