I think the intracranial pressure has went up again. I had this pain before my 1st embolization and it came back just after the 2nd embolization.. This pressure pain when I stretch, cough laugh hard my head has like a squeezing spasm like pain. I cant handle it its painful. Im trying to hold out till my appointment Friday with the Dr .. Is there anything that has helped anyone cope? When you saw Dr what did they do ? I don't think my Dr wants to do another embolization till January.
April, your avm is pretty unique, right? Large and diffuse? I'm not sure other members are your best guide here. I suggest you pick up the phone and call your doctor today, to see what he recommends. Then you can tell him on Friday if it helped. I hope you feel better soon, April. Keep us posted.
I am so sorry you are experiencing this. I experienced very similar pain before my surgery and sometimes I do again, but not as often. I totally sympatize with you :( Hopefully your Doctor will have answers for you.
April, I just saw this post and several of your others describing your symptoms and can tell you I experience many if not most of the same type symptoms. Bottom line, I have pain in my face, throat, neck area every single day. I have a tremendous amount of pressure everyday in my face and especially in vicinity of my right ear; I ca also say that some days are worse than others if my blood pressure is higher than normal. When I stretch or yawn or move certain ways, similar to the way you describe in an earlier post, the pain can increase tenfold and makes think if it ever were to stick that way permanently for a long period, I simply do not know what I would do because as you know, it is unbearable. I get the squeezing pain too, I tend to refer to it as constricting type pain, like something has blocked the blood flow and/or is trying to rip the vessel right out of my face. I take morphine (MS Contin) 60 mg extended release every 12 hours to help cope with the pain and discomfort, plus have 15 mg immediate release tablets for breakthrough pain. In addition I take Lyrica, 100 mg x 3 per day, and finally Cymbalta 60mg capsules all to help with pain. Wish I could say it gets a lot better but my experience is there will always be pain so you must learn how to best manage it with doctors help! Steve
I had 2 embolizations before my brain surgery and all I can say is that I had headaches, spasms, feeling like something sharp was going through a very tiny hole in my brain, dizziness, feeling "abnormal", etc..... try and go to quiet place, less stimulation, less noise. Try some relaxation techniques. Keep youR BP NORMAL. My experience with pain meds-don't hesitate in taking them when you need it, but sometimes, the pain comes back worse than before. Steve has good suggestions regarding pain relief measures. Talk to your doctor and ask him how to effectively treat these problems. Ask your MD about cold compress over the area where your headache is...it surely works wonderfully with me..... Good luck! Hope you'll feel better soon.