Hello,
Just joined the forum to see if anyone else was having issues like me. Seems that many do indeed experience head pain/tension/migraine for long periods of time following AN surgery, especially retrosigmoid. I decided to post as a cautionary tale to what “potential headaches” might mean.
My AN retrosigmoid surgery was March 27, 2014 for a 14mm left side. I felt like I was pretty lucky at first with only a 2 day stay in hospital and I was back at work 2 weeks later. I did lose my hearing though like most people do. I had daily head pain following surgery, but it was manageable at first. Unfortunately, this daily pain and tension would wake me up each morning earlier and earlier. A couple months after I would sit at the kitchen table rubbing my head waiting for the Aleve and coffee to kick in. My Neurosurgeon and I both thought it would go away. It didn’t and it actually got worse, so off to see the Headache specialist.
Headache guys are great at prescribing drugs that insurance companies don’t want to pay for. We found some migraine meds that worked pretty well, but I was consuming them at a rate that was unattainable on monthly basis. Long story short, I had to meter the migraine meds and use multiple types to get close to what was needed. Activity would trigger pain, so I would have to take meds prior to activities in the hopes of being able to participate. Not good.
Overtime things have gotten a bit better and I am not reliant upon migraine meds anymore, but I am still taking Topamax, Inderal, and a steady diet of Aleve. Tension and some form of head pain are always with me. What is frustrating is that even though I thought I had asked all the right questions and was prepared for the recovery I find myself in this situation. Headaches after this surgery can be a real issue.
