Head ache on bottom of my head(opposite to An side)

[vthiru1]

Freinds,

I had my AN surgery on Nov 18th 2013 and been recovering well. Diziness is still there, but its kind of improving after the vestibular therapies. I joined work this week and was really happy about that. All of a sudden, since couple of days,  head pain started on my right head, below the ears and around the neck area. very frustrating, when I thought that i am ready to start the work and regular life. Pain is kind of moderate and Tyelenol does reduce the pain, but it doesn't go away. I met my neurologist today and she said its coming out of the Occipital nerve and its called Occipital Neurolgia(One more new medical term for me). She said its common and occurs even for the normal peope and nothing to worry about. As of now, she as given a prescription for a gel(compounded) and asked me to apply over the pain area 2-3 times a day and see if that solves the issue and if not, then she would give me more treatment options(medications, shots). I went though this forum about Occipital Neurolgis and saw lot of useful information, but lot many things to digest. If any of you can advice me on the right medication and treatments for this, that would be really great. Also, my neurologist didn't do any diagnosis to identify this, when I told her my symptoms, she immediately said its coming out of Occipital nerves. I completely trust her, but what kind of diagnosis should I do to confirm this? Please advice. I am on Warfarin currently and I can't take any blood thinners apart from Tyelenol. Hopefully the pain should subside after the gel therapy.

Thanks,
Vivek

[vthiru1]

Hello Friends,

Could someone please advice a remedy for this issue? I am having bad headaches today and this time on both the sides and bottom of the head. Any tips/inputs is great appreciated? Should i go Check this in the ER?

[debraclark]

Hi, I am a member on here also and have not been on in a while. I see no one has responded to your question? That used to happen to me sometimes that is why I occassionally just come on and read the forums at times. I found a great group on Facebook that has over 1400 members now who all are going thru what we are going thru with these tumors, with surgery, or Gamma Knife, recoveries etc. A very friendly and helpful group, they have truly been a great help to me. If you are interested in joining them if you have a Facebook account their link is.....https://www.facebook.com/groups/anvsglobal/       It is a closed private group. So all you have to do is send a request and the admin Kelly usually is quick about accepting. 

                                                               
(Not sure if this will be of any help or not because my problems are on my surgery side but here goes)

I had a 3CM tumor that was pressing on my brain and was causing me to lose my hearing, my only other symptoms were a stuffy feeling in my right ear and alot of pressure in my ear and sinus. I also had Retrosigmoid surgery (10 hours) and I had it in September 2012. Now here is the crazy thing, I was like a star patient I did great, when I woke up in ICU I was not dizzy the room was slanted a bit but that was it. I ended up in the hospital for about 3 days tops. I continued to do well, I did Physical Therapy for balance, it was off somewhat but not to terrible but I wanted to make sure it was back to normal. By the time I was finished you could not tell. Evidently my body had already compensated so when the balance nerve was cut that was the reason I did not have the bad dizziness. I had the Facial Para on my right side for about 7 to 8 weeks. Right after surgery I was like a 1 on the House Brackman scale but by the time I went back to get my staples out at my surgeons office which was 2 weeks later after my surgery I was at a 4. They gave me steriods 2 different times and it eventually got better. I still have dry eye, and my sinus and nose on the surgery side are still dry and I have dryness to my mouth and some numbness but my face looks fine. I am single sided deaf now and have the constant tinnitus. I can live with all that, but at about 10 weeks I woke up out of a sound sleep with a god awful headache on the surgery side, and it started at the base of my skull and wrapped around my head and ran up into my eye, it was awful. It was like a 12 on a 1 to 10 scale. I was scared to death I did not know what was happening. My first instinct was to take some tylenol and get a heat pad and lay back down with the pad on my head and try to make it thru it, it lasted about 20 mins to a half hour. Afterwards I felt drained. I would also get regular moderated headaches just from coughing or sneezing or just bending over so I just tried to avoid that at all costs.But all my headaches originate from the base of my skull the neck area, sometimes I can actually feel a knot in the muscle. My surgeon at the time claimed that I had an atrophied muscle (angry muscle) in my neck from the surgery? So he ordered therapy? Well I did the therapy and that ended up not helping this went on for like a year. I lost my job of 13 years because I was constantly in pain one way or another. And eventually my surgeon ended up telling me since my MRI was good and I was on target with my healing I was considered "clinical" so I was referred to a Neurologist. Well luckily she ordered an MRI of my neck, it showed my neck muscle is in constant spasm (the one that was cut to do the surgery) and that my neck is now straight (has lost its natural curve) because its in constant spasm, and I now have bulging discs, and now the other muscles are in spasm. And all of that is pressing on the nerves. So she has me on Flexiril for muscle spasms (Thank God) it is helping me get sleep at night which I was barely doing before. And I am on Topomax (an anti seizure med) to help calm down the cranial nerves- one being the occipital. They even use that drug for Migraine type headaches. It does not help to get rid of the headaches when you have them it helps them to be less. And I do notice a difference. It just makes me mad that it took a year for someone to see what my muscles were doing.. Now I have to say when I get those bad headaches ( and I never know when one is gonna hit) what really helps me is heat. I put heat on my neck, my head and just sit quietly and close my eyes, sometimes take deep breaths, sip some water, try to relax as much as I can til it passes. I am hopeful that someday I will not have these headaches anymore but for the time being I just have to learn to deal with it. I also have to deal with head pain whenever the weather changes, changes in the barometer etc. There are others on that facebook page too that go thru the same thing and there are others that are not as bad. So I guess what I am saying after writing so much (sorry =)   ) is that maybe your muscles are in spasm too? And it has to do with that type of surgery Retrosigmoid. And also another complaint I have seen out of alot of others plus myself at first but it is getting better is that it takes a while to be able to sleep flat on your head, cannot sleep on the surgery side? Can you? I always had to sleep on my opposite side. And it took me forever to find a pillow that I could sleep on had to find a special theraputic type. I sincerely hope you find some relief,  some answers to your questions. I know how frustrating it can be. Take care.

[staypoz]

Vivek,
Many of us who have post-op head pain experience it on the side opposite the surgical site.  I am not sure why that is.  It sounds as if your doctor is starting to treat it conservatively.  If what the doc prescribed doesn't work, keep pressing for other options.  There are many remedies for post-op head pain, from drugs to surgery.  You may benefit from seeing a pain doctor.  Unfortunately, it is through trial and error that you find the right treatment.  Good luck to you!

staypoz