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Questions posted in the
Neurology and Neurosurgery Forum have been answered by doctors from The Cleveland Clinic Foundation.
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Subject: Re: Chronic Head Pain : I wrote to you several months ago about toxic inhalation of paint fumes from a wood stove. Your reply wass since the doctors ran all the tests including Brain MRI/contrast Spinal Mri Ct and Spinal Puncture that it appeared all the bases were covered and that was probably not the cause . Today I'm on Zoloft which seems to block the pain most of the time but theres is still a constant pain in my forehead area. Iam wondering if this is related to the optic nerve since one of the homepages that I tapped into indicated that one of the chemicals in spray paint is either toluene or xylene which according to htis site can damage the optic nerve. My eye is sensitive to glare (never used to be). Also I forgot to tell that one of my reading on the spinal tap indicated a protein level that was slightly out of the normal range. (norm 10-42) mine was at 43.5. What might this indicated? My neurologist says if it was 80 or 90 we would need to be concerned nut not at thae range it's at. I still have paraesthia in my arms and legs (comes and goes) but everything else is still functional. I still have to occasionally take excedrin. My questions are: Have all the tests been conducted that you know of ( I also had both VEP's and they are ok). And what about damage to CNS, maybe something deep inside the brain or nervous system that might not show up on a tes. And finally, When someone has experienced this type of condition can they still live a normal life period (I am 40) with chronic head pain or is this a life shortening condition.
I doubt if the incident with the fumes has anything to do with your symptoms, optic nerve damage would manifest as visual problems, not as pain in this distribution. Pain sensation to the forehead is carried via an entirtly different nerve , the trigeminal. The CSF protein is so marginally outside the usual range that it is unlikely to be of any significance. Damage deep inside the brain would be seen on a MRI scan , and in any case would not presemt itself as forehead pain , so you can be reassured on this score.Chronic head pain if it is not associated with a clear underlying process such as a brain tumor (excluded by the MRI scan )is not associated with life shortening. The response to Zoloft suggests that this does not have a serioyus organic basis.
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