chronic tension headache and tingling burning pain

[Danly]

Hi,

I m desperately looking for help after seeing tons of neurologist and neuro surgeon about my daily chronic tension headache and tingling burning pain on my left side of body after a seizure last year due to a brain aneurysm. I m since on 400mg of tegretol cr daily and i suspected tegretol is the cause of my suffering. Any personal experience  or advise to help ? All scans and test turn out fine.

[Danly]

Hi,

I have tried switching to keppra but had bad anxiety and depression. Was given topamax but don't dare to try because of its side effects that include paresthesia and weight lost. I m already very skinny all the while and having severe left body paresthesia. I m beginning to suspect I have chronic fibromyalgia but can't find the right treatment to reduce the pain :(

[Se777en]

Ask your doctor about Topomax. It's not only used to prevent seizures, but it also is used for treating migraines. It's also used for weight loss. The drawback? It can make you pretty spacey. I had to get off of it, and switched to Keppra, which I've found to have the least side effects out of the meds I've tried (Tegritol, Dilantin, Lamictal, Topomax, and Keppra)

[Danly]

Hi,
I m currently having chronic stinging numbness pain in my whole left body (head to toe) that causing me not being able to sit, stand or walk. My neck and lower back are the worst. I have reduce my tegretol dosage where the tension headache is better and now only on 75mg of lyrica and 0.5mg of ativan to help my pain but they are not helping much. All neurologist said mine is not a MS base on just physical examination without any further test. Help!

[Adult Neurology, M.D.]

Thanks for using the forum. I am happy to address your questions, and my answer will be based on the information you provided here. Please make sure you recognize that this forum is for educational purposes only, and it does not substitute for a formal office visit with a doctor.

Without the ability to examine and obtain a history, I cannot tell you what the exact cause of the symptoms is. However I will try to provide you with some useful information.

You have not described details of these symptoms so I wont be able to give specific answers.

If you have a seizure then I would advise you to continue taking Tegretol for now. Headache is not a common side effect of Tegretol, it would be unusual to have it. However, if you feel the headache is clearly related to the Tegretol then I would advise seeing a neurologist specializing in Headache in order to figure out what kind of headache you have. You appear to have been given a diagnosis of  chronic tension headache. For daily headaches, some patients sometimes use daily over the counter painkillers (Tylenol, Ibuprofen etc) or opiod medications (like Vicodin or Percocet) which causes something called a medication overuse headache. The daily use of the painkillers actually starts contributing to the headache. I don’t know how many painkillers you take for the headache, whether this applies to you

It is difficult to tell you more about the left side body pain without details but I hope the information for the headache is useful

Thank you for this opportunity to answer your questions, I hope you find the information I have provided useful, good luck.