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Cervical-occipital neuralgia / cervicogenic headache
I was having debilitating muscular headaches on one side. Went to family doc, she did xrays and gave me a lidocaine shot in the side of my head. It immediately helped the pain but only temporarily. She prescribed gabapentin. Symptoms were somewhat alleviated but then I was referred to neurologist. MRI w/o contrast and all was good with the brain. Now I am supposed to go to pain management doc for a possible steroid shot. After reading about the arachnoiditis many are suffering I am wondering if gabapentin and tylenol arthritis might be the safer option. Would any of you just “deal with it” if you could go back in time? I am 72 in relatively good health otherwise.
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I had similar issues, although I did the steroid shot. My situation is that the steroid shot did not help. So I was left with Gabapenten and other pain relief. Not saying you shouldn’t have the shot, as it has helped a friend, it just didn’t help me. The other thing that did help slightly was upping the dose of Gabapenten. Didn’t take pain away, but slightly improved. Good luck!
. 2 of my docs recommended amitriptyline (off-label), lowest dose, 10mg….for some reason this can help occipital neuralgia…in addition to some head/neck exercises.. …it helped me, and I can return to writing music arrangements and editing orchestral music, without pain—but I do have to do my work in a semi reclining position to avoid neck strain and work in short increments .
If it is truly a muscular headache, you could look into Botox injections. They are injected into muscle so no possibility of arachnoiditis
I’m a long-time sufferer from occipital neuralgia and my neurologist has tried Botox, steroids, Gabapentin, Celebrex, and ablations. I think the greatest relief comes from my NALU nerve stimulator. I take Tylenol, use ice packs and/or heating pad to get a few hours’ relief. I hope you have better luck!
Sorry for your pain and travails…as I wrote before, you might wish to check out amitriptyline, very low dose, 10mg….off-label, but docs are pretty much in agreement it can help .