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← Return to "Electric Shock" type pain in my scalp!
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"Electric Shock" type pain in my scalp!
Chronic Pain | Last Active: Mar 28 10:24am | Replies (301)Comment receiving replies
You perfectly described the pain that I experience in my scalp ... electric bolt, jarring, like an electric prod. With no forewarning this pain zaps my scalp. It lasts about 1 to 2 seconds. I involuntarily yelp, grimace and jump ... it takes my breath away. Thank goodness the bolts of electricty don't last any longer than a second because I could not bear it. After the "zap" is gone it takes a moment to compose myself and then it happens again. Sometimes 3 times a minute. I will go months without having to deal with this pain .... however it always returns with the same frequency & strength. I wonder if a virus has set up "residency" in a nerve root in my scalp. i.e. epstein barr from mono or herpes from shingles (however the shingles virus attacked my nerve coming from the lumbar region and left me with post-hepatic neuralgia running down my leg). This scalp pain is not from the trigeminal nerve in that my face is not affected ...rather the pain is felt in the crown of my scalp & runs down the back of my head. I wonder if prednisone would provide any relief. It's hard to sleep when this pain keeps me wide awake. Please... any suggestions? As soon as I finish this paragraph, I will try ice ?? Maybe some relief?
Replies to "You perfectly described the pain that I experience in my scalp ... electric bolt, jarring, like..."
Pain-free and episode-free for the past 7 hours ... which is remarkable because this latest episode was hitting me several times a minute. So maybe the iced clay pack and the prednisone is my answer or it could be coincidence .... I will have to try this solution several more times before I can declare it a real solution. Thank you for all the information gleaned from this discussion ... it had never occurred to me that it was a nerve issue ... in fact I have an an appointment next week to have this spot checked for skin cancer. So as you can see I have been all over the map trying to understand this. So far I have seen a dermatologist and rheumatologist ...and they had no advice.
Over 24 hours and still pain-free with not one zap. Scalp is still tender but over the years, I have grown accustomed to that tenderness ... Bottom line ... I am not experiencing ANY electrical bolts in my scalp. Wonder if the ice pack and prednisone addressed this issue or just coincidence??
The electrical zaps came back for a period of one hour on 3/20/18. I immediately took 2 prednizones and the zaps disappeared within the hour and have not returned. I do believe that the prednizone stops the electrical zaps to my head based on the results from these 2 occasions (when in the past I could not find any relief for weeks). As mentioned in my earlier posts, methylprednizone had earlier been prescribed to address sciatic nerve pain and to address nerve damage from a slipped disk in my neck ... plus post-hepatic nerve damage from shingles. All three of these occurrences (which occurred in a time span of 5+ years) dealt with nerve inflammation and the prednizone successsfully eliminated the pain. I realize that each of our cases are very individualized but i hope that this information might help at least one person find relief.
I experienced this again not more than 20 minutes ago. A severe shock-like pain, in either left or right, extreme upper rear portion of my scalp. Stops me dead in my tracks every time. It’s been happening for years, every few months. No ear infections or any other event that could be a trigger. It seems completely random - ideopathic, in fact. I’ve always figured it was just one more gift that comes with aging ungracefully...
I should mention that I’ve had a TIA in the past, so makes it a little scary. But there was no pain associated with that event.
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Okay ... after writing the above post I tried something that had never crossed my mind in the 20 or so years that I have suffered with this condition (episodic painful zaps to my scalp). First, I placed an iced clay pack on my head and then took one 20mg prednisone tablet. I rarely take medicine so I didnt come by the decision to take a steroid easily. However I know when I had the shingles it was recommended that I take a methylprednisone pack to help heal the infected nerve. Also when I had a cervical slipped disk, the only relief came with a methylprednisone pack which reduced the nerve inflammation. So if this pain in my scalp is nerve related, it stands to reason a prednisone tablet might heal/soothe the inflamed nerve. I will post tomorrow how I did throughout the night. Fingers crossed....