New to this all around

[crazyhead]

Been reading and probly have found the most hope just knowing i'm not alone on here. I'm on the way to probly being diagnosed with Occiptal Neuralgia. I've learned more about whats goin on with myself studying on the internet then from my doctors. Sad to say. My friends are probly sick of knowing it's another bad day with pain with me and depression has hit.... it's nice to write to people who are going through the same thing. Yesterday my friend (whos pain free!) was trying to lecture me on what i'm doin wrong and how i'm making my pain worse by obessing about it. I came across this site tonight and was up lifted to see people are going through the samething as I am! I'll post more on the OC area..... But thanks to whoever started this site. Truly greatful.......:)

[joy]

Welcome crazyhead and sorry you need to be here. I'm awfully thankful for this place as well. I have/had trigeminal neuraglia, meniere's disease and migraine plus cluster headaches for the longest. That's just my head troubles alone so I know of the pain you speak. It is sad but your friend just does not understand the kind of pain you are enduring. Keep posting please as you have already seen people here do understand pain.

I'm hoping you will find a doctor and with the right treatments be able to say have/had like I now am able to. I know it is still there but oh so much better and hardly ever notice much pain anymore in that area. Well not like it was!!

[crazyhead]

OOh! Thankyou for the reply! Means alot! Where is the best area to post a thread (or whatever it's called) :) With neuro pain? I too have cluster and migraines along with OC....neck pain, shoulder pain etc. I'm interested in knowing what has helped your pain. I've been taking Imitrex for my migraines for 8 years and now my Neurologist wants me off of them. I've been trying to trust him because he's a doctor, but i've tried so many different meds (beta blockers, antidpressants etc.), and Imitrex seems to be my most relief. Thing is....i start taking it almost everyday when this OC stuff wouldnt go away...i didnt know what was goin on...just wanted the pain to go away. So he wants me off of them. ????? I feel very powerless lately. It takes all of my everything to not take my Imitrex and try to trust doctors. Now i'm taking perscription Naproxen and a muscle relaxer, ice packs daily, sunglasses in the house, showers in the dark, etc....and much more. Peppermint Oil on my eyebrowns and sore spots gives relief for brief periods. Last week I received 30 injections of Botox. I sadly have not felt any relief. And my savings account can relate :P lol.

anyways thanks for the reply and letting me vent my frustrations. I'm glad to know you've had some therapy that has relieved most of your pain.

Jess

[Buttons2]

Hi Jess & welcome to BT. I'm not familiar with your kind of pain myself.....but I can relate to pain & nasty comments from so called friends! BT is a special place,we all have some kind of health issues to deal with & understand when you say you find more info on the internet than any doc has given you.

I dare say you'll also find more empathy & understanding here than in the real world. I'd like to invite you to join in on the emotional support forums. We have one we like to keep going for a dear gal that can't even type right now,it's called "What are the little things that make you happy". It's hard some days to think of anything! But it does help to seek the positive in life everyday,we also have forums for our pets & we all enjoy seeing pictures of pets.

Looking forward to getting to know you better!
Buttons

[Lee157]

I have Occipital Neuralgia. And it sucks. I was in a car accident 13 months ago and still suffer with 2-3 x a week headaches and more. How did you get yours?

I got pain medication for mine, vicodin for the really bad headaches, toughed out some of the others, but not many of those. You might get a script for neurontin which is for nerve pain.

The problem with mine was that it wasn't dx'd for 10 months, the freaking stupid doctors I went to need to all be b*tch slapped a few hundred times. They were of the opinion no one could be in that kind of pain from a whiplash injury, and so got to thinking this was all in my head. There were times I would practically crawl into the house with my eyes closed (well this was how I thought I made it into the house) grabbed the painkillers and passed out for a few hours. They caused me a whole lot of grief by not knowing what this was, because it brought on sympathetic nervous system problems I am finding out. I went to 14 or so doctors of different sorts to try and find out what the problem was.

I had to go to a pain specialist who is 73 years old to know what was going on. The whiplash and the ON pain we are thinking (we are still figuring out exactly what happened 12 months ago) caused my to alter my breathing by hyperventilating (yeah, that simple) and it altered my blood chemistry which increased my heart rate, caused hypoxia (lack of oxygen at the cell level) started to increase my muscle spasms, made my sympathetic system dysfunctional and started to stiffen my muscles. Ready for that fight you know. I started getting heart palpitations then after the chest muscles were going into spasm, and at that point, he clued in and I got on beta blockers and voila! no more stiff muscles. Well at least mostly. The cold makes it worse, the stress you know, and it acts as a painkiller for the body pain. It doesn't really do anything for the ON pain in the head, but that's what I have the painkiller for. I also take Tizanidine for muscle relaxer. The spasms you know.