For the past month or so I've been having, in addition to stabbing, burning, aching in my eyes and pain in my left cheek, now pain in the back of my head and top of my forehead (both sides,mostly left). When I saw my neurologist he said this was occipital muscle pain. I never had this pain before when I had migraines, it started when my TN acted up bad. The pain in the back is where my skin was burned on both sides from hair dye. So is it the nerves acting up from the burn, or the muscles acting up from a migrane? I took Midrin last night for the pain and it didn't help anything. I took two Excedrin and used a heating pad on the back of my head this morning and it only helped a little for about an hour. Right now I'm in extreme pain from TN/migrane (?) and also nauseous. Anyone had both or is it just all TN? I'll take some Xanax (which has helped with the scalp pain, three a day actually pretty much stopped it for a while) in a little while and see if that helps. This is so painful!!! I feel like I want to chop my head off. You guys understand, I wish doctors and others did. I'm afraid to eat anything even though I'm hungry because I'll throw up (from migraine or from pain), but I don't want to take the Xanax on an empty stomach. I hate this Midrin/Excedrin/Xanax mess, I'm really very careful how I space things out, but all I feel like doing is knocking myself out with Xanax to sleep. Help!!!!!
For the last year, I have been having severe facial pain with no headaches until the last few months…now I’ve been getting pain that starts under my eye and spreads to the top and back of my head. I ended up in the ER and hospital this past weekend and they were uncertain of what is causing this too. I am pregnant so my medical options are limited. They suggested trying nerve blocks, but have not tried anything yet, of course. I am confused to know if this is related to the TN or not. I do not get sick with these headaches so I don’t feel it is typical migrane cuz that is how I was iwth the migranes. I hope you find relief and if you find any good answers out, I am alwaays looking for some. Katie
Hi Katie, we are kindred spirits!!! Sorry you have this pain too but at least I know you understand. I was afraid I would get nauseous (like a regular migrane) but I was able to eat a little lunch. Xanax comes at 3 p.m. God, this is absolute hell. I’ve missed the whole summer. A positive attitude only goes so far with TN, but I keep trying, as we all do.
Likewise, I am sorry you have this to deal with too…so do you think it is related to TN? And do think it is musles, nerves, or what? I think Xanax is class D for pregnancy drugs, so won’t be able to try that, but I was on baclofen for awhile and that was a skelatal muscle relaxer that seemed to help prior to pregnancy. I am going to try tomorrow to get into the pain clinic just to see what my options are…It sucks feeling so helpless. I hope you find relief and will keep you in my thoughts and prayers…we all just got to stick together. It is so hard for anyone who doesn’t fee l this way to relate. I will let you know if I find any relief and let me know how it goes for you!
Sue Richey said:
Hi Katie, we are kindred spirits!!! Sorry you have this pain too but at least I know you understand. I was afraid I would get nauseous (like a regular migrane) but I was able to eat a little lunch. Xanax comes at 3 p.m. God, this is absolute hell. I’ve missed the whole summer. A positive attitude only goes so far with TN, but I keep trying, as we all do.
Sue,
I have migraines and TN. My neuro said that they are related and the the TN nerve is implicated in migraines. I can tell the difference I think. But after my MVD, I began to get TN pain around my eyes which may be occipital pain. A few times it has been severe but mostly it isn’t too bad. I also have typical TN with the sharp electric pan and the migraines are not like that. So it may be easier for me to differentiate between the two. I think it would be harder with atypical pain. I take axert for migraines. Both my neuro and surgeon told me to keep the migraines under control. They seem to trigger TN and it tends to be bad. My worst TN period started with a migraine and led to me having a MVD.
Liz
The funny thing is, I haven’t had migraines for at least 25 years!!! It’s just since the TN pain started up bad, and its not only the migraine on top of my forehead (usual) but its in the back of the head where my skin was terribly burned. I’m also sore to the touch on the “racing stripe” from one to another, but there’s no flare. Two Xanax down and one to go…thank God for drugs (when they work!). I’ve been pretty stressed out the past three days, so maybe its just a tension migraine, but its definitely in a new place (variation on a theme).
Hi Sue,
I’m sorry you are in such pain. It sounds like the burn brought a lot of the pain on. It seems like once the pain gets past a certain point it gets out of control. I also get confused with the stress. They say stress doesn’t cause TN but can make it worse. Just concentrate on taking care of yourself and know that better days are ahead!! I will pray for you.
Jamie
Over the past 5 years or so I’ve had a resurgence of migraines. I was diagnosed as a young teenager, and was told that I also had nerve pinching around the back of the head/neck, which caused pain up and over the head. I think I was prescribed muscle relaxants for this, but it’s so long ago I can’t remember that well.
I can tell the difference between the TN and migraine, as my migraines tends to come with other weird symptoms, scintillating scotoma, bright coloured blind spots which expand into a shimmering c-shape, odd smells, and general ataxia and balance problems, I also talk gobbledegook for a while during and after, all words get mixed up.
I have heard the same info that Liz mentions, that the pain of migraine is caused by the trigeminal nerve across the scalp which gets affected by the neurovascular changes during a migraine.
So it seems quite possible that a migraine could trigger a TN attack. And both may well cause you to pinch the occipital nerve at the back of the head, because of unusual head position due to pain. It can become a vicious cycle.
Neurologists sometimes treat difficult to control migraines with the same drugs as used to treat TN.
I take a drug called cinnarizine for vestibular problems and nausea, it also helps with calming the migraines. I’m not sure it’s available in the US, but a related compound, Flunarizine is sometimes used to treat migraines in the US. I find it is a very good anti-emetic, but also stops the spins, and calms down the persistent auras I can sometimes get during a migraine.
Good luck, I hope it all calms down for you.
Jon (bristol, england)