Hi

Ive been getting a kind of "head zap" like and electric shock in my head on the right side. it feels like at any moment something is going to go POP in my brain. It started about 6 months ago, so instead of going straight to the doctors, I went to the optician's for an eye test. he said my eyes were ok but as i use the computer and read a lot, he recommended I have some very very low prescription glasses for when I do this. Ive heard that opticians can see behind the eye and sometimes can see tumours?

Anyway, they continued, nearly every day until I got so worried I went to the doctors. He shone a light in my eye, turned the lights off in the room and checked a few things, and said it sounded like a form of neuralgia. I told him that I was convinced that it was a tumour and he said he'd done all the checks he could do and assured me it was nothing sinister. He gave me tablets called Pregabalin (lyrica) but I never took them as I hate taking any meds (i stupidly read the leaflet tht comes with them and convinced myself i'll get every side effect)

Now me, being me, didnt and still dont believe the doctor. I am absolutely convinced that it is a tumor/aneurism and at any minute it will burst or I will drop dead. I just dont see why spomething that hurts so much and causes so much pain, stays in the same place and doesnt move around, there has got to be something there to worry about.

I get it nearly everyday but sometimes I only get one or 2 "zaps" Also, I feel like i need to close my eye when they come on-I also rub where it hurts as well as the side of my head (temple area) But sometimes I have days like today-As soon as I opened my eyes it was there, while my head was still on the pillow. They have been getting more and more regualr and now i'm panicking as they arent stopping. Normally if i only get one or 2 and they go away, I can cope with them but if i have them all day I start to really worry and feel like i have to go to bed to get (if I have a sleep i wont feel them and therefore wont panic)

Can anyone offer me any advice please? I just want a bit of re-assurance, something to put my mind at rest from someone who has had or is having exactly the same as me and knows its nothing to be worried about because at the moment its ruining my life-I cant concentrate on anything apart from this and I have 2 children and a partner to think of

Thank you for listening

Lou xxx

Hi lou I am also experiencing the same problems too. I am also like you, I use the computer and read very often. I also feel it in the same location which is on the right side on the back of my head. I don't want to go to the doctor because I am nervous to find out something is wrong in my head. Have you felt the sharp pain like if it was your brain hurting as well?

By the way, have you gone to the doctor to get tested for your head pains?

Lou - I don't mean to sound blunt - I offer this in support - but if you continue to worry about this and not take the advice of the Dr you saw ( or another, if you get a second opinion) you ARE ruining your life by just worrying and not taking action about your situation. I know from personal experience that this is a frightening experience. I am not a Doctor, but I suffer from Trigeminal/Occipital Neuralgia. It is the most excruciating pain I have ever felt - but I have been correctly diagnosed and take the medication that my Dr reccomended. Lyrica, which was prescribed for you, is a medication that has proved very useful in nerve pain, like its 'cousin' Neurontin (Gabapentin) The Doctor can do additional tests, blood work ups, x-ray or MRI if necessary.

Please, stop torturing yourself with the " What if's" - seek a second opinion by all means, but do not be afraid to try a medicaiton like Lyrica if your Dr suggests it again. The pain of Neuralgia can be completely overwhelming, unlike the side effects of Lyrica.

Please trust your Dr and give the meds a try. Wishing you well.

Hi Lou, I posted this only tonight, sounds a bit like yourself, please read what signs etc I have, very much the same :(

I am grasping at straws to get something sorted out with my head problems which started on the 1st of December 07 when I was out shopping and I thought I was going to pass out with this feeling in my head, very intense and sort of watery electric feeling. Over the next few weeks what happened was short like electirc shocks on and of constanlty, not to painful but worrying and very sudden.

I have seen the GP on 13 occasions since December the 1st, ended up in A&E twice and seen a neurosurgeon at the beginning of Feb. The symptoms I get seem to be constant & daily, one sided (right side) and it pulses away constantly, the scale can vary from 1-10. The feeling never ever goes away and has been pres since December 1st. I can cope with the pain but I feel it causes me a great deal of worry that I have another problem. The pulsing when it goes up the scale say to 8 or 9, it is usually present at this for a long period of time, I feel a pressure feeling that makes me feel like un-zipping the side of my head to let it out, it has been 11 days now since the latest rise in pain and I am totally worn out and tired. The pulsing can be sharp and nippy, it seems to leave a 'shape' where the pulsing is and it really does get me down. The neurosurgeon recons I have migraines, I thought he was great with priceless information but I have never heard of a person have a constant migraine for 5 months without a break, as the time is passing I can't digest migraine and am at my wits end with it all. The GP's have totally fobbed me of with endless medication that makes me sick and I just don't know where to turn to. Sharing symptoms and stories does help, maybe you readers can explain more? Much in need of guidance and support. Karen

I dont know if this will help but after reading your post it could have been me you were describing, at first i thought it was a ear infection but after seeing my GP and getting antibiotics it did not clear up. I then went back to him and was told it was probably wax in the ear and to get the ear syringed( i knew it wasnt as i had had them done about 8 months earlier). All the time the pain was getting worse and i was getting by on painkillers. Eventually i went to see the GP again who told me he was stumped and referred me to hospital (which was 2 months ago and still i have no appointment date) and he gave me nothing to help with the pain and i felt as though he had not listened to a word i said. I decided to go and see a different GP in the practice and after explaining the symptoms of pain all around my right ear, at the back of my head on the right side, bottom jaw hurting from time to time on right side and also in my neck below the right ear aswell as not being able to turn my neck to the right fully. The GP told me to take a de-congestant called Pseudoephedrine as there are 2 tubes in the area causing concern below the ear which can get blocked and result in pain and it would take 4 or 5 days till i noticed any improvement. This has helped a great deal and instead of maybe 4 or 5 days of being pain free in a month it is now maybe 4 or 5 days of pain a month which happens if i stop taking the medicine. And im still waiting for a hospital appointment. Hope this helps.

Sharp localized lightning pain periodically on my right side top forehead. I have been living with it for about 20 years. Sometimes I will go days without any episodes sometimes only a few hours, sometimes wake up to it during sleep, never really anytime specifically, could happen anytime.

But very SHARP and very QUICK, no sooner does it come it goes lasts about a second or two at the most. Had an MRI thinking Anuresum or Tumor, no such thing all looked fine. Was in a head trauma accident about 20 years ago and can only think its related. Wish someone had an answer, the worst part about it is that if it lasted any longer than a couple seconds i would feel better off dead.

Cant describe it any better other than extremely quick and sharp on a 1-10 scale the pain in obviously a 10. Also no residual effect after its gone, just the anxiety of what just happened.

Hi

Last week I went to my Neurologist because, for about amonth, as soon as I turn my head certain way (the worst while I am talking on the phone with te receiver between my ear and shoulder), right side of my head would start tingle. Sometimes it is tingling, sometimes it feels like something is crawling inside my head. Very annoying. I begged the doctor to send me for C-scan. I had brain MRI 2 years ago and everything was fine. I suffer from migraines for more than 20 years and MRI showed it. But this time it is more loke tension headaches that start from my neck. Anyway, she absolutely refused to send me for more head scanning. She said that I have a pinched nerve in my neck (sent me for X-Ray of my c-spine and after that, PT). I asked her about electic zaps that I was feeling in my head and she said that is the classic symptom of the pinched nerve.

Does anyone have this tingling, crawling feeling in their heads?

Alexa