Thought the pain was behind me..Need help.. Occipital headaches - Headaches & Migraines Message Board

Paksenarian · 06-14-2004, 12:26 PM

Hi
I posted about three months ago about the headaches I was having. I have finally been to a neurologist and three weeks ago he injected steriods into the back of my head telling me I had a pinched nerve there. When he pressed the spot where my headaches were it hurt very bad. Now I had a check up on Friday. Two weeks after the shots and my headaches were gone. I only had one that seemed to come and go over the course of a day but didn't feel the need to take anything it was a fleeting type pain. I did tell her that my neck and shoulder were sore and she perscibed fexerall for the muscle contractions saying it was related to the headaches. The thing is they make me sleep for about 3 hours. I can't do that, but now I am having headaches again in the same side same as before and maybe a little more mild pain. She has told me not to take any otc medicines more than twice in a weeks time and to call if I had a headache. But these shots should be good for 5-6 months she said. Anyone out there have the same thing going on? I thought it was all behind me and then this.

Thanks
Paksenarian

beach_tiglet · 06-14-2004, 06:54 PM

You mean like occipital neuralgia or something? Yes, I have those kinds of headaches plus migraines. Massage helps, ice helps, my neuromuscular dentist for TMD helps too. OTC medicines can cause rebound headaches, but she should have been able to give you something else for pain. Muscle relaxers help, zanaflex, flexeril, skelaxin...I haven't tried flexall, but it sounds like a muscle relaxer since it knocked you out...skelaxin will relax the muscles without knocking you out. You don't want to do the injection more than once every 5-6 months, it's not good for you. I go longer if at all possible (we had that discussion today as a matter of fact). There are other anti-inflammatories that will help though that aren't as bad. It isn't any fun, but with trial and error, you can live with it most of the time with occasional flare-ups. I don't reach above eye-level, don't lift anything heavy, have lightened my purse. It will flare up every now and then...the trick is to get it to where the flare ups go away quickly without the injections.

Sinthetic · 07-23-2004, 10:44 PM

hello -

i had a case of occipital neuralgia a year or so ago (31) as a result of a pinched nerve in my upper back.

primary doc put me on neurontin with little result.

went to a specialist who prescribed klonopin and it zapped it right away (after a few weeks or so).

klonopin is an anti-seizure med, however it worked wonders for me in this case. please look into this with your docs if your having the shooting head pains (top back of the head, etc.) typically associated with ON.