Migraine

I finally connected something w/ my "bad" migraines. Either before I get one, during or right after I get these large sores all over my scalp. Usually about a dozen of them. They are just suddenly there and horribly painful. They get pretty big and then eventually seep clear fluid (gross i know). Then after a few days they are gone. During this time I tend to lose more head hair than normal. when I wash my hair when I have these sores I tend to pull a lot of hair out which always freaks me out a little.
When I first started going to cleveland my neurologist never seen another patient w/ these sores but on my last visit he said he now has another patient w/ the same problem and he doesnt really know what causes them. Just said it was a strange response to the migraines.

Does anyone else get sores on their scalp w/ migraines?

My heavens. Never heard of that but it I feel so bad for you as painful as it sounds. I'll bet it affects your sleep even--resting your head on a pillow, I mean.

Have you seen a dermatologist about it? I wonder what a good dermatologist would have to say. Wonder what a skin scraping would look like under a microscope?

I know that chicken pox and viruses like that--cold sores--can live at the base of nerves for decades.

Just thoughts. Keep at it and don't let your neuro's brushing you off discourage you from getting another doc to look at it.

Hedi,

How awful for you! This sounds like a great question for Ask the Clinician. I'd be really interested in Dr. Krusz's answer. Click HERE to submit the question to ATC.

Have you discussed this symptom with your primary doctor? I definitely think he/she needs to be aware.

Hedi,
What preventative are you on? When I started on Depakote the whole prodrome/aura process I have gone through when I get a migraine completely changed. I do not get sores on my head, but I get an extremely sore scalp about 2-6 hours before the 3 migraines I have had and than a very tingly scalp. I guess where I am taking this is an extreme of the scalp soreness I manifest.

The Ask the Clinician is a great idea. Seeing a demalogist is an excellent thought. Talking to your pharmacist to make sure there are not any odd medication interactions going on with your medications you are on or rare side effects of your meds that the doctor may not be aware of. It also may just be coincidental. But push to get it checked out and identified.

Take care.

Cindy

Currently I am not on a preventative. They took me off everything when they did the nerve blocks and I am waiting to get in to see the pain mgt doctor.
I did see a dermatologist when they started popping up but at that time I never made the connection to my migraines. She tried to tell me I had bugs. Gave me 3 different scripts and none helped. My family doctor wasn't much help either. So I never went back. Nothing like someone telling you that you have bugs and you know you dont. I know my neurologist said the other lady that has these had a horrible time w/ her dermatologist over them as well.
It is extremely painful. Gives the whole "tender scalp" a whole new meaning for me. I have a hard time laying my head down on anything and all I can think about when I am out is if anyone can see them. I know they can't they are never visible, always under a bunch of hair but I hate scabs, they drive me crazy.
I will ask the clinician. I would love to at least get some kinda of suggestion for these things. My head has been so bad the last 2 weeks that the sore I have right now are much worse than they normally are.

I don't get sores, per se, but I do often get zits and have herpes breakouts in odd places on my head - like right now I have one inside my nose. My sister also has had (benign) cysts on her head. None of these have been migraine-related though. My sympathies - that sounds really awful.

This is a new one on me. I've never heard of scalp breakouts with migraine.

MW mentioned chicken pox and other viruses living dormant at the bases of nerves for a long time. My totally out there on a limb guess would be that something in the inflamatory process of the migraine might be triggering something in the inflamatory process that's connected to whatever is making your scalp break out, kind of like a cascade or a domino effect. But that's just pure droolie imagination and speculation. It sounds logical, but it could all just be a bunch o' hooey, too.

That would be an interesting Ask the Clinician question.

quote:

Originally posted by dragondroolHOST:
This is a new one on me. I've never heard of scalp breakouts with migraine.

MW mentioned chicken pox and other viruses living dormant at the bases of nerves for a long time. My totally out there on a limb guess would be that something in the inflamatory process of the migraine might be triggering something in the inflamatory process that's connected to whatever is making your scalp break out, kind of like a cascade or a domino effect. But that's just pure droolie imagination and speculation. It sounds logical, but it could all just be a bunch o' hooey, too.

That would be an interesting Ask the Clinician question.

Droolie, I could buy that explanation. I know I'm much more subject to herpes breakouts when I've been stressed out, and when I've had a bad cycle of migraines my body is certainly stressed, making me more prone to herpes issues. Hedi, I would definitely keep pushing the issue until you get some answers.

I was thinking more about this. I've had kids at school before that would break out on their scalps when they were under stress. It's also quite possible to lose hair during periods of stress, particularly physical stress. My niece once lost a lot of hair during a particularly nasty viral infection she had.

Anyway, let's say a person is stressed. We all know around here that periods of stress can make us more susceptible to migraine triggers. If a person is losing hair or breaking out due to stress, but is also having migraines during that same period, it would be easy to draw a conclusion and infer that the breakouts and hair loss would be tied to the migraines, even if it really wasn't. It's just too easy to read into coincidence when looking for patterns sometimes.

Just another think aloud to consider.

quote:

Originally posted by MaxJerz:
I don't get sores, per se, but I do often get zits and have herpes breakouts in odd places on my head - like right now I have one inside my nose. ...

Every now and then I get cold sores inside my nose too. They drive me NUTS.

Every blue moon when I'll get one on my lip I feel pain along the nerve for several inches away from my lip.

Droolie your theory makes so much sense.

Hedi, this sound so bad. Does nothing help? Hot compresses maybe? This is going to sound kinda like an odd home remedy but every now and then I use hot castor oil on my hair as a conditioner (I got this from Catherine Zeta-Jones who does this to her hair). I wonder if using castor oil as a hot compress might give you some pain relief? It would certainly make your hair well-conditioned and shiny!

I don't have any suggestions or ideas as to the cause of the misery you're going through, but I wanted to add my concern and wishes for a quick explanation and resolution.

Gretchen in Mississippi

It's so weird... I was just thinking about posting something about this the other day to find out if other people experience it. I break out in little painful lumps on my head sometimes, and I've never figured out a cause. They're not very large though, and I don't think I lose hair. I only recently started wondering if it was migraine related. I'm really interested to find out what Dr. Krusz would have to say... did you end up submitting the question to "Ask the clinician?"

I did submit a question yesterday. But I did it quickly and left stuff out i think...

I have noticed the amount of sores on my head is related to how bad the migraines at that time are. The end of this last week/wkend was pretty bad so I had about a dozen sores and because of where they were my entire scalp was much more tender than normal. They are just now losing the soreness. As far as losing hair I have noticed the more sore my scalp is the more I lose hair. It isn't like its big gobs of hair but it is an obvious difference than when I normally wash my hair everyday. I keep a little pile while I shower so I can throw them away and the pile is much larger during more painful migraines. If that makes any sense.

Of course I never have the sores when I try to get into the doctor.

Isn't that always the case?

quote:

Of course I never have the sores when I try to get into the doctor

I don't have any problems with my scalp. I break out on my chest and upper arms. I think mine is from sweating while I'm laid out in bed in pain. It doesn't happen very often but when it does, it lasts a long time. I'm still recovering from my last one.

I went to a derm. and he gave me a gel to use for the breakouts. The gel works pretty good to calm it down for me.

All my best Hedi