Occipital Neuralgia- any other sufferers?

[robfosters]

Got a bad flare up of this lately. One of the most painful things that I’ve ever had. Even the doctor genuinely sounded like he felt sorry for me.

The pain is strange, it’s a pain that starts at the base of the skull/top of neck and shoots up to the back of the head like an electric shock. It finishes with a huge throb at the occipital lobe.

Doctor thinks it’s posture related due to me using phones and tablets for hours each day. If that is the reason, surely I can’t be the only one on here who suffers from it.

I seem to be able to manage it with painkillers, but if it gets worse or too constant, I may need further intervention. Doctor mentioned something about a needle in the head that blocks the nerve for nearly a year.

 

[Hades]

I've never had that. But when I was a lot younger I used to suffer from extremely bad migraines. Maybe once a week my vision would start to become impaired with brightly coloured triangles which would gradually get worse until they covered my entire vision. I would go blind with it but it wouldn't be a dark blindness. My vision was covered in coloured triangles moving around. Then about 30 mins later it would start to clear and be followed by the most awful pain in my head and eyes. That would take another 30 mins to subside and painkillers wouldn't solve it. I stopped getting them around late teens/early twenties. I don't know why they went away but maybe coincidentally it was when I left school and started work. Perhaps there was an environmental cause.

 

[robfosters]

I've never had that. But when I was a lot younger I used to suffer from extremely bad migraines. Maybe once a week my vision would start to become impaired with brightly coloured triangles which would gradually get worse until they covered my entire vision. I would go blind with it but it wouldn't be a dark blindness. My vision was covered in coloured triangles moving around. Then about 30 mins later it would start to clear and be followed by the most awful pain in my head and eyes. That would take another 30 mins to subside and painkillers wouldn't solve it. I stopped getting them around late teens/early twenties. I don't know why they went away but maybe coincidentally it was when I left school and started work. Perhaps there was an environmental cause.

Snap, I had that exact same thing until I was about 16. In secondary school they had a medical room with a couple of A&E type beds. They used to let me lay on them in the dark when I got a migraine. The vision is almost like a kaleidoscope that moves across your vision and makes you feel sick.

 

[Feek]

Just be aware of the rules regarding medical threads please, don't get too detailed in here.

 

[[HB]Rugrat]

Got a bad flare up of this lately. One of the most painful things that I’ve ever had. Even the doctor genuinely sounded like he felt sorry for me.

The pain is strange, it’s a pain that starts at the base of the skull/top of neck and shoots up to the back of the head like an electric shock. It finishes with a huge throb at the occipital lobe.

Doctor thinks it’s posture related due to me using phones and tablets for hours each day. If that is the reason, surely I can’t be the only one on here who suffers from it.

I seem to be able to manage it with painkillers, but if it gets worse or too constant, I may need further intervention. Doctor mentioned something about a needle in the head that blocks the nerve for nearly a year.

I have trigeminal neuralgia - it's in remission most of the time but every so often it appears without warning (and without anything obvious triggering it) and then disappears just as suddenly a random length of time later. Living with that type of pain is horrible so, for what it's worth, you have my sympathies

 

[Rroff]

Doctor thinks it’s posture related due to me using phones and tablets for hours each day. If that is the reason, surely I can’t be the only one on here who suffers from it.

Your description does sound a lot like posture, etc. related - possibly some tension you don't realise is building up due to other factors - a lot of us actually are quite tensed up - for instance a lot of people kind of semi-clench their jaws normally and don't even realise.

I have to be a bit careful in adjusting the seat when driving as I can get similar, though very mild in comparison, after a few hours.

 

[Pigeon_Killer]

Just googled this and I'm pretty sure I used to suffer from it all the time.

Neck ache, headache at the back and to one side of the head, a sensation like mild pins and needles on one side of the scalp and a difficulty concentrating.

I'm pretty sure mine was caused by my bedroom TV being on the wall to the right of my computer so I was always twisting my neck to watch it. Just wasn't sure if it was muscle or nerve related.

Barely happens now but I also changed from sleeping with two pillows to one so my head and neck are flatter in bed.