I'm new to this group...or I became a member a few months back and I just now got on to discuss. I had decompression surgery in June 2003. I'm now 36. I still deal with issues of headaches, but at least I don't have month and two month long headaches anymore. I've learned what triggers my headaches, so I can sometimes avoid them.
I need to know if anyone has found a successful treatment for cough headaches. The biggest issue I am dealing with now is severe headaches brought on by coughing. Since I moved to Texas, I find that I experience a lot more coughs dew to allergies. A nagging cough is what will cause the most problems. If I have been coughing for a few minutes on and off, I will feel a the pressure around the malformation/surgical area right after I cough. Then I feel the pain in what I believe is the tonsil. Then the pressure rises from there to the top of my head where it feels like my head will explode from the pressure. The pain subsides, dizziness occurs, then it is better. Then I cough again and it all starts over. After having coughed for a while, the pain gets worse with the initial blast of the cough, and the dizziness will eventually stay. I often will start getting the tingling and numbness in the face.
I went to the GP, who sent me to a Neurologist. My surgeon said he would not see me for this. My original Neurologist is back in Missouri (but my surgeon is here in Texas), so I'm seeing a new guy. He said he suspected low level migraines. I told him I could tell the difference between migraines (I have those also) and my Chiari headaches. I told him that Chiari was the number one reason for severe cough headaches. He said, yes, but you have had the surgery, and your MRIs only show mild crowding. He also did an MRI of the neck to check for cysts. He put me on a 12 day trial of some kind of migraine medication. I told him this may not be a good test because I did not currently have a cough. He told me to take them anyway. The next day I got a cough! I have never been thankful for a cough until that day. The medication may have had a little effect on my day-to-day headaches, but the cough still caused pain. Then he gave me nerve blocker shots in the back of my head. I was supposed to go back two weeks later for another round of shots. When I went in he asked how my headaches had been. I told him I had been having more of my Chiari headaches, no migraines, and when I shake my head back and forth it excited my Chiari headaches immediately. I told him it wasn't a great test because my cough had gone away. He then said we should probably just skip the shots and he would refer me back to my surgeon, who he said will probably not see me based on my MRIs! I don't want to see my surgeon. I was hoping there was a treatment for this condition. He said sometimes the blocker will treat both things. By the way, even though he did not do the shots I still got charged the $45 specialist copay.
So now I'm wondering what to do. I asked my GP to refer me to a different Neurologist. He wanted me to get back to one anyway because I was having these crazy electric wave sensations flowing through my face in addition to the numbness and tingling when I had a double ear infection. He didn't like the sound of that so tried to send me back to the same guy, but I requested a different referral.
Have any of you found something to relieve these cough headaches? When I get into a coughing fit for about and hour, my head is in such a world of hurt, dizziness, etc. I break out into a sweat. I'm working on a Master's degree, so it's often hard to study and write papers when I'm having these constant recurring coughs. I have to put our baby down if I cough when I'm holding him. I don't want to fall over with him.