Occiptial Neuralgia Headaches or Cluster Headaches?

In March 2017, 5 days after I got married - I went to urgent care and the E.R. from that day onto repetitive days over the course of a month or so but abnormal dizzy spells along with random spouts of slight numbness to other odd symptoms. These symptoms made me more stressed than previous stress I had already had and I constantly felt uneasy thinking something serious was wrong with  me (beginning of anxiety which I never had or knew I could get).

Fast forward to May/June 2017 I started getting the most severe headaches I couldn't have ever imagined before having them. Half of my head (left side) would feel like it was about to explode and during so I would have excruciating pain behind the eye on that same side (left). As I recall, this pain would last anywhere between a couple minutes to 20 minutes. It was hard to properly time since they felt longer. I wouldn't be able to sit still through it calmly and would rock my body while sitting down along with moaning and/or crying over the pain at the same time.  After this 'attack' like feeling was over my eye that was in pain would be a watery like it was crying way more than the other.

I would get these 'attacks' once-several times a day unexpectedly and they would take over my life. I was diagnosed anxiety officially as well. I even had my first panic attack during this time period. I would constantly fear the next episode of 'attack' because they seemed so frequent. I spent time in between not wanting to leave my house because I was either too sensitive to the sunlight (and I love being outside and the sunlight) or because my fear/anxiety paralyzed me in a way to not partake in anything normal me would want to do. I was even on a break/disability from work because I was also getting my tonsils out during the time period. (which was another whole story and level of pain which was still more tolerable than these 'head attacks' .  I of course would look everything up on the internet which led me to diagnose myself of having cluster headaches. Just like a zodiac sign and having anxiety along with this every symptom felt like it matched me to diagnose myself as that.

Soon I would finally have a long awaited appt. to see a neurologist. (July 2017) She dismissed the idea of cluster headaches immediately without any further thought and went straight to diagnose me of having occipital neuralgia. She also prescribed me a low dosage of Nortriptyline (anti-depressant) to slightly increase throughout time for my nerves to 'calm down' and help alleviate the pain. I never increased it by much and stuck to the lower dosage because I dislike taking medication unless I really need it.

I should also add that before these 'attacks' I already had severe neck pain that came throughout the day all days for the last couple years or so that I could remember. A chiropractor learned my history and linked it to a minor car accident I had when I was 16 or 'growing pains' or being a gymnast as a kid/teen. There were MRI tests of my head and neck that showed no signs of anything in my head other than a small pineal cyst which they said is not likely to be causing any symptoms nor is a sign of danger. The cervical MRI showed mild degenerative narrowing and 'dynamic anterolisthesis of C2 on C3'.  With all of that info I was also prescribed to a few months (Aug 2017-October 2017) of PT which really brought attention how poor my posture is and where I carry my stress (neck). 

Around being 'diagnosed' with Occiptial Neuralgia and reading up about it, it gave me tons of relief anxiety wise and shedded off a lot of fear for other things. Also at the end of Aug 2017 I had quit one of two jobs I had that brought me TONS of stress. A job that I was told by many of my friends and my husband that I should let go and that the cons over-weighed the pros significantly. 

So between quitting my job, doing PT, taking the Nortriptyline, and letting go of most of my anxiety and fears through healthy and non-intense exercise and stretches and similar meditative ways, those ON 'flare-ups' dissipated immensely to where any flare up felt and currently feels more like a quicker zap and dull pain in my neck and back of the head (now right side) that was more manageable rather than what I would compare to the previous learned Cluster Headache. 

I also can see what the very similar symptoms that Occiptial Neuralgia flare ups and Cluster Headaches share. So along with all of this information, I may have improved lots mentally, emotionally, and physically. But the little thought of Cluster Headaches will still make me wonder if I was/am a contender for them and that I went on remission from them and if the doctor mis-diagnosed me. This feeds into a little bit of anxiety and minor flare-up pain.

My questions for those who have either Occipital Neuralgia, Cluster Headaches, or a doctor/nurse/someone that has vast knowledge of them are..

1) Could any of you relate to this story/head pain?  

2)What are your thoughts? Mis-diagnosis? Is it possible to have ON and CH together?! I've read that those already both have slim statistics to have just the one.  

One of my theories was that my anxiety and symptoms of pain snowball-ed into one another to make things flare-up just to mock Cluster Headaches (fingers crossed that's the case). But I also do find when comparing the two that the more leaking eye after an episode is not common in ON and only in CH. Another thing I had was the restlessness during an episode that I only read information on the sort when it came to CH and not during an ON flare-up. 

When I read the stats of both cases my age/age of onset which was 29 and now I'm 30 going into 31 in a couple months which seemed more common for CH rather than ON. However, I don't qualify to fall in the larger ratio categories besides age to be commonly linked to it. -Never a smoker-Will drink occasionally only socially a beer or two if any, no hard alcohol-Not even close to being overweight, pretty active when healthy, etc.

Sorry for the very long essay, I just wanted to fit every detail in and lately I've been starting to fear that I was misdiagnosed and that the CH will come back. Thanks for reading all of this! And I'm sorry to offend anyone that has either of the sort into self-diagnosing myself previously.

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