Headache and Migraines Forum - Ice Pick Headaches


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skeb_nz

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Joined: 04 Feb 2004
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Location: New Zealand

Ice Pick Headaches Posted: 03-27-04 19:26pm


I'm 19/female and have been diagnosed with ice pick headaches. I get short (from 1 second to, at longest, 15 minute, usually about 3-7 second) bursts of intense pain (about 5-9 on 1-10 scale) several times daily (from 2 to about 16, noramlly around 8 a day). I have tried a beta-blocker with no sucess, and am now at the start of trying amitriptyline, though i've heard bad things about it. Does anyone else get ice pick headaches? Anyone else had any luck with medications? I'm from new zealand so don't know if all medications will be available here but interesting to find out. Thanks

mia

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Joined: 25 Jan 2004
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Location: dallas

Ice Pick Posted: 04-05-04 08:14am


Have they tried an anti-seizure type medication. I take primedon 750mg at bedtime. I was having unbelievable headaches, ice pick and migrains and tension all combined and this relieved 40 to 50 percent of them. Terrice

Venugopal

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Joined: 01 Oct 2003
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Location: India

Ice Pick Headache Posted: 04-09-04 15:45pm


Sudden change in the circulation of blood by constriction slows down to certain areas of the brain leading to these bouts of headache which tend to come and go suddenly as the blood flow improves. This constriction of the blood vessels does not have any cause as such. Homoeopathic medicine has good remedies like belladonna, physostigma, gelsemium, china, sang can, spigelia etc. To relieve the headaches and prevent the recurrence as the treatment progresses. Dr.Venugopal gouri.

mals

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Joined: 31 Dec 2004
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Posted: 12-31-04 07:20am


I have just been diagnosed with this, however accupunture has helped me a lot. Give it a go, the medication I was using had bad side effects of rash.

sweet3pea15

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Joined: 28 Jan 2005
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Ice Picks Suck Posted: 01-28-05 21:14pm


I have experienced ice pick headaches since I was about 7. Now I am 17 and for the past few years they have become very intense and occur several times a day. My neurologist put me on zonogram after finding nothing from an eeg or an mri. The medicine caused the headaches to become less frequent but turned me into a zombie so I couldnt handle the side effects. Im going to get a second referral at a different neurologist later this week so that I can figure out why I have to deal with this excruciating pain! Just recently, I have been getting small nosebleeds after very intense headaches and am worried that they are getting worse! Its good to know that im not the only one who has to go through these because when I am in class and get one, it is so difficult to explain the intensity of how much I hurt to my friends.

Storywriter

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I Think Posted: 09-11-05 00:11am


I think this is my problem too.A few months back I had pain every time i'd bend or sneeze on my left side of my forhead above my left eye.Than it stopped there and now I have the same pain on the right side of my head above my right eye everytime I sneeze and bend. I was really scared that it would be a anurysm or brain cancer.I never freak out.When I read about ice pick headaches I feel a bit better.When I take asprin it stops it and calms it.I wish it would go away completely

evei

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Joined: 21 Sep 2005
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Ice Pick Pain Posted: 09-21-05 12:12pm


My husband has been gettin ice pick pain headach,s for about a year now the first one he fell to the floor in so much pain that I thought he was going to die .They started off a bout one a month now he gets them up to three times a week. I just feel so helpless watching him suffer in so much pain .He has been given no help from our gp just been told to get on with it .He has had another one tonight to .Please can someone just help me get to the bottom of this find out why certain people get them and is there something that triggers them off many thanks yvonne

Ceri

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Joined: 20 Dec 2005
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Location: UK

My Doctor Didn't Believe Me! Posted: 12-20-05 11:26am


I am so relieved that i've found some people who are suffering the same symptoms as me! My 'stabby' headaches started when I was about 11 and happened in uneven spates until I recently went to uni where I was getting up to 30 a day. I thought it might be my oral contraceptive makng it worse, but to be honest, there seems to be no direct trigger. I feel a very intense stab (the ice pick label really puts into words the exact amount of pain there is) to the left side of my head, always in the same place and I really feel like i'm about to black out, then in a second it's gone. It happened in a cinema recently and I nearly jumped out of my seat with the shock of it. I almost always burst into tears from the pain, it really is terrifying. My Dr. Said it was migrains and I should take migraine relief painkillers from the local chemist, but I knew it wasn't that. I always thought migrains were long lasting? Does anyone else have them always in the same place?

kim74

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Joined: 22 Dec 2005
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Re: Ice Pick Pain? Posted: 12-23-05 00:29am


