About Rob Joseph Ph.D Expertise I have a Ph.D. in Immunology, and have also been a headache sufferer. I can offer some information on what questions to ask about your condition that can help with headache relief. There is currently a knowledge gap in headaches between conventional medicine and some complementary therapies. I can access the current research literature to help people ask the right questions about their condition.
Question I've had the following symptoms for 22 days: occiputal pain on both sides, ringing in my ears, auras in my left eye, blurred and double vision, nasea, vomiting, the right side of my tongue tingles, pain under my right arm, disorientation, slurring, my right ear feels glogged, loss of appetite and weight loss. These symtoms come and go but occur daily. What type of migraine is this?
Answer Hi Yvette. My first comment is that you MUST make sure you seek your physician's advice with this if you have not already.
I would also need to know whether you have had a "musculoskeletal exam (MSK)" of your neck done to rule out muscle tension causes. The pain in your occipital region is a clue to this. My experience is that most physicians first rule out very serious headache causes, and rightfully so. I think that MSK assessments of the neck are not routinely done, and this is very important in the diagnosis and treatment of your problem.
For your information, one systematic review research study showed that "physical manipulation" of the neck such as physiotherapy or massage was as effective as amitriptyline for migraines. This tells me that the origin of many migraines is the neck, and that this is definitely worth ruling out as a cause of the headaches.
Physiotherapists, Registered Massage Therapists, and Doctors of Chiropractic often do thorough postural and MSK assessments. If you haven't already, I think it would be worth your while to discuss with your physician having a detailed assessment performed by someone with specialization in this area.
Please get back to me with this information, and don't hesitate to contact me again, as I am interested to hear from you.
