Hi everyone,
I haven't been on the forum for a couple of weeks. I have been going through a change of meds for my headaches/trigeminal pain. I saw a neuro-opthamologist a few weeks back because my left AN side eye appeared to be bulging. My MRI of the orbits was normal, my vision exam was mostly normal- the sensitivity to light is thought to be from the dryness of my eye. My left eye is slightly bulging but still within normal limits, my left pupil is more triangular than my right round pupil- but none of this was thought to be a problem, which is all good. The examination did show that I have decreased facial sensation on my AN side, which I hadn't realized till the doc was touching my face with a bunch of different objects. This, along with my headaches symptoms definitely points to trigeminal nerve function changes due to AN surgery.
The doctor put me on Tegretol, in addition to the trazadone, zoloft, clonazepam and other various meds I am on for glaucoma, high chlesterol and GERD. After a week on Tegretol, I started feeling like a walking pill case, especially since the headaches were and still are coming 2-3 times a day. So I finally called my wonderful neuro-otologist, Dr. Choe, and told him how I was feeling. I asked him if he would take over the treatment of my headaches because I trust him and I feel like I have too many cooks stirring the pot. So he has put me on a new medication, but first I had to slowly decrease all of my old meds. Finally stopped all meds except clonazepam and after three days of nothing else I started Efexor. I knew Efexor was an antidepressant, but did not not that it is also being used as a chronic pain medication. I did some research and saw that it seems to have a good effect on facial pain/headaches/trigeminal nerve pain. I will be slowly raising my dose over the next 2-3 weeks to achieve so-called therapeutic levels. Hopefully I will experience relief, who knows.. The weird thing is that after stopping the other meds my headaches changed in charachter- the stabbing pain on my right side of my head is rarely felt (maybe 4-5 times since), compared to 4-5 times a day. Also my headaches have become mainly left (AN) sided- around my left eye, face and cheek and jaw, as opposed to the all over the head 'headache'. I have no clue what any of this means, but I don't think any of the doctors know either. So I have been feeling pretty yucky these last few weks between going off meds, going on meds and plenty of headaches in between. Dr. Choe has also asked me to stop all OTC pain meds and all RX pain meds except for Excedrin. So this is where I am at these days, trying to get through the pain and get through nursing school. Oh, one more thing- I had some cranial sacral therapy last week at my PT session and was headache free for a whole 7 hours. My therapist is going to keep doing this, but unfortunately I don't have too many PT visits left due to insurance limitations. Well, I think I've caught everyone up with my ongoing fight against headaches. Wish me luck on this new treatment, I am skeptical and not sure relief will be found. Thanks for listening!
