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Diagnosed With Ice Pick Headaches, Pain In The Same Place, Tenderness At The Site Of Pain. MRI Came Clear. Advise
Question: Gday, i've recently been diagnosed with ice pick headaches which i've been suffering for about a year now.
Sometimes its as many as a hundred a day but usually only a few.
I have been for an mri scan which came up clear and was somewhat relieved as the pain can be excruciating and to be quite XXXXXXX sometimes scares the shit out of me.
More recently it has been waking me up and the pain seems to be getting worse.
The thing that concerns me is that it is always, bar once, in the same spot, 3 inches behind my right temple and 1 inch up and the tiny area where it always happens is tender when i put a little pressure on it with my finger at all times.
I also get a tickling sensation straight after the pain that feels like a drop of water trickeling down my head from the affected area. Also 2 nights ago for the first time i woke to it happening on the top left centre side of my head.
Im also starting to get dull headaches sometimes before the ice pick headaches come on.
Im 38 years old, fit as a fiddle and have no idea why this is happening. I have never suffered from headaches and am still not convinced that this is nothing to wory about. Does this sound like normal ice pick headaches or could it be something else? Im also on arthrexin anti inflamatory's but they dont always seem to work. I will be heading back to North Western Australia to work next week where the extreme conditions seem to make it worse. What can i do or take to ease the symptems?
The pain is always short and intense like im been stabbed in the head with a scure or knife and will last anywhere from a split second to several seconds. And as i said, bar once,is always in the same spot which is always tender to touch. They did stop for a couple of weeks, but walked into a tree branch and hit my head right on the spot where i feel the pain and they have continued ever since. I didnt hit the branch all that hard , but it seems to have triggered them off again. Always the same spot. If it is ice pick headaches, why is the spot where the pain is always tender to touch and is this normal?
Sometimes its as many as a hundred a day but usually only a few.
I have been for an mri scan which came up clear and was somewhat relieved as the pain can be excruciating and to be quite XXXXXXX sometimes scares the shit out of me.
More recently it has been waking me up and the pain seems to be getting worse.
The thing that concerns me is that it is always, bar once, in the same spot, 3 inches behind my right temple and 1 inch up and the tiny area where it always happens is tender when i put a little pressure on it with my finger at all times.
I also get a tickling sensation straight after the pain that feels like a drop of water trickeling down my head from the affected area. Also 2 nights ago for the first time i woke to it happening on the top left centre side of my head.
Im also starting to get dull headaches sometimes before the ice pick headaches come on.
Im 38 years old, fit as a fiddle and have no idea why this is happening. I have never suffered from headaches and am still not convinced that this is nothing to wory about. Does this sound like normal ice pick headaches or could it be something else? Im also on arthrexin anti inflamatory's but they dont always seem to work. I will be heading back to North Western Australia to work next week where the extreme conditions seem to make it worse. What can i do or take to ease the symptems?
The pain is always short and intense like im been stabbed in the head with a scure or knife and will last anywhere from a split second to several seconds. And as i said, bar once,is always in the same spot which is always tender to touch. They did stop for a couple of weeks, but walked into a tree branch and hit my head right on the spot where i feel the pain and they have continued ever since. I didnt hit the branch all that hard , but it seems to have triggered them off again. Always the same spot. If it is ice pick headaches, why is the spot where the pain is always tender to touch and is this normal?
Hello,
Thanks for the query. The description of your headache does fit into the diagnosis of ice pick headache because of its location, short lasting duration and multiple occurrences per day. Arthrexin, which you are already on, is the treatment of first choice in this type of headache. I would also emphasize that there is not so much to worry about in this particular condition. It does causes severe symptoms,but there are no underlying serious diseases or life threatening conditions. The spot of usual headache may be tender to touch because of increased sensitivity of the skin in that particular region, which can be seen even in other types of headaches. if current medication is not giving you relief then the dosage has to increased to maximum tolerated amount and one has to consider other treatment options.
Hope that answers your query. If you have more queries, i will be happy to answer.
Good luck.
Thanks for the query. The description of your headache does fit into the diagnosis of ice pick headache because of its location, short lasting duration and multiple occurrences per day. Arthrexin, which you are already on, is the treatment of first choice in this type of headache. I would also emphasize that there is not so much to worry about in this particular condition. It does causes severe symptoms,but there are no underlying serious diseases or life threatening conditions. The spot of usual headache may be tender to touch because of increased sensitivity of the skin in that particular region, which can be seen even in other types of headaches. if current medication is not giving you relief then the dosage has to increased to maximum tolerated amount and one has to consider other treatment options.
Hope that answers your query. If you have more queries, i will be happy to answer.
Good luck.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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