Neurology

[beaver77]

on February 23rd I had a craniotomy to repair a non ruptured anuerysm located on the MCA behind my left eye.  6 months later I still have a headache everyday and trouble falling asleep. I am currently under the care of a neurologist. He prescribes different pills to try to help but so far I do not have any relief.  Also 5 weeks and 1 day after surgery, the neurosurgeon dismissed me and told me to go back to doing whatever I was doing prior to surgery. help

[Eddie1994]

Your symptoms seem so similar to my wife's, it's scary.  Also her Neurologist stated that I seem to be on to something after reviewing my preliminary research.  I know him very well and if my assumptions were wrong he would have told me so.

I don't know your comfort level with technology but at a high level, your clip has the same design as my wife's only different manufacturers'.  Your clip is MRI acceptable and my wife's is not.  But there are two exclusive and also complimentary forces that seem to be affecting both clips.  Magnetic fields appear to be ruled out for your clip because it is made of titanium which is not magnetically inclined so you can get MRI's.  The culprit here is the electrical field generated by numerous devices at the 60hz frequency.  My theory, and I have research to prove this, is the aneruysm clip act as small loop antennas similar to pagers.  The antennas generate electrical current at around the same hertz level.  This is how we can view television pictures.  Because the clips are installed within the cranium close by the optic nerve, electrical energy is transferred to the nervous system - hence pain.  This is the simplified version of the problem.  Again, I don't know if you are science oriented, but I do have and I more data and many more daily life devices that you may need to watch or observe.  I am hoping to find more patients that may have this type of problem so more research data can be collected.  I hope you will stay posted and help us out, it is a tedious process to tease out the information.  Thanks for listening

[beaver77]

This is pretty amazing,  because guess what I do everyday for 8-10 hours per day?
Sit in front of a computer screen.  This is my job so I have no alternative but to do it.
I do have some of the digital converter boxes but have not noticed the same impact from them like I do with the computer (or maybe my head hurts so bad from the computer I don't notice).  If I do not wake up with a headache within 1 to 2 hours, it is back to the pain meds so I can function.  Also by midday I have to put on reading glasses so the computer screen is not fuzzy.  
I would love to learn more....

[Eddie1994]

Dear Beaver77,

Thank you so much for writing back.  You really don't know how much your information means to me and my wife.  I have been searching for answers to my wife's almost daily headaches and gruesome migraines since 1994.  January 2010 was our eureka moment and every day since then the pieces to this puzzle have begun to be assembled.  

Although you and your Neurologist will not find medical literature about this phenomena anywhere, and I do mean anywhere, it seems that my wife and now you suffer from something I coined a "Electro-Magnetic Headache/Migraine".  As a simple description, I have discovered that (in my wife's case and now possibly your case) that Aneruysm Clips attract stray electrons in nearby environment and transfer this electrical field (energy) in to the nervous system via the optic nerve thereby starting the headache symptoms.  My wife's (and as I suspect in your case) clip is located adjacent to the optic nerve.  

The science and physics is too complex to discuss here right now so let me give you a couple of triggers you should watch out for.  The first is a computer screen.  This device gave us our eureuka moment.  With the screen turned off my wife will have no headache.  Turn it on and if my wife turns her surgical scar towards the screen a head pain will start in less than a minute.  The longer she remains in that position the more intense the headache becomes.  The second is the TV Digital converter box that cable companies require customers to now have.  My wife cannot be in the same room as this device.  It has a pure sine wave in the 60 hertz frequency (same as the computer screen) that transfers its energy to her clip.  If I turn off the power and disconnect the cable she has no difficulty being in that same room.  

I don't want to overwhelm you but there are more devices you need to be aware of to avoid these "Electro-Magnetic Headaches/Migraines."

Please let me know if you try the above one or two devices to see if they are contributing to your headaches.  My goal here is to try to help you and my wife and I also believe this problem is more widespread then is really known.  You will be helping them as well with any information you can provide for me.  It's unfortunate, but no one else is working on this problem.  Again thank you so much if you would help.  When you are ready to learn about the other devices, please let me know.

EDDIE 1994  

  

[beaver77]

Prior to surgery I did not have this kind of a headache, only the occasional tension headache.
I have a Sugita aneurysm clip (titanium) and I have had a MRI and MRV since surgery
If I understand correctly the bone was put together with a type of mesh that will deteriorate over time
I have this headache everyday, some days are worse than others.
And as you indicated I am having a lot of trouble with sleep.

[Eddie1994]

Beaver77,

So glad to hear it was caught before it ruptured.  My wife had a ruptured aneruysm in the same area.  She had a Yasargil Phynox Aneurysm Clip inserted and she survived.  Unfortunately she has headaches as well.  Her headaches are classified as migraines.  

Interestingly, a phenomena occurs in this region of the brain to cause headaches/migraines.  Her Neurologist admitted that this phenomena is unknown to Neurologist and because of my Physics and Engineering background he had asked me if I could conduct more research because of the findings I presented to him.    Your  headaches are real and treating them is possible.   Because you indicate similar symptoms to my wife, I believe you could help authenticate that this phenomena really does occur in patients having clips in this region.  I would be willing to provide you with some information you can share with your Neurologist if you could help answer a few general questions (no personal information is needed).  

Have you had headaches as frequently or as painfully in the years or months leading up to the surgery?

Do you know the type of aneruysm clip that was installed?    Is it called a titanium clip?  Was the manufacturer AESCULAP?

Were you told that you can or cannot have an MRI scan?

Do you know if the bone flap was reinstalled with ceramic hinges or just surgical wire?

These really are important questions and your answers could go a long way to help solve your headaches.  Also, disturbed sleep is common among patients with this type of surgery.  If you want more information about my background please look in this forum and the Aneruysm form for my forum name EDDIE1994.  I have developed a wealth of information about the after effects of this type of surgery over the last 16 years.  I hope you will consider my free offer of help.  Thank you.  EDDIE1994

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

Hi, Thank you for your question. Although without being able to examine her I can not offer you the specific advice on diagnosis and treatment that she needs, but I would try to provide you some relevant information about her health concern.

Cerebral or brain aneurysm is an abnormal widening a brain blood vessel at its weakened area. This may occur as a congenital (present since birth, familial) or may occur later in life due to injury, birth defects, or neurological disorder and it is life-threatening. Most serious consequence is stroke that may occur if this bursts in the brain. Factors that may cause this or contribute to its rupture are smoking, hypertension, head injury, family history of brain aneurysms (so sisters may have). Common symptoms could be loss of vision, headache, eye and neck pain, seizures, paralysis, gait disturbances etc. Investigations like CT angiography, MRI, CSF examination (presence of blood) are essential to reach at diagnosis here. Neurosurgery is the mainstay of treatment that may be suggested by a neurologist after examination. Hope this information proves helpful to you.

[Dr Santos]

Hi,
How are you? While it takes trial and error to determine the best pain medication suited for you, I agree with horselip that you need to have referral for pain management to help relieve your symptoms. Complementary and alternative medicine such as biofeedback therapy may also help while identifying the underlying cause. Talk to your doctor about this for proper management. Take care and do keep us posted.

[horselip]

Sorry that you are having headaches. As a fellow headaches sufferer the best thing that I ever did was to get referred to pain management. They have worked very closely with me #1 try and find the cause and #2 prescribe medication that helps with the pain.
Horselip