Hello everyone. I hope my little but some what long story will help all of you! I am 31 and for the past 14 years I have been dealing with same pain as all of you have described. It's all seemed to have started when I was 18 years old. I was also having a sudden sharp pain in the ear,eye and top of head area. It seemed like someone had just shoved a knife in my ear and it was coming out my eye. My eye would feel like it had just sunk into my skull. The pain at first would only last a few minutes then slowly fade away. It wasn't until I was about 20 when I finally went to the doctor for the first time. I was sent to a neurologist and I was diagnosed with trigental neuraglia. (don't know coreect spelling) I was put on neurotin. The medication was doing nothing. For the next 4 years I spoke to tons of neurologist and pain clinic doctors. They finally gave up on me and said they that I was making up the pain. For 4 years I was living on pain killers that I got so immuned to that they were doing nothing for me. I then one night sat at my computer and just happened to do a search on trigental neuroliga, and a doctor from the pittsburgh area where I am from was on there. He happened to develop this operation to relieve the pain from patients dealing with this unrepairable diagnoses. I couldn't believe that io had finally found a doctor that might be able to help me after all these years. Afterall the pain had gotten so bad over the years, the pain seemed to have never went away. I made a appointment with his office, and told his nurse about the problem I have been having. Within a few minutes from hanging up the phone with her, the doctor had called me himself to tell me to get to his office asap. The first thing he did was perform a cat scan and mri. The following week when my results were back, I was back in his office getting a real diagnoses. I don't really know what the medical term is, but he called it rosner's syndrome. What is it? When you get old, everyone's brain sinks, but it is nor supposed to sink below a certain level. Mine brain on the other had was too big for my head. (that's what he told me folks) my brain had sunked so low that it was crushing my spinal stem in half. He said that my brain was to big and the pressure from all the fluid and blood had no where to go, so it was pushing the brain further done into my neck. We then discussed operating, to fix the problem. I underwent the operation 6 years ago, march of 1999. It changed my life. It wasn't the most easiest thing I had to indure, but I must say, it took my pain away. I have been healed now for 6 years and it feels great. Now I do have to say, that when I had my first child, the pain did come back 1 week after giving birth. It was caused my the pressure for the epidural. The pain only lasted for about 1 month or so. So please I hate to hear about all your pain. I only wanted to share my story with you, because I know how much pain I was in, and there was only one doctor, that was able to take care of me. So please all go to the doctor and tell them you want a mri and a cat scan, to make sure your brain is not pushing on something it;s not supposed to. P.S. I don't believe, you have migrains. I really think you need to get mri's! Please post back to let me know if my story helped anyone out. Or if you have any other questions. Good luck to all

Ceri

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Joined: 20 Dec 2005
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Re: My Doctor Didn't Believe Me!
Posted: 12-30-05 12:57pm

ceri wrote:

i am so relieved that i've found some people who are suffering the same symptoms as me! My 'stabby' headaches started when I was about 11 and happened in uneven spates until I recently went to uni where I was getting up to 30 a day. I thought it might be my oral contraceptive makng it worse, but to be honest, there seems to be no direct trigger. I feel a very intense stab (the ice pick label really puts into words the exact amount of pain there is) to the left side of my head, always in the same place and I really feel like i'm about to black out, then in a second it's gone. It happened in a cinema recently and I nearly jumped out of my seat with the shock of it. I almost always burst into tears from the pain, it really is terrifying. My Dr. Said it was migrains and I should take migraine relief painkillers from the local chemist, but I knew it wasn't that. I always thought migrains were long lasting? Does anyone else have them always in the same place?

tlp62832

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Joined: 25 Feb 2006
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Me to Posted: 04-13-06 15:34pm


I also have suffered from ice pick headaches. I can remember exactly the first time. I thought I was going to die. It only lasted a few seconds. I have found that amnityriptyline does help. It's not a cure, and it takes about 2 months or so to start working, so do not give up if your not better immediately. I still have them and like everyone else, feel really stupid talking about it. It just sounds ridiculous. The doctors have said just take tylenol. How could the doctor have listened and then say something so stupid? If you have these headaches you will know it. They come out of no where any time day or night, last several seconds then disappear. Cat scans, mri's nothing shows anything. When they started waking me up out of sound sleep and I began having more than 5 or six a day the doctor suggested amnityrptyline. Like I said it helps, but it's not a cure. I still have them but not 5 or 6 or more times a day. I also noticed that sometimes, not always after I eat italian salad dressing they are worse. But, not always. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Also, periodically I have to increase the dose of medication. It's like you become immune to it.

