Connect
← Return to "Electric Shock" type pain in my scalp!
Discussion
"Electric Shock" type pain in my scalp!
Chronic Pain | Last Active: Mar 28 10:24am | Replies (301)Comment receiving replies
I have autonomic neuropathy from stage three kidney failure. It first started in my small intestine, then my large intestine. Next it went to my stomach and bladder. Now it's in my esophagus, causing several difficult problems. About 3-4 months ago I started getting a pain in one spot, going up the left side of my neck. About one month ago, that same pain continued up the side of my head to just over the top of it. That pain, is like an electric shock. It only lasts maybe five seconds, but the pain it leaves behind is very painful and probably lasts 6-7 minutes. It doesn't help me but when that happens, I bend my head a little and bring my hand up to it and hold that spot until the worst is over. I always have them during daytime, never during the night. Well, yesterday at church it changed again. The electric shock type pain came, but instead of going in a straight line just over the top of my head, at the base of my head it started, then exploded like the fireworks you watch in the sky. This happened for a steady forty five minutes, without stopping at all.
A while back I saw a spine specialist and after an x ray, said it's just arthritis. I said, do you think it could be neuropathy that came from my esophagus? He said, no. I said, how do you know? He said, because I do. During the past weeks, I've been having trouble with my thinking while writing on my kindle. I've started to spell words wrong that I've know for fifty years, sound out the words to help me spell them but still make mistakes, and never put in the silent letter, I think because I don't hear it when sounding it out. I spell sentences wrong and put the words where they don't belong. And some sentences don't even make sense because I've left out words. When I'm talking, I do almost those same things. I don't understand things or what some are anymore. And, I have what I call, brain fog. When I do have it, I will wake up with it and it will last maybe 5 hours. Is this how neuropathy in the brain feels like and does to you?
Replies to "I have autonomic neuropathy from stage three kidney failure. It first started in my small intestine,..."
@cathylc58 I am copying part of my response from a private message to Cathy. I didn't know there was stage 3 kidney disease, and that is something to consider when you are considering any medical procedures and that is why coming to a multidisciplinary medical center for diagnosis is so important. I had recommended further imaging beyond X-rays such as an MRI would be a benefit to getting a proper diagnosis. A neurologist can probably help with assessing the cognitive issues you've mentioned with thinking about words.
Hi Cathy. "arthritis in your head" doesn't explain your diagnosis, and if the only imaging you had was an X-ray and not an MRI, they don't know if nerves are getting compressed. From your symptoms it does sound like there could be a spine problem. Compression of the spinal cord in your neck can send pain anywhere in your body, and the headache you describe on the back and top of your head sounds like a cervicogenic headache that comes from a spine problem. You may want to be seen at a good interdisciplinary spine center. Another possibility that your symptoms may indicate is an alignment problem of the spine that may affect the blood supply to the brain. If your C1 and C2 vertebrae right under your skull are misaligned, it can affect blood flow or cause vertigo because the arteries run right alongside the spine. That is why it is so important to get to a good teaching medical center for another opinion. You did not get a proper assessment with what you told me. I am your age, and I had spinal cord compression and some vertigo, and it sent pain everywhere in my body. My spine surgery resolved all of that.
I didn't pick up what medications you take. I suppose you could be having a reaction to something. I keep a journal, and going back through them recently, I found a lot of references to brain fog, buzzing in my head accompanying dizziness, but no pain. I have more than enough pain elsewhere to make up for it.
The doctors which have helped me the most are my PCP, neurologists, pain specialist, speech therapist, ENT specialist, and psychiatrist. I know what a challenge it can be to sort out multiple physical illnesses when they're all happening at once.
I've noticed that a few people recommend an internist. I've never pursued that, but I may look into it. If I'm not mistaken, an internist can look at the whole picture, which is something that my PCP also does.
Wherever the answers lie, I hope you find them, and pass along here what you learn, so others may benefit from the results of your search.
Jim
Connect
Hi @cathylc58, There is another discussion that sounds very similar to your discussion where your post may receive more visibility. I'm tagging our moderator @lisalucier to see if we should move your discussion to the one below so that you can meet others with similar symptoms.
> Groups > Chronic Pain > "Electric Shock" type pain in my scalp!
-- https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/electric-shock-type-pain-in-my-scalp/
@juliediane222, @jenniferhunter and @rwinney who may also have some thoughts on your symptoms.