I am at my wits end. My head feels so bad that I get bad thoughts about not wanting to live like this. I get a crawling feeling , like when u hit your funny bone , in the back of my head over and around my left ear. It then spreads around my scalp to my temple. Sometimes this is accompanied by slight chest discomfort and nasuea. I have had 2 cat scans one with contrast and one without and last september I had an MRI without contrast. All were said to be normal. All my labs at the hospital ER the other day were fine as well as chest x-rays and the cat scan. The only problem they saw was my blood pressure was up at 163/100 and then went down as time went on and my face is red a lot but I seriously doubt that is why I am getting this weird feeling in my head. But something is being missed , this crawling skin feeling and pressure and pains in my head are unbelieveable. I start sweating too at times when this happens. I took a paxil last night for the first time and i am sure thats probably not helping right now as I know that makes your head feel weird for a week or so until you get used to it. I have a neurologist appointment on wednesday morning. What should I tell him and does anyone have a clue what this might be. Its like deep pins and needles in my head that progresses to pressure and pain and slight nasuea and slight dizzyness. I feel helpless , after having normal scans and mri I cant understand why this is happening to me.

PS

ALSO a lot of the time I seem to get twitches around both my eyes when this is happening. Its very annoying , my eyelids or the skin around my eyes starts twitching on its own.

My sister had similar symptoms and it turned out to be Chiari malformation. She had surgery and is good as new...look it up on thread and read.

I just looked into it briefly and it does have similarities to what I am feeling though I have no problems yet with my gait but I will mention this to the neurologist on wednesday. I am 41 years old , and this just started within the last month although for a long , long time I have had pressure in my head that felt really weird. I always assumed it was sinus related.

This most definitely sounds like some sort of "nerve' affectation at somewhere along one of the cranial nerves.have you ever had an MRI done at all on your C spine?The reason i am asking is that there are some of the cranial nerves that do run down from the head,into the c spine and then kind of loop back up into the head.I have alot of spinal cord damage due to a surgery that was done on the inside of my cord.this has resulted in many mnay unbelievable neuro and pain issues along with some of the most incredibly bizarre types of symptoms due to just specific nerve,spinal tract and sympathetic nervous system damage.

i also have alot of 'head' and facial symptoms.this is actually stemming from the some of the cranial nerve damage at the c 8 nerve(while you do not have an actual c 8 vertebrae,you DO have a c 8 nerve) level of my spinal cord.this particular area is really kind of the big 'junction' area where those nerves loop back up into the head again.this is also where my SNS damage was actually done as well.

at the very least,you DO need to have the c spine looked into by doing an MRI with contrast if possible.there could be any nuber of various things wrong in this specific area that could show up wth the same symptoms you are currently having.you just never know what in the heck is actually inside the spine and in the cord til you really get a good look inside with an MRI.I had no clue that i had anything inside my cord,til I had the MRI done there one day to try and figure out which one of my c spine discs were herniated.they found the c 6-7 as the culprit but this is also when they just happened to also discover whats called a cavernoma that had actually been just lurking there since i was born.i just never knew it was there as it had not showed the symptoms of an actual bleed I had had at some pint til the second one actually happened.

at any rate,the c spine really does need to be looked at as a possible problem and the reason(in some way) for your symptoms.This would at the very least let you know whats going on up there,and could be ruled out,or in, as a possible issue.

Please let us know what you find out.good luck,Marcia

Thank you so much for the replys , i am printing out this page and brining it with me to the neurologist office. I need to solve this , I am not enjoying my life like this. Don't get me wrong as I am glad the catscans and MRI didn't show any glaring issues but not knowing what is wrong is driving me crazy with horrible thoughts. Thanks again , and I hope all of you are doing good health wise.

I DO know very well just what you mean,believe me.any Dx is better than kind of hangin out there with no way to turn to try and find some sort of answers for your obvious symptoms.I wish you lots of luck.please keep me posted.Marcia

I am going to my cardiologist in about 30 mins to see if he will put me on the high blood pressure meds and my heart is racing a lot of the day..just going to fast for me just sitting around. Tomorrow i go to an alergist to make sure i don't have some sort of allergy again as I used to for years until about the time i hit 20. Then wednesday the neurologist. I hope one of these 3 visits can help me solve my problems. Thx again for any help and your previous replys. I think my anxiety over these head issues is making my heart and blood pressure go nutz.

The doctor is putting me on toprol blood pressure medicine but says he doesn't think thats where my headaches are coming from. That said , my heart is working too hard these days so I am glad to get this medicine to help it out a bit.

On a simpler but impt note,

Have you had a thorough thyroid workup? Most docs just screen w/the TSH test, but the free T3, free T4, and thyroid antibody tests give more information.

Racing heart, high BP, anxiety, facial tics, facial reddening, strange sensations -- these are not unknown in thyroid disease, particularly the less common thyroid problems associated with elevated antibodies.

If your PCP says "TSH is OK, that's good enough," and you want to pursue the matter, you can order the appropriate tests yourself through Health Check USA.

If you did have a thyroid workup done, you might want to get a hard copy of the results, and compare your results w/the 'new' reference ranges recommended by the Am. Academy of Endocrinolgists in 2002. The vast majority of labs & docs in the USA are still not on board, thus many cases of thyroid disease are being missed. For more info, or to answer thyroid questions, the thyroid board here on heatlh boards is excellent.

Best wishes.

Thanks a lot for this advice..I had thyroid TSH testing and t3/t4 but not the antibody test..is that an important test too or are the other 3 enough to know?

Went to the allergist today , only allergic to ragweed and dust mites..he said this certainly isnt the cause of my head issues. Tomorrow the neurologist.

L122, To add to your list of possibilities, I'll add Lyme Disease, caused by a very stealthy bacteria which manifests over 200 symptoms depending on which nerves the toxins attach to. Very hard to diagnose. At this time, our Lyme Literate Doctor (LLMD) is focusing on my wife's head. We knew she does not respond to treatment the way most people do. She finally had a SPECT (Single Photon Emmission Computer Tomograghy) which measures blood flow in key areas of the brain BOTH at rest and while stimulated. We were able to pinpoint one overactive area and one underactive area. With this information, we were able to pinpoint the most likely drugs to facilitate healing. Our LLMD uses alternative protocols also for treating her brain and overall immune system and body integration. In fact we are in Wichita, Kansas now for two weeks getting daily evaluation and treatment. Very excited! We figure she has had Lyme disease for 30 years. She has over 400 postings on the Lyme Board as Wackowoman if you want to ask her any questions.
dorkdad

Just left the neurologist , he did an examination and determined that I need an mri of my c/spine as he thinks this is a nerve issue in my neck which is affecting my whole head. He said it could also make my eye lids twitch and cause some feelings of numbness in my face. He perscribed me some medicine too , lesica or something like that..i dont remember the name as i dropped off the script before i came home. Ill take into consideration that lyme disease possibility if this doesnt pan out. I sure hope he is right and I hope this medicine he gave me helps.