Shooting Pain in scalp

[kittycat777]

Hello, need help and advice. First let me say that I'm a 57-year-old female, and we have no insurance.  So I need to know what to do. Presently I am experiencing very sharp pains on the left side of my head,  One spot that hurts a lot to touch is above my left ear kind of at an angle. Even if I comb my hair, it's painful. If I move my hair, it's painful.  Right at this moment it's not hurting, but it is a little sore. It's been waking me up like at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, so I have to get up, take a Motrin and put the heating pad on it. The heat seems to help. I woke up this morning again at 3:00 a.m. and it was also hurting at the base of my skull at the back. Sometimes it's tender at my left temple area.  However, I've had very similar pain before, but it was on the opposite side of my head, although not in the same area. The last time I had this pain was maybe 6 months to almost a year ago on the right side. It hurt near my ear, then about an inch above my ear on my scalp and into a little bit of my jaw. It also hurt behind my ear near my skull. I'm thankful that I haven't had the pain much recently, because the last time that I had the pain on the right-hand side of my head, it happened again like 2 weeks apart.

Anyway, I've tried to research, is this TN, is it occipital neuralgia, is it something else?  So I don't really know what to do yet. It's so painful, and the pain was about at a 7 or 8 on the pain scale at 3:00 a.m.  Then I was in Bible study yesterday, and it started again around 2:00 p.m.  I need some advice.  What could this pain be? I know that you can't diagnose me.  Also, back when I was like 21, I had this pain, but it was a lot milder and was almost on the top of my head, but not quite. It, again, hurt to touch my hair. But it didn't last very long at that time.

So any advice is appreciated.

Thanks

[Kricklen]

Did you ever find out what was causing this? I've been having the same thing, it happens once every few months and has been happening for years. My doctor recently "diagnosed" me with fibromyalgia but I don't think that is what I have.. And would really like some answers :/

[kittycat777]

Dear Dr. Srivastava,

I appreciate your reply.  It's a difficult pain to explain on my head because it's not really like a headache at all.  Usually what I consider a headache is a pain inside my head.  I've had headaches with the flu and just very occasionally do I have headaches.  Maybe doctors still consider this a headache, though.

It's also not a constant pain.  It's kind of intermittent, maybe every few seconds.  It feels like a shooting pain, maybe like an electrical shock-type pain.  

Also, it's kind of settled down.  So I decided that I'm going to keep a journal of when this happens.  It's still a little sore, but the actual shooting/shock pain has settled down.  If it happens again, I'll have to figure out how to pay for an MRI, I guess.

Again, thanks for your reply.

[Dr. A. Srivastava]

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

It may be due to either temporal arteritis or occipital neuralgia condition. In temporal arteritis condition headache is usually concentrated in the one region of your head and it is tender to touch and things like combing your hair may be painful. But in addition to this for any persistent headaches, possibilities like migrainous, cluster, tension and refractive errors that need to be evaluated thoroughly with the help of a neurologist here. Migraine like headache can be throbbing, one sided of face & head and preceded by aura (starts with blurred vision). Cluster headache may appear as burning, explosive in nature and tear appears from eyes. Tension headache originates with stress and anxiety disorder. Please arrange an appointment with a neurologist right away who will evaluate the further underlying disorders by clinically examine you & ordering MRI or CT scan here that may be the main reasons of your headache attacks & other symptoms and can provide you an appropriate treatment. Hope this information proves helpful to you. Take Care & Regards!!!

[theasian]

it could be tension headaches. have you had your head/neck in at funny angles for extended periods of time or are you one of those whose shoulders get extremely tensed up when you are stressed? those could be causes of tension headache, if it even is that. the fact that motrin and a heat pad help means its most probably muscular in nature hence why i say a tension headache.
hope that helps. take care