Cervicogenic Migraine

I have been suffering from headaches which morph into migraines for the last 19 years, but only this year have learned what they actually were. After visiting neurologists, orthopedists, you name it, I happened to be on a cruise and was hit with one of these debilitating headaches. They begin in the left side of my neck or skull (although they can also be experienced on the right side for some people) and they escalate into the most unbearable pain in my whole head, followed by vomiting. I have tried migraine meds, heat, cold, chiropractic, pain meds, and physical therapy, and nothing stopped these headaches from occurring. Back to the cruise...I had no choice but to go to the ship's doctor, who immediately diagnosed (without imaging) cervicogenic migraine, based on my history and symptoms. Once I got back home, I found my way to a neurosurgeon who referred me to a pain clinic, where I was given epidural steroid injections. I came to learn that the headaches were caused by neck injury (either traumatic or degenerative, in my case) which was inflaming and pinching nerves in my cervical spine, starting the headache and accelerating into a full-blown migraine (something that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy). These migraines don't respond to medication, and the only relief can be gotten from going to the E.R. for a pain injection. The epidural injections are designed to prevent the episodes from occurring. Has anyone else out there experienced these types of headaches??

You may very well be having the same type of migraines that I'm suffering from. However, mine don't occur every night - I can go for months without one. If I can catch it while it is still originating in the neck, I can take a dose of Hydrocodone and that will usually stop the process. However, once it progresses into a full-fledged migraine, I've not found anything that will help and I know that my next 24 hours are going to be horrendous.

This thread hasn't been active lately, but I didn't want your post to go unanswered, so I'll tell you what I have done. I have been dealing with this since 1996 and nothing that the doctors have done has worked. I am scheduled to go for an epidural injection in two weeks, and although I have had them before and they didn't prevent the episodes, I am trying it again with a different doctor. I also have recently been given Ketorolac, which I take with a hydrocodone, and though I haven't had a severe headache while taking this combination, it has helped a not-so-severe one.

I waver between believing that my headaches are coming from the deteriorating disks in my cervical spine, or coming from the musculature in that area. I haven't found a doctor who seems willing to address the musculature, though one did send me for physical therapy. At physical therapy, I was given a neck device for stretching that back part of my neck where the headaches begin.

I don't know whether any of this sounds familiar to you, but I just wanted you to know that you are not out there alone.

Thank you, thank you! I found this thread and now have a name for my headaches!! I have degenerative disc disease in my neck with herniated disc, stenosis, and bone spurs. The last six months I have been dealing with headaches that are increasing in frequency and pain level. I can move it the wrong way and get a thoroughly nasty one, otherwise they are a steady pain. Not a migraine type yet, but I am suddenly getting ones that make looking at anything hurt. No nausea.

I rarely ever got headaches in my life before this started. Usually sinus headaches once in a while. But now I have a name to research and take to my team of docs! This is why I love this site!!