Prognosis for occipital neuralgia

[BigNick]

I had a headache for three days straight, which never happens, so I went to the doctor. The conclusion is that I most likely have occipital neuralgia. The doctor gave me ketoprofen (anti-inflammatory) and told me that this condition normally clears up by itself in a week or so. Wikipedia seems less optimistic. Can anyone with experience of this comment? (Or any MDs, on a non-attributable basis of course.)

 

[BigNick]

Ha. Well, it turned out I didn't have occipital neuralgia. I had Lyme disease. (That's actual Lyme disease, not the controversial --- and quite possible non-existent --- "Chronic Lyme", that you can read about on the Interwebs.)

And I found out I had Lyme disease when I had to go to hospital after a couple of TIAs. January was a lot of fun.

So now the Lyme is gone (after four weeks of intravenous antibiotics), and with it the headaches and all my other fatigue and "minor things suddenly not working" symptoms. I'm taking 100mg of aspirin a day to try and keep the TIAs away (they are not a common symptom of Lyme, but according to my neurologist the Lyme had started to attack pretty much every part of my body that it could, so anything is possible). And I may have a "type 2.1 atrio-ventricular block", due to the Lyme, but that may well fix itself --- in any case I have no cardiac symptoms. And just to top it off, I discovered I have a congenital patent foramen ovale (aka hole in the heart), which apparently is not serious despite the name!

I spent 16 days in hospital. Even in France with its mostly socialised healthcare system, that costs $1,200 a day for the basic bed fee. I'll never see the bill, but I'm guessing there won't be much change from $30,000 after adding in two MRIs, one run each through the gamma camera and PET scanner, etc etc. (My co-pay: $0. )

 

[MichaelB]

Glad that was cleared up, Nick, and you're feeling better.

 

[Bestwifeever]

Wow. I hope 2015 after its rocky start turns out to be the healthiest year ever for you. Do you have an inkling as to where you picked up the Lyme Disease?

 

[BigNick]

Wow. I hope 2015 after its rocky start turns out to be the healthiest year ever for you. Do you have an inkling as to where you picked up the Lyme Disease?

I go walking in the woods a lot, and I remove 6-10 ticks from my body per season. Where I live, it seems that everybody over 50 has known somebody who has had Lyme.

The only question is whether the Lyme came from the one time that a tick bite developed into a red rash (the first symptom of Lyme infection), which was at least four years ago and treated at the time with antibiotics (but did that work 100%?), or a more recent bite that didn't produce the rash (at least, I didn't notice anything, and if you do get this symptom --- which doesn't appear in all cases --- it's pretty spectacular).

 

[eytonxav]

My DD has chronic lyme and its definitely not a nonexistent condition. If lyme has been in your system for some time, one does not get rid of it quickly and it can wreck havoc for many years and may never be eradicated. Count yourself lucky if you had ordinary non-chronic lyme, but I'd stay vigilant anyway as it can lay dormant for a long time.

 

[Telly]

Wow what a mess, glad you're doing better!

.....And just to top it off, I discovered I have a congenital patent foramen ovale (aka hole in the heart), which apparently is not serious despite the name!

I do too. It was first heard when I was a teenager, doc said I probably wasn't quiet enough before for him to hear it! (thanks a lot, doc!) Then went through a bunch of tests back then at really grim inner-city hospital that he sent me to, thought it was best for that. After tests, waited around for 6 hours to see the specialist doctor, who never appeared. They ended up grabbing a visiting Australian heart surgeon right after he got out of open-heart surgery to see me. He looked at it all, said it's no big deal, just less efficient, that I may tire out before others.