kephalalgia

[rone]

I get headaches often, of all sorts: sinus headaches, tension headaches, hunger headaches, dehydration headaches, allergic headaches, throbbing headaches, even the rare full-blown migraine.  They occur on the temples, at the forehead, up top, behind the ears, or any combination.  They are sometimes photophobic, phonophobic, rarely both.  Sometimes i'll get a headache if i need to go take a dump.  I don't get caffeine withdrawal headaches anymore, now that i've cut back, but those were insidious.  I've had headaches for as long as i can remember, and Excedrin (or its generic analogue) has been my constant companion (Bufferin when i was a kid; Mom and Dad didn't want me on caffeine); as a result, i'm intimately acquainted with the anti-headache pressure points along the neck, face, and hands.  I hate headaches because they're, at best, distracting, and, at worst, utterly debilitating.  If i had a magical wish, i think i'd definintely banish my headaches.

Comments

[merde.livejournal.com]

ugh. that sucks.

Excedrin is loaded up with caffeine... my ex-husband had chronic headache issues, and took a lot of caffeine-enhanced aspirin, and i always wondered whether the problem wasn't being exacerbated by backlash or caffeine withdrawal. have you tried detoxing yourself for a couple of weeks to see if it helps?

[schwa242.livejournal.com]

I used to get them all the time, some so bad they made me vomit. But, about seven years ago, they stopped. I don't know what changed, but I wish for mystic transformation that occured to find your head so that it can stop hurting too.

-- Schwa ---

I think I'm better at sleeping proper amounts now compared to back then... not too much and not too little.

When I was 8 or 9

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

I had terrible headaches, sometimes from sinus pressure, other times just from noise. This was before we knew about Reye's syndrome, and I grew to love aspirin (and hate acetaminophen, which made me feel feverish), but I also knew that sinus headaches would just keep coming back, especially since I get terrible bounceback from decongestants.

When I learned that headaches were caused by muscle tension, I just started working on teaching myself to relax the muscles in my face--all the time, not in response to pain. Within a couple weeks, I stopped having headaches, and I've almost never had them again. I still had pain from sinus pressure, but never throbbing or engulfing pain.

Meanwhile, my mother developed migraines in compensation.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

There was some definite improvement once i learned to relax my jaw muscles, which i did to combat nighttime teethgrinding.

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Hint: these are all migraines. You are just identifying different triggers and different manifestations. Sinus headache probably does not actually exist - pain from inflamed sinuses is very rare and in no way resembles a headache.

You probably need prophylaxis. Hit me up some time via IM or IRC or something and we can chat about it if you like.

Sinus pain

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

does trigger muscular headaches, too. That's what I used to have all the time. Everything he describes sounds like muscle tension to me.

Re: Sinus pain

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Nah, I doubt it. Tension headache and sinus headache are marketing labels dreamt up to sell over-the-counter drugs. "Sinus headache" doesn't even exist in Europe, did you know that? No one - patient or practitioner - has ever heard of it. Recent study in Neurology suggested that 96% of things patients called 'sinus headaches' were actually migraines. Based on my experience I'd guess that's an underestimate.

Re: Sinus pain

[2wanda.livejournal.com]

I've had a sinus headache before, several times as a matter of fact. What I mean is, a headache caused by a sinus infection. It feels pretty much like your face is going to fall off. Not really a headache at all.

That's pretty interesting what you are saying about recent studies in neurology. I'd like to read the source material that you base this statement on. Care to provide a link?

I have minor sinus pain RIGHT NOW

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

and I'm fighting off tension in that muscle that runs diagonally across the right temple as I type. I know from my childhood (and lifetime, and immediate) experience that that tension produces a persistent, deep aching that's aggravated by noise.

My family doctor that gave me the most different kinds of drugs for my sinuses in my late teens was from Netherlands. The ENT I saw a few years ago about the constant pressure in my frontal sinuses was from Italy. Last I knew, those places hadn't fallen off the Continent yet.

Re: I have minor sinus pain RIGHT NOW

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

You're having a migraine. If you'd visited a neurologist instead of a surgeon, you probably wouldn't be having one right now ;)

I would still have

[vardissakheli.livejournal.com]

this chronic sinusitis, and frequent pharyngitis from postnasal drip, however.

I gave up on the ENT and the allergist, though, when they each sent me back to the other for treatment. I did finally make a breakthrough recently after Mucinex (time-release guaifenesin) went over the counter and Sino-Fresh (nasal rinse with cetylpyridinium) became available. Unfortunately, the first thing the newly exposed tissue did was to catch two colds in rapid succession, but even so I'm still much better than I was.

Re: I would still have

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

I can't comment on cetylpyridinium, but guaifenesin is an excellent migraine abortive for me, and I don't have much in the way of nasal or sinus congestive symptoms. I've not used it with patients simply because I have lots of other options.

The underlying pathology of migraine does have to do with inflammation and edema involving small arteries, though. Considering, then, migraine as a primary disorder of blood vessels, it is not too terribly surprising that the extracranial (nasal) and intracranial (brain) vessels should both get inflamed and edematous. They both spring from the common carotid and are innervated by sympathetics from the cervical stellate ganglion, after all.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

What you need is the Sinus Buster (http://sinusbuster.com/)!

Re: I have minor sinus pain RIGHT NOW

[ikkyu2.livejournal.com]

Unique Identifier
12011268

Authors
Cady RK. Schreiber CP.

Institution
Headache Care Center, Springfield, Missouri 65804, USA.

Title
Sinus headache or migraine? Considerations in making a differential diagnosis. [Review] [34 refs]

Source
Neurology. 58(9 Suppl 6):S10-4, 2002 May 14.

Local Messages
Held at HSL

Abstract
Sinus headache is commonly diagnosed, and patients with headache often cite sinus pain and pressure as a cause of their headaches. A high frequency of diagnosis of sinus headache, which specialists consider to be relatively rare, among patients meeting International Headache Society (IHS) diagnostic criteria for migraine raises the possibility that migraine and perhaps other headache types are sometimes mistaken for sinus headache. This article considers clinical, epidemiologic, and pathophysiologic relationships between sinus headache and migraine and discusses the implications for clinical management of headache. Both historic and new data show that nasal symptoms frequently accompany migraine, although these symptoms are not part of the IHS diagnostic criteria for migraine. Parasympathetic activation, as well as the hypothesized mechanism of neurogenic or immunogenic switching (i.e., crossover interactions of neurogenic and immunogenic inflammation), may account for both the frequent occurrence of nasal symptoms in migraine and the possibility that sinus inflammation can sometimes act as a migraine trigger. Considered in aggregate, the data show that the occurrence of nasal symptoms associated with a headache should neither trigger a diagnosis of sinus disease nor exclude a diagnosis of migraine. It should, in fact, prompt diagnostic consideration of both conditions.