Migraine

I started having daily headaches 3 months ago. My neck was tender to touch and was stiff at the beginning. Since then, I have had CT of head and neck, MRI of head and neck, x-ray of neck, CT-angiogram of head and neck, and blood tests. Everything was negative. I have not had a headache for 2 weeks. I have learned that when I lean my head backwards, turn my head quickly, or get stressed I can feel the headache starting at my neck and into the crown of my head. When these were at their worst, my forhead was numb and the crown of my head felt like it had pins sticking into it.
PT was prescribed and made the headaches worse. Dr gave me Darvon and it took 2 pills with bedrest to stop the pain.
I do have bulging discs in my cervical and thoracic spine, but Spine Dr does not think it is causing the pain. After all negative tests, the neurologist suggested taking imiramine at bedtime to prevent headaches.
In addition, I have been in menopause for 8+ years and have not slept all night in 8 years. I do have stress in my life, but have never had headaches like these.
ANY SUGGESTIONS OUT THERE?

Hello meschow and welcome to our forum family! Our goal is to provide everyone with the information and support that we all need to manage our Migraines and/or headaches. To that end, we consider this a “safe harbor,” where nobody tries to sell us anything, and we all use “family-friendly” language so parents are comfortable letting their children read the forum with them.

Please take a few minutes to review our policies and guidelines along with the other information in the START HERE folder. For information about Migraines, a good article to begin with is Learning About Migraines - Where to Start.

Let me get you started with an article listing different types of headaches and Migraines that you can go through and find which one "fits" you best:

• Types of Migraines and Headache

For me, sleep plays a major part in triggering my Migraines. I normally wake up with my Migraines and if I've had a rough night of broken sleep or a bout of insomnia, I'm always almost guaranteed a Migraine. My doctor prescribed a medication to help me sleep at night and although I still wake up, I don't stay awake and I'm getting into a deeper sleep. I can tell because I'm dreaming.

You can take a look at this video by Migraine Specialist, Dr. Krusz:

• Migraines, Headaches, and Sleep

As for stress being a trigger, there's still some controversy, but you may want to try and see if you encounter triggers during stressful times that you either don't encounter at other times or you only trigger when the body is stressed. The International Headache Society has removed stress from their list of Migraine triggers and put it on their list of exacerbating factors -- things that make us more susceptible to our triggers. You may want to keep a very detailed Headache/Migraine Diary for a few months. You can find more information in Is Stress a Migraine Trigger?. I hope you'll thoroughly investigate this as I think we do ourselves a real disservice by thinking stress is a trigger for us and not looking closely for other triggers during stressful times.

Again, welcome to the forum! I look forward to seeing you around and if you have any questions, just ask, we're here to help

Hi, meschow! Add a droolie welcome to Laura's welcome.

Several of us deal with neck issues around here, and pretty much every one of us that I've seen scribble about neck issues mention being triggered from them. I don't think I have any bulging disks, but I do have some annoying crackling and popping and alignment issues, thanks to a couple of ill-fated visits to the wrong kind of chiropractor for me a few years back. I've got my biggest issue at T2, where the vertebrae shift against each other and catch from time to time. Usually there isn't any pain, but it does trigger me migraine-wise on bad neck days. Sometimes it does get sore, but not often. Mostly it's just uncomfortable. I am working with a different chiropractor now, who is very gentle, and I am seeing progress.

Tension from neck issues can not only lead to tension headache, but the tension can also help to trigger migraine, so that you end up with one or the other type of head pain, or a combo of both tension and migraine at once. Those are a picnic with way too many ants! Been there. Done that. Eek!

I think if I was in your place, I'd do a couple of things. The first thing would be to ask about the possibility of a pinched nerve somewhere that might be contributing to the pain. I'd be wondering if the leaning over and the like was simply impinging a nerve more than usual and helping to trigger pain. The other thing I'd probably do would be to get a second opinion, knowing that so many of us with neck issues tend to trigger from them. It's not always easy to sort these things out. You might even try consulting a chiropractor, but if you do, you might call around and ask about technique. With bulging disks and the like, you wouldn't want the kind of chiropractor that does "wrenching" and twisting kind of techniques.