carotid artery aching

[bruce711]

The left side of my neck, where I believe the carotid artery is located, has been hurting for about 1 week. Any ideas?

[pink_26]

I have similar problems for almost three weeks  my left side of my neck hurts it also causes my ear and head to hurt on my left side it's really more like pressure on my neck and its very uncomfortable.. does anyone kno what it could b or have any have suggestions... plz help me out..

[Gina499]

I have  been plagued with pain in my carodid artery for years now. At first it was so bad it was diagnosed as temporal arteritis or something from my brain, I was put on large doses of prednisone , the pain finally subsided and it was thought that ( after many MRIs and sonograms ) it was carotdynia ( painful carotid artery).I have had many tests,and all I can say, is please don't panic, it is an awful burden ,sometimes the pain is so bad I feel like I am going to die, I can not swallow, blink ,cough or lay down w/o extreme pain, a sneeze could take a long time to recover from. Supposedley, once you have it, a good dose of steroids will do the trick,and it won't come back,not so in my case.My advice is : see a doctor who really gets it.So many write it off as a migraine or something.The doctor who really helped me the most was an immunolologist,he put me through many tests( angiogram etc) to make sure my large arteies were ok. This is not the most common thing,but it is real. Unfortunatley the only thing that helps my pain is prednisone, i have been through every other nsaid and painkillers don't  really work.I truly think as time goes by, we will learn more. Until then,God Bless and good luck,for what it is worth,my first bout was about 7 or 8 years ago an I'm still healthy as could be.

[twinkle63]

I think it could be Carotidynia too. My neck in the carotid area aches and throbs, and the pain got worse, and it also felt like there was earache too. My nose got blocked on one side, the right side, and when it cleared, my neck felt a little better. I ended up having Ultra sounds and they thought I had a blockage but nothing showed up on the MRI.. I took a low dose of Predisnone and it went away, only comes back a little now, so I just take a quarter of a pill and then taper off. So the best thing to do is to have an MRI that shows up everything. Demand one if you have too. Good luck, hope you get better soon... Sedatemink ..

[Evie1963]

Carotidynia?