Post cervical fusion headaches

[ray368]

Four years ago I had C5,6 and 7 fused. About a year later I began to have periodic headaches. They have been increasing in quantity and severity until about a year and a half ago I had to stop working completely. I am on a combination of darvacet, tramadol, topomax and maxalt. The combination leaves me in bed about 18 hours a day. I have had two MRIs. One with contrast and one without. Neither shows any good reason for my pain. The headache never goes away and I have no idea what makes it hit so hard every few days (room blacked out and crawling to the bathroom). Am I the only one. No doctor I have found will put anything in writing. P.S. I don't have insurance and that does make things sticky. Thanks for any input... Ray

[ray368]

Hello Kalvin.  Thanks for your input. The maxalt is for when I am really bad ( once a month or so ). As for a specialist of any kind, we are in the same place a lot of people are right now. No extra means for anything. Oh well, such is life. Thanks again for your responce.  Ray

[Kalvin]

If your Doctor is aware of the potential side effects of Tramadol and Maxalt and you are being closely monitored, then I apologize for alarming you. If not, you definitely need to talk to him/her about it.

Should you decide to discontinue one of these drugs before speaking with your Doctor, the Maxalt would be the one. Don't stop taking the Tramadol. It has to be tapered down.

[Kalvin]

I think most of us that have neck surgery have experienced these headaches at one time or another. And I sympathize, because I've had disabling ones myself, so I know what you're going through. I still have them but there not as bad and I have facial numbness too. I'm pretty certain its related to a problem at C3-4 but I'm not certain.

As far as the MRI not showing anything, that's not a surprise. These Doctors don't fully understand all the pain generators in the spine, let alone something as complex as a headache. Have you thought about switching the topomax to something like Lyrica or Gabapentin, what about seeing a headache specialist? They do exist.

Word of caution, SSRI's like Maxalt should never be prescribed with Tramadol, severe interactions can occur.

http://www.drugs.com/drug-interactions/maxalt-with-tramadol-2024-1310-2221-0.html


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