Question:

I wake up every night after about 3 hrs with appalling face pain. this pain will continue to be severe until I get out of bed.It will get worse if I lay down again but is with me all the time as a headache. I suffer the usual depression and other physical symtoms of too many pain killers but the docs don’t seem to have any answers or dare say interest. It was diagnosed as sinus trouble for 3 years culminating in an operation which I could tell had done no good when I came round post op.Funnily enough I take Flixonase nasal spray, and if I stop or run out the pain gets even worse but still they say my sinuses are o.k. If you have read this and have any similar probs please suggest anything that will help. All I want is to wake up one morning and feel like a lie in. Please help.

Response:

Hello Timlofthouse, I don’t know if this will help, I think my problem may be different in some ways. I have migraines, not sinus probs, but migraines do effect the sinuses.  Have you asked you dr about migraines, maybe that is what you are really getting.  I have been getting migraines for 20-25 years, 5 to 13 a month.  I always wake up with the pain, and have to get up immediately.  When I try to lay down again it is worse.  Sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night (as early as 2am) I am up all night.  This was very hard when I worked.  I do not work now. When I get a #8-10 migraine, I sit up in bed with a black sock wrapped around my eyes.  Sometimes I doze off, especially if I’ve been on med all day.  Don’t know if any of this helps.

Response:

HI, Sorry, can’t really tell what your name is from your email address, is it Tim?  I had pain similar to yours.  I had horrible face pain that was always followed, sometimes a day later, by a migraine.  I had a lot of work done to correct my bite but this didn’t really seem to help (maybe a little but not completely. then I started getting terrible pain in my shoulder and down my arm.  This pain was unbearable and constant.  I also had pain in my neck.  the pain was worse if I laid down.  I didn’t want to go to sleep anymore because the pain was always worse when I woke up.  Finally, I told my GP about the pain in my shoulder, she sent me for  a neck xray and then to an orthopedic doctor.  He sent me for an mri which came back showing a herniated disk (C5-C6) in my neck.  He sent me to a neurosurgeon who told me that not only was the disk ruptured but it was pressing on a nerve root as well as my spinal cord.  He said if I didn’t have surgery, I could end up paralysed for life.  I didn’t have to weigh those choices very long. Since the surgery, my neck doesn’t cause constant pain, my shoulder pain was referred pain caused my the nevre being compressed so that doesn’t bother me anymore.  And the face pain hasn’t occured for quite awhile.  I think that in my case that the face pain my have also been caused by the nerve damage in my neck.  if your nasal spray has any chemicals which constrict blood vessels, which many of them do, that may account for why it helps your head.  I used to take a sudafed when I got the face pain and sudafed is a vasoconstrictor.  having neck surgery did *not* cure my migraines.  But it did get rid of my chronic daily headaches.  I used to take ibuproferin every day for pain, usuually as many as 8 to 12 a day. After the surgery I might take 3 to 6 in a week.  My migraine frequency improved after the neck surgery.  I went from migraine every 5-7 days to every 10-14 days.  (Just as an aside, I had the surgery in feb.  As of october I was down to a migraine every 14 days and imitrix was geting rid of those in an hour, just taking 25 mg.  But, unrelated to the neck or the meds, in October I had a heart attack.  One of the meds I now take for my heart is a calcium channel blocker.  they are sometimes used as preventatives in migraines.  So with the CCB, the migraines went to 1 every 20 days.  Then, as you might have read in another thread, I had to cut out caffeine totally because of another heart problem, and now I haven’t had a migraine in 30 days which I think must be from getting rid of the caffeiene).  I’m not implying that what was wrong with me is what is wrong with you.  But since there were some similarities, I thought I would share my experience.  An Xray of your neck will show if there is any narrowing in the disks but an mri is required to be specific as to the type of damage.  So, if you suspect your neck might be a problem, say something to your doctor. Good luck to you write if you have any questions diane

: I wake up every night after about 3 hrs with appalling face pain. this pain : will continue to be severe until I get out of bed.It will get worse if I lay : down again but is with me all the time as a headache. I suffer the usual : depression and other physical symtoms of too many pain killers but the docs : don’t seem to have any answers or dare say interest. It was diagnosed as : sinus trouble for 3 years culminating in an operation which I could tell had : done no good when I came round post op.Funnily enough I take Flixonase nasal : spray, and if I stop or run out the pain gets even worse but still they say : my sinuses are o.k. If you have read this and have any similar probs please : suggest anything that will help. : All I want is to wake up one morning and feel like a lie in. Please help. : : : —

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