left sided headache that never goes away, right side weakness

@chris8515 I have had headaches on one side of my head and the issues that I have that caused them are Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and more recently cervical spine problems. These both caused muscle spasms in my neck and the uneven tension would start turning and twisting my cervical vertebrae. When they are out of alignment, it causes a horrible muscular headache. This pulls up into my jaw, and one side was tight enough that I would wear out my dental fillings on one side. It can also pinch the Trigeminal nerve and make my face tingle. I had a whiplash twenty years ago, and with the changes that happen to the spinal discs with aging, they dry out a bit, and the small cracks that were in them opened up. My disc ruptured in my neck, and then bone spurs grew there causing cervical stenosis and a compressed spinal cord. That increased muscle spasms a lot which gave me horrible headaches. There were also what a called cervicogenic headaches from the disc itself that was collapsed upon itself. My suggestion would be to have a physical therapy evaluation to see if you have any alignment issues of your neck and the way your skull sits on top of the spine. If your CT scans would show that, some one with an orthopedic or rehab specialty may see something else. A PT can feel with their hands if your cervical vertebrae are out of alignment. The other symptoms you describe of weakness in arms and legs, and pins and needles were symptoms I had because of spinal cord compression. If you have had a past injury, you could have a spine problem that you are not aware of. Since you're already a Mayo patient, you could ask to see a neurologist in the spine center. I've done that, and had spine surgery at Mayo two years ago and it resolved all those symptoms. I actually had pain everywhere in my body and it confused 5 spine surgeons and none would help me, so I came to Mayo. In the early stages of this, I could turn my head and cause pain to happen which was in my ankle, then turn my head the other way and it would stop. That was because of how the bone spurs contacted my spinal cord. In later stages, I could not turn off the pain, and just bending my neck forward would stretch the cord across the bone spurs would send and electric shock down my entire body. At that point, there was no fluid space left around the cord. I lost muscle mass in my arms and shoulders and had leg spasms and an uneven gait. When my therapist realigned my C spine, the pains and my gait would improve. My therapist also used a cold laser and Dolphin Neurostimulator (sends electric current) to inhibit the neurotransmitters that send pain signals. It's called funicular pain when spinal cord compression generates pain somewhere else. That's what all the other surgeons had missed and I found medical literature with cases similar to mine and contacted a Mayo neurosurgeon with those and he helped me. I had a wonderful surgeon and great recovery. I am getting my muscle back, but it is a slow process to rebuild and will keep progressing as I continue to challenge my strength with physical activity. If you watch the Sharing Mayo Clinic blog, you'll see my story in January. You can also find my post about my story in the "Art for Healing" discussion under the "Just Want to Talk " group.

thanks so much , I appreciate your response. Would you be open to texting on the phone or talking on the phone. Hope that's not creepy.

You could inbox me. If you prefer to chat in the open here that's totally fine to

@chris8515 Did you have other questions? I can send you a message with specifics on my Mayo doctors if you wish.

i constatly have left sided head pain, my eyes bother me , i have tingling on my face arm and leg on the right side it gets more and less intense , would a ct head venogram scan show a stroke is my question

@chris8515 That would be a question for a doctor. My dad had a few strokes, but I don't think they caused pain or tingling for him. Pain and tingling can be caused by compressed nerves anywhere along the nerve path. He did loose half of his vision in each eye because of a stroke where the optic nerves cross. You probably could search and see if there was medical literature that shows case studies of strokes with those tests. If you search in https://scholar.google.com/ that will bring up lots of scientific and medical studies.

I'm sure you've already been tested for this, but I'm 33 and I had a stroke in my right thalamus. The things you described are very similar to what I experience daily. The only thing I have to tell you worth mentioning is that my stroke happened may 25, but the doctors were not able to see it on CT until June 23, even though I had the symptoms long before.

Hi, @micekja - just wanted to point out that you may be interested in checking out the Mayo Clinic Connect Stroke & Cerebrovascular Diseases group https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/cerebrovascular-diseases.