Progress

4/24/15 -- Well, Last Monday I saw a Neurologist at my local clinic, to go over the symptoms concerning my headache and everything going along with it.  We discussed a variety of different ways to solve my problem.  After establishing that the MRI and my reflexes are all good, meaning nothing obviously physical is going on.  Then the Dr. asked me if I could pinpoint exactly where the pain starts, to which I responded, yes.  Then he said we could go the conservative route and he listed the different things - but I said that I was beyond the conservative route because the Topamax wasn't really working anymore.
He then proceeded to talk about 2 other avenues that were more targeted (one sort of-one definitely) One approach, which we did first, was prednisone, which is an anti-inflammatory, to calm the nerve down.  {You see, there is a nerve that goes from you neck into your head, for me that nerve was inflamed and the source of the headache, it would actually throb then "explode"  to the rest of the head.}  The other route is an target injection, right to the nerve in the head. [yes it's a shot in the head lol]
   So, we first tried the prednisone.  I started it the next day, which was Tuesday.  The throbbing actually stopped but the rest of my head was numb which strange. On Thursday, I had to take the young man I nanny, to a school for some testing, while I was testing the Neurologist emailed me with the results of blood tests that he ordered and he had inquired how my headache was doing.  I told him that my head was numb and the headache was intense.  At first he wasn't too concerned because he said to allow for some healing which I could understand.  By Sunday, I had woke up feeling rather strange, I got up to go to the bathroom and I was felling dizzy (my definition of dizzy)   I wasn't able to go to church plus I really wasn't feeling like being like being around all those people, church was was having a single service and a potluck.  However, there was somewhere else I wanted to be that involved little children, a special family of children, so I took my Immitrex to put the headache in check so I could be around those wonderful children.
   So, on Monday I emailed the Neurologist to update him on the stuff that happened on Sunday. To which he responded - inquiring about the Chiropractor - I let him know that I had an appointment on Wednesday then I explained this man's technique and that he has tried to alleviate this headache and has not been able to.  He then came back with going ahead the targeted injection and he said he could add to a 7:30am or a noon which I said a Wed, Thurs, or Fri. Noon.  I called the clinic and scheduled it for Thursday at noon, the sooner, the better yet couldn't be on Wednesday because I already had a Dr.'s appt. that required me leaving early so didn't want to do both in one day. 
   Thursday came and I went in and the Neurologist and I discussed what had happened on this past Sunday and such.  Plus, I brought up the visit I had with Dr. Smith the afternoon before and owned up to the fact that I could quite remember all of the beginning of the visit, I did kind of start it for him.  He was actually able to pick up because it was a scenario of a 'what if' this injection doesn't work? Basically between him and Dr. Smith would have to tweak my meds to manage the headache.
  Any way, he went out and got the two needles, came back in and had me sit on the exam table, he made the table shorter while making the comment that I wasn't that tall. I laughed, thanked him for reminding me that I was vertically challenged, 😄 The Neurologist asked me to point where the pain starts so he could put alcohol around the area and begin to get an idea where the nerve should be.  He located the spot and put the first needle in which was the longer lasting lidocaine, he took his time making sure that the medication was good and in there, that my head was good and numb.  The next needle was the nerve blocker, after the initial needle prick I didn't feel anything else.  All the while he was putting that stuff into my head the Neurologist kept asking me if I was ok.  I most definitely appreciated that.  
   Today,  I have been without headache pain for 24 + hours which absolutely awesome! I have forgotten what it's like to be without pain in my head.  To be without fog and exhaustion.  Even though I am tired because of the medication I am not a tired partly because of being told to back off a little of the Topamax but also because I am not in mega headache pain which is AWESOME! Thank you Lord!