Head Pain

In July this summer, I woke up one morning with a brutal pain in my head on the right side. I thought it was maybe a migraine, but it didn't feel the same as my other migraines. The pain felt more superficial, and the pain also included other areas of my face, like my cheekbone, brow bone, and jaw. 

I tried multiple medications, massage therapy, ice/heat packs, kept the lights off and sound down, and nothing would touch it. I let it go on for nearly a week before I finally sought treatment at the hospital. 

They tried multiple treatments in the emergency room, and still nothing would touch the pain. So I was admitted to the neurology unit on a Sunday and was hospitalized until the following Saturday, having exhausted the treatments and scans that they could think of. I had a neurology team and a headache specialist team working on my case. 

There were multiple problems: 

1. My symptoms sounded like a migraine, but it didn't feel like a regular migraine, and I couldn't sufficiently describe what I was feeling or what made it feel different from my migraines

2. I couldn't take certain treatments due to allergies/intolerances or because of other conditions

3. The scans they were doing showed nothing

So once we knew nothing nefarious was going on (like strokes, or blood clots, or pressure in the eyes, or other severely emergent issues), I was discharged with an appointment with my neurologist and a referral to a special headache clinic. 

The following week I was put on Prednisone for a two-week course to see if that would help. Steroids generally cause severe migraines when I take them now, so we avoid them if we can, but we were all getting desperate. So I received nerve blocks to help prevent my regular migraines and crossed our fingers that this would do the trick. One more scan was also ordered - to check my TMJ - the jaw joint. One of the team members thought that I may have a TMJ disorder where the joint is misaligned. 

The Prednisone did its job - the pain has been greatly reduced, yet still there. 

Well, I received the results of the TMJ MRI. Turns out that I have bone degeneration and bone spurs on the top part of where my lower jaw meets my skull. 

It's possible that this is all caused from teeth grinding, even though the Botox has been helping to reduce/prevent that for years, and there was no evidence of active inflammation (although the MRI was done after the Prednisone treatment, so that could be coincidental). All of this to say that bone degeneration and bony spurs in my jaw, especially being aggravated, is the likely culprit of this severe head pain. 

I have my doubts that the only causal factor is teeth grinding, as my body seems to like collecting autoimmune disorders (and apparently, ones that cause random extra bone deterioration & bone formation), but I'm hoping that that's all it is. I already get Botox injections to help prevent teeth grinding, and I have an appointment to look into a mouthguard to use at night to help prevent (or slow) further damage. At least we know what's causing the bones in my face to hurt. 

As a point of interest: 

I have Ankylosing Spondylitis, which causes bone deterioration and then excess bone growth where it's not supposed to be, within the SI joints and the spine. 

I also have Otosclerosis, which is excess bone growth within the middle ear on the stapes bone. 

I have mandibular tori, which is extra bone growth within the mouth. 

And now I have bony spurs - extra bone growth where it's not supposed to be - in my jaw. 

Weird.