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

@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 .

@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

@brenda1944 Thank you for all the great information.I learned allot today from you.

@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 do have some head pressure, feels like water but not all the time. My next appt. for Nerve block is Feb. if that works I will be thrilled, it not Iam asking for Botox. A number of
people say thats all the have? Time will tell, my Dr. gives the best shots, I never complain about
him. Continueing my Clinical Massage, look forward to it, really help relax my tight muscles.
To Be Continued....... Fr Northern California

@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.

@brenda1944 I have one more tip. I found a delightful Lady "Annie" she is a Pilates Physical Therapist> Her web sight Occipital Nueralgia Fix SNAG technique. She uses Elastic Band Progression: Gentle strengthing Program. She is a joy to listen too, goes slow, I just started so
I am sure it is going to help, along with my warm up in A.M. I am to the point we must educate
ourselves and do anything to help with our pain both physical and mental.

@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 Yes I live Sierra Nevada Footfills , where Gold was discovered in 1847. Snow does
comes three or four times a year thats enough. Beauitful day and feeling pretty good!!!