Sharp, stabbing pains in my head

[Scully]

Hello fellow boarders.

 

Not opened a new topic for a long time, but this is driving my nuts!

 

I was awoken around 1.00 am with sharp stabbing type pains in my head.

 

There is no headache. These pains, I can only liken to being stabbed in the scull. Near the top of my scull but over to the right hand side.

 

They last for a second or two only, almost as soon as I've registered the pain, it's gone. Usually only one 'stab' sometimes more than one in quick succession. They are coming pretty frequently and are still stabbing me now.

 

The pain is intense when they come.

 

No vision disturbances. No nausea. Nothing else expect maybe my jaw joint on the same side feels a little tender.

 

Has anybody had these quick sharp stabbing pains in the scull, that only last a second or two ? Would appreciate any thoughts.

 

Scully

x

[Christina]

I've had something similar myself Scully, at the base of my skull, just in the last week. It was one sided and stabbed me every few minutes, lasting seconds and then stopping. Stopped me in my tracks each time it came. Mine lasted 2 days and I put it down to nerve pain. A bit like i imagine trigeminal neuralgia feels, only in the head. I hope it disappears soon, it's excruciating!

 

Chris x

Edited 4 Nov 2011, 12:42 pm by Christina

[Scully]

The sharp 'stabbing ' sensation, which did feel like someone was constantly hitting me with an ice pick, seem to have subsided today.

 

It has however, left me with a very sore area on my scalp where the stabbing was taking place. I can't pull a comb through my hair it's so very sore!

 

Bad hair day for me then!

 

Scully

x

[Christina]

Glad to hear it Lori! The soreness it leaves should also go in few days, but scalp soreness is not nice!

[vix]

I suffer from that all the time scully, I dont know if you remember me posting about it many many months ago, the pain would double me over?

 

Now that I am under a new neuro and as soon as I told him about it and that my old neuro wouldnt do anything about it, he put me straight onto pregablin. and so far I still get the occasional "blip" where the pain hits for a day but no where near as often as I use too

 

Good luck

 

xx

[lavender]

hey scully , yeah very common thing for me , abit disturbing at first but just use to them now . very accepting folk us ms folk , or is it just we have no bloody choice ! lol , oops theres one now , could be reminding me i need to get off line and do some work ha,, ha xxx.

[Dianni]

Hi Scully

 

I too get the pain you describe and it always leaves me with a sore scalp, almost as if I've been scalded. My GP, who consulted with my MS nurse, said it's definitely a neuropathic pain and I could increase the dose of pregabalin, but in all honesty, in the big scheme of things, although it flipping hurts at the time, so far it hasn't lasted long enough to warrant me doing so.

 

Hope you feel loads better and the sore scalp has gone too.

 

 

Hugs

 

Di

 

xxx

 

 

 

 

 

[Marina]

Sorry to be jumping in late, I'm technically "off forum" for a while whilst deeply immersed in other work or "resting" after all the work with the forum upgrade and from a horrible new symptom I've been having all year.

 

I get this too, a LOT. It feels as if a vein or something suddenly exploded. I usually get it on making some (very) small movement of the head and then, bang! I get hit with it. But I don't get a sore scalp from it. I do get all sorts of other head pains, which are acutely painful and not headaches as such, terrifying but apparently not dangerous (according to MRIs last year). I had these head pains non-stop for months, together with neck pains. Just turning in bed could wake me and make me shriek out. We're not 100% sure what causes them, but seems it might be a combination of teeth/facial problems and my having developed cervical spondylosis. I was sent for physio, and had a machine attached to me with 6 large damp pads, a bit like a huge TENS mixed in with shortwave diathermy (I forget the name of it) which helped a bit even if not entirely. Any form of manipulation or massage, however gentle, would make it worse, which was something my neuro warned might happen. The big head pains then went a few months later but pop back to visit me from time to time. Neuro also wondered if it might not be part of my TN. I was supposed to go in for steroid jabs into my neck for it, but as it calmed down a bit and as I've already been in hospital twice this year, I don't feel like yet more stays in hospital right now

 

The "ice pick" type of pain - I've had that since I was a teenager, when my very first one or two symptoms started. It was also what started off what I call the "mother of all headaches" which eventually led to my DX. I had the ice pick shot of pain, but this time it was followed by a whopping head pain where I thought my head was going to explode on certain movements or with each foot step I took. It went on for days, then was less severe but still felt like electric shocks and concussion at the same time, and affected my vision. Took me 5 weeks before I went to a doctor about it (silly me)! CAT scans and MRIs showed nothing untoward except the lesions that led to my DX. If I hadn't had that head pain so severely and the MRI, I might still be in the Limboland I was previously in for years...

 

Unfortunately, I can't take Gabapentin or Pregabalin because of the side-effects. Tegretol, which I sometimes take for my TN, seemed to help for a while then the head pains came back so I blamed it on the Tegretol. I still don't know if the Tegretol made it better or worse!

 

Either way, I'd still get it checked out, as the reason I finally did so when I had the "mother of all headaches" was because someone had said to me that it sounded exactly like the symptoms a friend of theirs had when they'd had an aneurysm, so it scared the bejasus out of me at the time. It does tend to feel like something like that, though, so best to check it out?

 

There's a small description here about a type of headache known as "ice pick headache" http://www.healthcentral.com/migraine/types-of-headaches-35919-5.html. I thought I had other links but can't find them at the moment.