Stephny691

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Joined: 19 Apr 2006
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Posted: 04-19-06 05:30am


Hi. I've been suffering from ice pick headaches for about 5-6months now. They seem to be getting more and more frequent and a hell of a lot more painful. I'm 17 btw. I went to a neurologist who sent me for bloodtests, and ecg, eeg, and an mri. Then when I went for the results, he said that they were icepick headaches and they should eventually stop as mysteriously as they started. Now i'm not sure if what he said is right, but i'd like to think he was an fool, and that I can do something them. Because, I don't know if anyone feels the same, but they interfere with my life so much. I always fall over, which means my friends have to catch me. They are getting to the point, where i'm looking at people who actually suffer from the same things, for advice on what I can do to minimise them.

lyslys81

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Joined: 24 Apr 2006
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Posted: 04-24-06 13:47pm


I had no idea this was actually a real condition. I get the ice pick headaches occasionally but theyre not really frequent with me. At first I thought it was because I was not taking my medicine as directed but than when I was taking my meds it still happened sometimes. Thanks :)

sjrodgers

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Joined: 24 Apr 2006
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Location: Michigan

Ice Picks Posted: 04-24-06 14:49pm


Hi, i have had this stabbing pain for years but very, very rarely, and was typically behind my ear. This weekend I had it for over 48 hours. Dr mentioned the trigeminil neuralgia but it is not in my face, only head. I was surprised to see that it is common. In the past it has only lasted less than an hour. This weekend was a nightmare. I have no idea what triggered it but I couldn't even brush my hair or touch my ear. I think i'm going to wait to see if it happens again, when I called my dr, the nurse told me to use a heating pad and take ibuprofen. Good luck to you all and it is nice to know I can relate to someone else! :(

cristina78

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Relief Posted: 05-07-06 23:02pm


I have suffered with ice pick headaches and other types of migraines for years....It has been hard in the sense that these are not your typical migraine and I thought for a long time I was alone with the exception of my mom...It is nice to know I am not alone, but wish there was more information out...The following site helped me to understand my migraines more....It might help others....Http://headaches.About.Com/od/ot herheadpain/a/ice_picks.Htm

Jamesie

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Joined: 09 May 2006
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Ice Pick Headaches Posted: 05-09-06 10:19am


Several members of my family suffer from what we refer to as the 'pings'. Usually on or around the ear, they feel like someone slipping an ice pick under the skin for about a second or two. Not so bad by themselves, but they will wear you down like water torture and after one or two bad nights i'm reduced to a quivering waste with one hand upside my head just waiting for the next 'ping'. Neurologist put me on to indomethacine two weeks before my wedding. Saved me. Have passed this miracle pill to my family and we now have something to battle these with outside of the inappropriate. Best of luck!

defuniak

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Ice Pick Headaches Posted: 02-14-08 10:49am


I generally only get these when I'm sick with a cold or sinus infection. The pain is so intense that it literally takes your breath away, and that's the problem. I think we all tend to hold our breath and wait until the pain subsides before we start breathing again. This is the wrong thing to do. You have to continually taking deep breaths of air through your mouth, inhale and exhale the same way. It sounds like it's too simple to be true but within five to ten minutes your pain should almost be gone but remember to keep breathing like this. Let me know if this works for any of you because it's really worked for me.

Aviatrix

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Ice Pick Headaches Posted: 04-20-08 10:44am


Try this natural remedy for your ice pick headaches. My 13-year old son got them several times a month, and this treatment eliminated them altogether. I read about it on the Mayo Clinic website. Only initial studies have been done. Take 1-3 mg of melatonin each night before bed. (I had my son on only 1 mg since he weighed only 100 lbs). The Mayo study said to stop taking it after 6 months, but when my son stopped, the headaches started up again about a month later. So he's back taking the melatonin again and the headaches again stopped. Look into the possible association between your body's melatonin production and natural light through the eyes. Sunlight exposure each morning could help your body's own natural melatonin production.

Mizzoula

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Posted: 06-16-08 15:18pm


You can also try an allergy medication with pseudoephedrine (e.g. Claritin-D or the Target-brand generic). One 24-hour decongestant allergy pill stopped my boyfriend's ice pick headaches (and migraines) almost immediately. They're over-the-counter, but you usually need to go through the pharmacist and show ID. Make sure you get the one with pseudoephedrine... I'm not sure if regular Claritin or other allergy meds will have the same impact.

Aviatrix

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Ice pick headaches--treatment that works for my son Posted: 06-16-08 20:47pm


On the Mayo Clinic website, I learned of a study that was done using melatonin. They gave the adults 3 mg/night for 6 months, then went off for 6 months. It had encouraging results, but no real formal studies have been done. I tried it on my 14-year old son and it worked. He would get an ice-pick headache only about once every week or two, but they were excrutiating. I gave him 1 mg of melatonin each night before bed. His ice pick headaches disappeared entirely. You can find sublingual orange-flavored 1 mg melatonin at drugstore.com (no advertising intended...that's the only place I could find it in a low mg. potency). For 6-months, he was headache-free. Then, he went off the melatonin (since that was what the Mayo Clinic study recommended) but the headaches came back within about a month. He's back on the melatonin again, and they've again disappeared. I think he'll just stay on it for as long as it's working! It's worth a try and it's probably the most natural remedy you could find right now.