miagraines/headaches

[Julie1121]

I am 40 years old and have had severe headaches and miagraines since I was 8yrs old. I have had a couple MRI's in the last two years (without contrast) to find out if something is wrong. My head hurts so much it leaves me depressed, confused, disoriented, and in a lot of pain. I get miagraines and tension headaches along with the neck pain. The last MRI showed I have damage in my neck but the doctors said it should not be causing all the pain I am having.  I go to bed every day with a headach and wake up with one...each day it is to be seen if it turns into a miagraine or not. A close friend of mine has the exact same symptoms and was diagnosed with MS and another with cancer so it scares me. I know it is not normal t be in this much pain. Every doc wants to give me a new med or a new preventative, and nothing is working....I am a mother, wife, and business owner and I want to live a normal life :(

[Dr Sharma]

Hi there. You need to be investigated for degenerative disc disease in the cervical spine. The pain could be due to cervical disc prolapse. Consult a neurologist for a detailed neurological examination, cervical spine MRI, to check for herniated, degenerated discs. If these are ruled out, empirical therapy for possible migraines needs to be instituted like topamax for prevention of migraine attacks and trial of triptans like sumatriptan in the event of an attack to check if these abort the headaches.
If these measures do not help, you need to be investigated for multiple sclerosis. The symptoms of multiple sclerosis are loss of balance, muscle spasms, numbness in any area, problems with walking and coordination, tremors in one or more arms and legs. Bowel and bladder symptoms include frequency of micturition, urine leakage, eye symptoms like double vision uncontrollable rapid eye movements, facial pain, painful muscle spasms, tingling, burning in arms or legs, depression, dizziness, hearing loss, fatigue etc. You have many of these symptoms. The treatment is essentially limited to symptomatic therapy so the course of action would not change much whether MS has been diagnosed or not.
Apart from clinical neurological examination, MRI shows MS as paler areas of demyelination, two different episodes of demyelination separated by one month in at least two different brain locations. Spinal tap is done and CSF electrophoresis reveals oligoclonal bands suggestive of immune activity, which is suggestive but not diagnostic of MS. Demyelinating neurons, transmit nerve signals slower than non-demyelinated ones and can be detected with EP tests. These are visual evoked potentials, brain stem auditory evoked response, and somatosensory evoked potential. Slower nerve responses in any one of these is not confirmatory of MS but can be used to complement diagnosis along with a neurological examination, medical history and an MRI and a spinal tap. Take care.

[LivingInHope]

I would think it would depend on where the damage is in the neck as to whether it could cause migraines. Also, do you have issues w/pillow usage and or posture?  

I am disappointed that given the severity and regularity of your migraines, in 32 years, they haven't done an MRA/MRV, using contrast to look at the blood vessels in your head!

  Have they ever tested for abnormalities in your endocrine hormones?  If you had a pituitary tumor, at least some of which can have migraine as a symptom, for example, it typically is not seen on general brain MRI, but requires a specially dedicated to pituitary dynamic MRI with and without contrast, to be seen.  

Have they had you monitor your blood pressure to see if you are having episodic spikes in blood pressure or ruled out rare tumor called pheochromocytoma?  

Have they tested you for TMJ dysfunction, sleep apnea, or checked ferritin to see if your iron is low?  

I think you should talk to your doctor about your fears and ask for further testing to try to rule out cancer and MS.  If they don't care about your concerns enough to try to alleviate your fears, I hope you can find a dr. that will.