Hemicrania Continua

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2011 Hemicrania Continua It's 5:34am on Monday 9/12/11- Very happy to see nothing major happened on 9/11 the 10 year anniversary of that horrible day. Anyhow, I am starting a headache blog. I figure if this can help someone by having a companion in headache grief, then great, if not at least this can be used as a calendar and hopefully used to find out some of my personal headache triggers. It has been about 1.5 years since I noticed that headaches were forming around the left occipital nerve in the back of my head. The headaches were mild but persistent. As time when on these headaches become a burden. I pursued help from: Chiropractor, Physical Therapist, Pain Doctor, General Practioner, Acupuncturist, two neurologists, Ophthalmologist, & most recently a Headache Specialist from the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. I have had a MRA and MRI on my head and luckily the both came back negative. 100 milligrams of Advil usually takes care of my headache for several hours (up to six). My method is just to bite off a half an advil and chew it. About 15 minutes later, my headache would be gone. One neurologist put me on Gabapentin. It is a drug used for Epilepsy that apparently worked better on chronic pain then seizures. I didn't even get a chance to see if that drug worked because I received a nerve block on my Occipital Nerve. This worked the first time for just short of 2 weeks. I went back twice more. The second time it didn't work at all. My suspicion tells me that the Doctor missed the nerve area. The third time was also a bust, it worked only for a day or two. Currently I was put on the drug, Indomethicin. This drug is in the Ibuprofen family and I was supposed to take one 75mg time release capsule. I didn't realize it but the Pharmacist told me he didn't have the pills but gave me a 25mg dose and told me to take 3 at a time. It took me several days that the 25mg pills were not time release and the whole purpose of the Doctor’s prescription is defeated. I was taking 75 mg at dinner time- They would last about 21 hours. So the onset of the next day would be about 4 or 5PM if I took the pills at 7PM the evening before. So there you have it we are up to date. My latest story: Yesterday, 9/11 Sunday: Woke up at 7:30am- Took the kids rollerblading around Rockland Lake about 9:30am. No breakfast. Went to son's first ever soccer game. It was fun he scored on his own goal but played awesome, even passed the ball. During the game around noon. The headache was in full force; more than usual. Got home, helped parents with computer problem and took 75mg of Indomethicin at about 1:30pm. Put an ice pack on my head and about 20 minutes later felt fine. Watched some football and hung around the house. PRACTICED GUITAR FOR ABOUT 1/2 HOUR. Watched Jet's at night and had 3 Coors Lights- No WORKOUT (skating around Rockland Lake 3 miles). Fell asleep fine at midnight. Awoke at 4:50am with a very bad headache. I would say it was one of my worst. 7 out of 10. Same left side but my nose was stuffed (only left side). It was around my eye and also in my throat as well as that nerve in the back of my head! It even seemed to be in my left shoulder and neck. I am not sure if the shoulder, neck thing was causing the headache or caused by the headache. It is like a chicken/egg anal Took 50mg of Indomethicin @ 5:25 Going back to sleep didn't work after 1/2 hour this journal began it is 6am and the headache is going away now almost gone but lingering. My wife’s alarm just went off. Headache went away shortly after taking medicine and still OK @ 1:35PM no signs of headache.