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What Causes Severe Chronic Headache With History Of VP Shunt Surgery?
Question: Hi, my name is XXXXXX. I'm 39 years old. In 1998 I had a vp shunt because the brain ventricles were 4 times regular size. After operation everything went back to normal. I do regular mri as check up and everything seems to be fine. i was also diognised with becet desease as i was having giant ulcers in my mouth only and was on medication for couple of years but then i decided to stop medication as I wasn't really convinced! The problem is that I suffer from severe daily chronic headache that I believe is related to stress.
I own a gaming company and I work from 8 to 8 and I don't exercise often. I tried accupuncture. went for 4 sessions but this doesn't seem to help.
painkillers are not helping anymore.
I own a gaming company and I work from 8 to 8 and I don't exercise often. I tried accupuncture. went for 4 sessions but this doesn't seem to help.
painkillers are not helping anymore.
Brief Answer:
Could not be due to shunt failure
Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX Thanks for asking to healthcaremagic.
I am Dr.Senduran,General physician, hope to answer your query.
History noted well.As you are following up regularly post VP shunt surgery,headache because of any recurrence or shunt failure is unlikely.
In my opinion,Work related stress could be a possible cause for chronic headache(Tension headache)
I would like to suggest few things to prevent and treat this.
1)Sleep adequately at least 7 hours a day
2)Take few relaxation interval of 5 to 10 minutes during work time
3)Try to Indulge in recreational activities like going on trip,fishing etc
4)Eat healthy nutritious food(Include fruits mainly in your daily diet)
5)Try meditation and relaxation exercises to get relieve from stress,anxiety.A psychiatrist consult would be more beneficial.
6)A lower effective dose combination drug of Acetaminophen and hydrocodone(Vicodin) would help in reducing the severe head ache.Your family physician or any local physician should be known about this.
Hope I have answered your query. If any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.Take care.Wish you good health.
Could not be due to shunt failure
Detailed Answer:
Hello XXXXXXX Thanks for asking to healthcaremagic.
I am Dr.Senduran,General physician, hope to answer your query.
History noted well.As you are following up regularly post VP shunt surgery,headache because of any recurrence or shunt failure is unlikely.
In my opinion,Work related stress could be a possible cause for chronic headache(Tension headache)
I would like to suggest few things to prevent and treat this.
1)Sleep adequately at least 7 hours a day
2)Take few relaxation interval of 5 to 10 minutes during work time
3)Try to Indulge in recreational activities like going on trip,fishing etc
4)Eat healthy nutritious food(Include fruits mainly in your daily diet)
5)Try meditation and relaxation exercises to get relieve from stress,anxiety.A psychiatrist consult would be more beneficial.
6)A lower effective dose combination drug of Acetaminophen and hydrocodone(Vicodin) would help in reducing the severe head ache.Your family physician or any local physician should be known about this.
Hope I have answered your query. If any further questions, don't hesitate to ask.Take care.Wish you good health.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Raju A.T
I sleep 7-9 hours a day
I take relaxation intervals as much as possible but even in my weekends I'm in pain.
I go for vacation every couple of months with my family. And I eat fruits and veggies daily.
let me give you more info about the pain... it starts before I open my eyes and sometimes it wakes me up during night. pain continues all day till night... sometimes becoming unbearable. One thing I noticed, if for any reason I get confronted with something sudden. such as pedestrian crossing the road suddenly in front me while I'm driving the ache becomes unbearable and pulsive for couple of minutes before it goes back to normal levels of pain.i we don't have psychiatrists reliable in our country. I was thinking to get into deanxiet medication.
Please let me know what you think
I take relaxation intervals as much as possible but even in my weekends I'm in pain.
I go for vacation every couple of months with my family. And I eat fruits and veggies daily.
let me give you more info about the pain... it starts before I open my eyes and sometimes it wakes me up during night. pain continues all day till night... sometimes becoming unbearable. One thing I noticed, if for any reason I get confronted with something sudden. such as pedestrian crossing the road suddenly in front me while I'm driving the ache becomes unbearable and pulsive for couple of minutes before it goes back to normal levels of pain.i we don't have psychiatrists reliable in our country. I was thinking to get into deanxiet medication.
Please let me know what you think
Brief Answer:
Likely to be Tension type headache with migraine component.
Detailed Answer:
Hello again,thanks for the updated information.
The persistent pain pattern throughout the day,impulsive nature of pain i.e sudden short period of acute unbearable pain relates to the association of migraine headache component with chronic tension type headache.This is usually called as chronic migraine(but it actually resembles tension head ache with typical migraine like episodes).
For this,you need medications to prevent such acute episodes with migraine prophylaxis drugs like flunarizine or propanolol.For acute unbearable pain episodes,you can use either vicodin or triptan class drugs like sumatriptan which are commonly used in acute pain episodes of migraine.
However the main underlying component your head ache(i.e anxiety,stress) can be relieved with anti-anxiety drugs like low effective dose of modern SSRI's (like escitalopram)and/or short course of benzodiazepine(like clonazepam) class drugs under doctor's advice(preferably psychiatrist's supervision)
I would not suggest to go for deanxiet as it is associated with lot of side effects and also its one of the banned medications in few countries like US XXXXXXX etc
Kindly discuss this with a neurologist/psychiatrist to confirm the diagnosis and also for any of the above prescription.Hope this answers your query.If you feel query is complete,please rate the answer and close this discussion or else get back
Take care.Wish you good health.
Likely to be Tension type headache with migraine component.
Detailed Answer:
Hello again,thanks for the updated information.
The persistent pain pattern throughout the day,impulsive nature of pain i.e sudden short period of acute unbearable pain relates to the association of migraine headache component with chronic tension type headache.This is usually called as chronic migraine(but it actually resembles tension head ache with typical migraine like episodes).
For this,you need medications to prevent such acute episodes with migraine prophylaxis drugs like flunarizine or propanolol.For acute unbearable pain episodes,you can use either vicodin or triptan class drugs like sumatriptan which are commonly used in acute pain episodes of migraine.
However the main underlying component your head ache(i.e anxiety,stress) can be relieved with anti-anxiety drugs like low effective dose of modern SSRI's (like escitalopram)and/or short course of benzodiazepine(like clonazepam) class drugs under doctor's advice(preferably psychiatrist's supervision)
I would not suggest to go for deanxiet as it is associated with lot of side effects and also its one of the banned medications in few countries like US XXXXXXX etc
Kindly discuss this with a neurologist/psychiatrist to confirm the diagnosis and also for any of the above prescription.Hope this answers your query.If you feel query is complete,please rate the answer and close this discussion or else get back
Take care.Wish you good health.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Prasad
Answered by
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