mrs. claws
dear shauna - after years of being told my problems were all in my head (ha-ha), i have been diagnosed with generalized dystonia, which means my entire body has been affected by this monster of a disease. 3 months ago, my neck and face went into spasm, and i have had a migraine-like headache ever since. my husband and daughter had to take me to the emergency room, which was interesting since my whole body cramped up, and i was in the shape of a ball. there, they gave me a drug that causes dystonic reactions, so i will never go back to the e.r. again. however, i am lucky to live close to the cleveland clinic, where they have a "movement disorder neurological specialist" department. i have been going for the past year. i just started taking a drug called requip, which is actually a parkinson's medication, to see if it will help with the dystonia. i find that pain killers do nothing for this headache, and am also currently taking a small dose of a drug called tegredol, which was taking the edge off this headache up to 2 weeks ago. i am now waiting for an appointment with the neurological headache department to try and find a help for this awful headache. i understand from other sufferers that pain killer do not help. many have had to branch out into brain-chemical altering medications like tegredol to find any relief, since the pain is caused by the brain sending out the wrong signals to the muscles. do try to find yourself a movement disorder neurological clinic. most doctors have never even heard of dystonia. and - since there are no tests for the disorder, you need a trained eye to be able to help you. i hope all of this makes sense to you, since right now the headache is so bad that i am seeing blurry, and can't concentrate. best of luck to you!