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Extreme pain in occipital area
Following a head trauma 40 years ago, experience severe pain in occipital region on RHS. Pain is frequent and severe and lasts 6-8 hours during the acute phase and mobility and speech is affected, stuttering etc. When the attack is over am exhausted for approx 48 hours. Taking Naprosen daily which reduce frequency and severity but don’t prevent.
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Are you seeing a neurologist? Are these new symptoms, or has it been the same or different since your TBI 40 years ago? Was the naproxen prescribed by a neurologist? Did he/she list what specifically is causing the pain/mobility/speech problems? One of the potential side effects of Naproxen is headaches. I was on Aleve (a brand of naproxen) for arthritis years ago and it had no effect on my pain or inflammation. I had a moderate TBI 33 years ago with permanent damage to my basal frontal and left temporal lobes, and initial damage to my right occipital region (normal EEG there now). My symptoms back then were mostly extreme fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, and headaches on the top of my head. No associated symptoms now.
@annien, did you see the helpful post from @kayabbott?
I echo her questions. Are you currently in the care of a neurologist? Are these new symptoms?
Neurologists don’t know. Tried a nerve block which was unsuccessful. Has been occurring for 30+ years. Get 7-10 days pain free, then slow build up
on RHS of back of neck leading to acute pain for 6-8 hours which then suddenly stops. Then wiped out for 48 hours. The cycle repeats. One neuro suggested cutting one of the occipital nerves (there are 5 apparently) to see if that helps! The intermittent-ness seems to be the puzzling thing. NSAIDs seems to reduce the frequency and severity but would prefer not to take them due to risk of stomach bleeds.