Temple pain - temporal arteritis or something else?

[RealLifeClanger]

Yesterday, out of nowhere, I developed what felt like quite bad intermittent pain around my right temple and above my ear. It's sort of like a stabbing nerve pain or a spasm. I also have ear fullness on that side. Weirdly, if I apply pressure to the area with my hand it sometimes stops. Or if I move my head to a different position it stops. I couldn't chew on my right side last night as it made the pain worse. It's not quite as bad today but definitely still there.

It's not like any other headache I've had before. I do have TMJ and currently my neck and shoulder on that side are very stiff so I'm wondering if it could be something to do with that. I don't know if it's a trapped nerve, some sort of sinus thing or something more sinister. I've heard of temporal arteritis and was a bit concerned it might be that as I have other autoimmune issues but I think the pain would be worse? It was enough to stop me eating yesterday but as it has eased slightly today I don't want to go to the gp unnecessarily as they're probably sick of me at this point! I don't really know much about it and can't find much information on how it actually feels so if anyone has any insight that would be great.

I'm not a medical professional but have read quite a bit on temporal arteritis as my mum has it. I don't think it has to be super painful, jaw pain and difficultly chewing can definitely be a sign, the main danger though is sight loss. I think it's a good sign that your symptoms are getting a bit better rather than getting worse, but if you start getting any lines or blackness in your vision get yourself to A&E for some steroids and make sure you tell them what you suspect as we found a lot of the professionals hadn't heard of it. Hopefully it's something else and you'll feel better soon x

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/temporal-arteritis/ www.nhs.uk/conditions/temporal-arteritis/]]]]

this is a good explanation of the symptoms GCA causes. Most people would describe the vision as blurred rather than distorted and it only happens in one eye rather than both at once, although it can cause vision loss in both eyes if untreated.

@RealLifeClanger you could go and have an eye test in the morning, rather than going to A&E.

Thanks both, I'm hoping it's not that as it sounds like a nightmare! Vision is fine atm so will hold off gp and monitor for the time being.

There was a virus going around that caused those symptoms, there was a post on here about it (a few of were suffering the same) I too spent the entre week googling temporal arteritis