Occipital Neuralgia Headache: Terrible pain lasting weeks, what helps?

@suszy39 It is definitely good that things are looking up for you! Glad to hear it! I think it's good to share with everyone. Sometimes someone shares something with others that they may not have known. I think that is a great thing. I hope you are staying warm out there. I live in the Panhandle of Florida and we had some snow a couple of weeks ago. It sounds funny for Florida but we had it before and it was more last time. Let's keep in touch and continue to share our knowledge. @rnlorena

@rnlorena I could not agree more. The Pain Dr. seem to understand. When he gives me a shot I
you can hardly feel it. Besides they are more equipped in my opinion. Last year I was having a
terrible flare up and could not get in to pain center, so we went to the ER. First of all they do not
give shorts so they gave me Migraine cocktail; sent me flying, I did get relief to sleep
which I could not manage on my own. Now with my new cervical round pillow, my clincial
massage, plus my injections things are looking brighter. The web sight has been a confort to me
knowing you fellow suffers know what I am feeling. We have a common problem we are dealing with. Best to you. Fr Northern Calif.

@rnlorena

@brenda1944 I have hypertension and I take blood pressure medication. I bent over and I had back pain so when I went to the orthopedic surgeon they gave me a steroid shot which helped but when I woke up at my brothers house I had taken my blood pressure and it was elevated but not horrible. I called a pharmacist and asked her about the steroid. She said, “I need to know what kind and how much”. I found out and she told me how many weeks it could affect my blood pressure. A pharmacist is very good to ask for information related to things like this. I will make a note to ask my pain Doctor about the shots to my nerve and I will get back to that. I think it’s great that you are gonna check out a pain management doctor for many reasons. No offense but no Doctor should be saying to a patient that the shots hurt because they have to find the nerve or nerves. No kidding but when I laid on the table it took the Doctor 5 minutes or even less and I did not even feel a stick. They use a tiny little ultrasound machine to find the nerves. I hope you can find a pain Doctor that handles the things like my pain Doctor. My Doctors website explains nerve block and ablation of nerves plus other things. I read the parts that applied to me. Please let me know how that goes. I will keep my fingers crossed for you that you find a pain management Doctor to help you. @rnlorena

@suszy39 Great! Glad to hear! I go Tuesday and I need to find out what is next for me. It may well be another nerve block and I understand they want to be sure before they ablate your nerves. I need to get my head together again. When I go to the Doctor I usually write notes so I don't forget anything. They use a very small ultrasound to find the nerves before they do the block. The nerve block was easy. Less than 5 minutes. They won't do it on Tuesday they will schedule it if that's what they want to do next. If they decide on the ablation I will be happy as a clam. I was talking with my brother today and we were discussing me. I reminded him of 2021 when two days after I decided to retired I woke up and had full onset of pinpricks or as they call it paresthesia. The pinpricks were going off constantly and it was totally weird. 3 months later I went to a Neurologist and they finally did a skin biopsy and said I had Small Nerve Fiber Neuropathy. I had two Covid shots 3 weeks apart in January and I am pretty sure that is the cause. No one in my family has ever had anything like it. Now this head pressure. I am not a Doctor but I think there could be something in my neck causing this pressure. Maybe something is impinging on the nerves. I went to many Doctors after I had the original head pressure and blurry vision. A lot of them said its your blood pressure. NOPE! I have a cardiologist that I have been seeing for a long time and she said NOPE! I know it isn't my blood pressure. Getting the head pressure affects my blood pressure. I swear I don't know where Doctors heads really are nowadays. The medical field has gone down in my opinion. Please let me know how the Nerve Block goes. @rnlorena

@rnlorena I can't believe I am saying "looking foward to my Nerve Block" two more weeks.
The daily exercies I do believe are helping, at least in the m ornings after I do the warm up
program my neck feels normal. I listened to the Oldest Dr. In Japan and He made me feel
You can do this,slow, breath, etc. about neck pain in general, very inlighting

@rnlorena

@brenda1944
Thank you Lorena. Very helpful. My neurologist said they are shots hurt because they have to find the nerves responsible for the pain. Like drilling on a tooth nerve .
I can’t use steroid due to blood pressure and they also cause dizziness. Which I have.
I will look into pain doctors though. I had thought about that. My neurologist said try the supplements and see me in six months. Very cold. So, I think my lightheadedness and vertigo is to do with this. Not my heart and H.B. medication !Heart is fine was told.
Thank you for your input .

@rnlorena

@brenda1944 I had a nerve block and didn’t even feel it. The nerve blocked worked. Which is a good thing. I went to a pain management Doctor who not only deals with what I have but other issues also. I do take Gabapentin but I still get head pressure. So that is why I am going to these Doctors.
I don’t get the pain like it describes for Occipital Neuralgia I only get head pressure. That’s enough to deal with. Please read my other comments. NO Doctor should ever tell you that they are painful to get. That in my opinion is awful. Come February the 17th it will be a year since I started with head pressure. I go to pain management Doctors who don’t just treat pain they do other things. So again I had the nerve block and it was not painful. It worked. So I may have to have one or two more depending on what the Doctor thinks but I am really okay with that. The reason they do those nerve blocks and if it works it tells them that it is your Occipital nerves that are the culprit. So they may do more than one to make sure that’s it. Then they can do an ablation (burning the nerves). They do that under light sedation so your visit might be a total of about 2 hours. Then you go home. Nerves will regenerate between 6-12 months. I am okay with that. They can do it again. If you were to get a nerve block they may not have to do a steroid. That would be a good question to ask. I had gotten a steroid shot in my back over a year ago and the only issue I had it made my blood pressure go up but I handled that. A steroid shot doesn’t hurt. How do you not tolerate a steroid shot please let me know. The nerve block (shot in the head was nothing). IT did not hurt and only took less than maybe 5 minutes. I did not feel it at all. I was surprised by that. I really advocated for myself on many things. I have worked in healthcare and I myself have seen a lot of it go to heck. The group of Doctors that I went to live about 20 minutes away from me. I even drove to Texas to see a Doctor in one of many visits to different doctors and it was worth it. I am so sorry you are having so much pain. I would definitely look into pain management Doctors. The doctors that I see also sees patients with I am sure other types of pain like backs, shoulders you name it. Things like that. Until my regular Doctor suggested them I was not aware because if I was I would have seen them sooner. @rnlorena