Stabbing head pain-occipital neuralgia?

Montana mom said...
For the last four days I had the stabbing pain headache about 20 times a day located about my left ear. This morning it moved over the above the right ear. I became very dizzy for about 30 minutes, was nauseated with emesis, and couldn't stand. Within an hour and a half the stabbing pain and dizziness left but I have had a generalized headache all over for 8 hours. These stabbing headaches have never progressed to this point. I have checked out occipital and trigeminal - but the locations are not similar to mine. Any help?

Occipital neuralgia symptoms can be weird, fatiguing and very painful, not to mention anxiety-producing.  I was diagnosed (after a normal MRI and CT scan) with occipital neuralgia several years ago.  Previous to the diagnosis I endured some disturbing and frightening symptoms for several months: stabbing pain in the top and back of my scalp, a near constant uncomfortable tingling/itching all over my scalp, and, most disturbing of all, frequent bouts of burning, searing pain in the back of my head accompanied by a really creepy "dripping" sensation, as if fluid was running down inside the back of my head. 

My doctor really didn't offer much help in dealing with this nightmarish situation other than to say it would eventually go away.   Not long thereafter, it did indeed go away, but not without some effort on my part.  I had discovered that there was a slightly swollen area behind my left ear at the top of my neck (where it meets the skull) that also felt sensitive to the touch.   I began to think that maybe this swollen area was somehow related to my neuralgia symptoms.   Somewhere on the internet--I can no longer find where-- I found a reference to holding an ice cube directly on the spot of any swelling as a technique for treating symptoms of occipital neuralgia.  Thankfully, after a few days of this "therapy" (pressing one normal sized ice cube to the swollen area and letting it completely melt, once a day), the swelling shrank and the symptoms went away. 

Since then, every year or so I will feel a twinge of the symptoms coming back.  When this happens, I just revert to the ice cube technique for a couple of consecutive evenings and this nips the problem in the bud. 

It's frustrating that the medical establishment really had no answers for me and I basically was left to figure out how to deal with it all on my own.  But thankfully, I did figure it out and can now easily deal with it. 

I understand that the symptoms and causes of occipital neuralgia can vary widely from person to person, but hopefully my rather strange experience can be helpful to someone else in dealing with a similarly strange situation.

Initially, it started off as an intense pain extending from my temples, back over my ears, accompanied by dizziness and a very infrequent temperature (I got a high temperature twice in 2 weeks).... the headache and dizziness would be constant, not periodic, and neither painkillers nor anti-inflammatories had any effect. This was then quickly accompanied by what I can only describe as muscle tension behind my eyes (the optician checked it out and said that there was no visible damage/strain and that this was not a cause for the pain in my head). I visited the doctor at this point, who could find nothing visibly wrong with me and told me to go home and give it another week (she didnt prescribe me anything - she just told me to give it time). 2 weeks later the dizziness left me but the headache remained and had developed into muscle tension on the left side of my face. 3 days later the left side of my face and neck went numb, and then switched to the right side a week later. I would occassionally get dizzy for 10-15 mins when the pain got more severe. At this point I went to see a Chiropractor and a massage therapist who worked on my neck to release tension, but ultimately this didnt solve the problem. The numbness in the face left after another week and at the moment no other symptoms aside from the constant severe headache have developed.

I have visited 2 different doctors and after 5 visits with no results or action being taken (aside from blood tests which came back normal), they said I probably had a case of neuralgia, (they didnt specify which nerve - im thinking trigeminal because of the facial numbness?) caused either by a viral infection or stress. At the same time they were trying to tell me that I was probably grinding my teeth at night, even though my teeth showed no visible sign of it (to the extent of which it would cause a headache of this chronic severity)... Again, they were unwilling to do anything with me and told me to simply wait another month (without prescribed painkillers or anti-inflammatories, since neuralgia generally resists conventional painkillers)...... that was 6 weeks ago!

I dont know what to do! Advice, PLEASE?!!

When I was on low dosages of nuerontin and amitriptylene, I was so tired all the time that I could barely get through the day.  Didn't even have the want to lift my arms or legs.  I could sit in place for hours without moving.  I decided to stop all prescribed meds about 3 months ago.  I now ice and take Aleve.  My energy level returned to normal.  The ice-pick sensations on the left side of my head have sort of gone into remission for the moment.  Still very sore and sensitive around my neck and back of left side of head.  I have a small traction-like neck apparatus that gives me a lot of relief - I use it 2 times per day - stretching my neck for 15 minutes at a time. 

Back in 2003, I was in Hawaii and had a haircut.  For 4 weeks after that, I couldn't touch or comb my hair on the left top without extreme pain.  It slowly went away.  I got another minor attack about 4 years later that lasted for 2 weeks.  I took 2 Aleve per day during the attack.  One doctor thought it was shingles, but couldn't really document it and the tests came back negative.  Another doctor thought it was related to occipital neuralgia.