Migraines, Occipital Neuralgia Flare up

Well I know for a fact I am not alone in this as everywhere on social media people are complaining about the barometric pressure  causing more frequent migraines. I have more in the last week than I have had for ages, add in a flare up of Occipital neuralgia and I haven't been a very happy bunny all the last week.

The weather although not exceptionally hot is very humid and close. A few times we have had an amber weather alert for  thunder storms but sadly no light show. I love a good thunder storm especially now I have a dog(s) that doesn't get hysterical when there is a good storm raging around us. The most Dembe does is bark at the noise and then he settles back down to sleep again. As much as I loved Mollie, Willow and Frankie sleepless nights due to storms or fireworks were exhausting. Having a dog that will sleep through them is wonderful.

At the end of last week I was in agony, my neck, scalp and forehead were all spasming due to the occipital neuralgia making it incredibly sore to move my neck to the left. It also triggered several migraines and made sleeping very painful as the back of my head was so sore. In desperation I contacted the doctors and begged for a small amount of Diazepam to relieve the spasms. When it has got to the stage that my forehead is constantly sore and I can't turn my head then the only thing that will work is Diazepam. I need to take it a couple of times over two days for the spasms to stop. In the past I have tried alcohol and additional pain relief ( not the two combined obviously) to get the muscles to relax along with heat, using hot water bottles and heat mats. 

Thankfully I did get a small amount of Diazepam and within two days I had moved out of the awful pain cycle I had been in and I can now move my head to the left without shrieking which is always a bonus. 

When I have weeks like this it is always exhausting, pain at that level just wipes out all my energy. I find it incredibly hard to concentrate and I lack any motivation to get anything done. The pain that I am in stems back to the car accident I had almost a year ago now. I have been left with an ulnar nerve entrapment, a flare up of migraines, occipital neuralgia, pins and needles in my left buttock and down my left leg. I also have pins and needles to varying degrees down my left arm and into my ring finger. The stress of the accident and the fall out from that has also kicked off the spasms in my feet, which I am still waiting to see the neurologist about. I was offered an appointment the same day as my father in laws funeral, obviously I couldn't attend. My gp has now chased this up and it looks like the end of August at the earliest.

Thankfully the occipital neuralgia has settled an awful lot back to its usual level and not the searing pain I had last week.  When I get to the point where I was last week I end up getting very tearful with the frustration at the situation.

My mind is all over the place as I have just learned a childhood friend of mine who lives in The Netherlands has been seriously ill with Covid. He has been in a medically induced coma for 4.5 weeks a further 2 weeks in intensive care and is now having to re-learn everything. Kris is a fit and healthy 50 year old man who has no underlying conditions and it did this to him. And yet people still don't believe Covid is real. Get well soon Kris.