Christina's Story: Why her "migraine" headaches never got better
Christina is a 37 year-old housewife and mother of two. "I've been suffering with headaches for most of my adult life" she reports, "and I've seen my family doctor, female doctor and two neurologists who have done so many x-rays, MRI's and blood tests that have lead to no diagnosis and no relief".
Her complaint is typical of headache sufferers. In fact, more than 80% of the headache population is felt to have "primary" headaches where there is no specific identifiable cause. Treatment is usually a series of trials of various medications, many of which have side effects and are not effective. So many of these folks never get relief; they are lumped into the "migraine headache" category and left to spend years searching for the right doctor or the right drug. This was Christina's story.
"I was sent to Riverside Spine for my low back, but Dr. Kramarich asked me about my headaches, too. When I complained of deep, aching and grinding pain in my neck and a cracking popping sound, he said he could help." As it turned out, one of the previous tests Christina had done revealed arthritis of the neck at the tiny facet joints, something that the physicians at Riverside Spine know to be a frequent cause of neck pain and headaches.
A complete physical examination additionally revealed muscular spasm across the neck and shoulders, with trigger points. "I have stress with my family situation and job, and as the day wears on I notice tightness in my neck, with hard marbles of muscle under the skin that are very tender and seem to cause my headaches", Christina reported to her doctor. "Sometimes, the neck pain and tightness are so bad, I feel the pain radiating up onto the back of my head, across my forehead and behind my eyes".
Because of his significant experience treating other "migraine" sufferers, Dr. Kramarich was able to accurately diagnose Christina as having pain coming from the bones, muscles and nerves that are part of the cervical spine (neck). "Cervicogenic headache is one of the most overlooked causes of headache, because most physicians are not trained to diagnose and treat problems coming from the structures of the neck" says Dr. Kramarich. "By using carefully selected injection therapies such as facet joint injections, muscle injections and nerve blocks an interventional pain physician is uniquely able to identify and treat these headaches."
"Now I have periods of no headaches lasting for weeks at a time", says Christina, "and I enjoy my children and job again. With fewer headaches of less intensity, I actually have less stress, so that helps the headaches even more!" Dr. Kramarich was able to perform a series of minimally invasive spine procedures with fine needles and low-dose X-ray at the cervical spine, and ultimately a radiofrequency procedure, which is a controlled and low temperature burn of the nerves involved in causing the headaches. Christina's neck muscle spasm was so severe that she was a candidate for Botox injections to alleviate this source of her neck pain and headaches as well.
Christina now spends time doing physical therapy exercises daily. "I don't mind seeing my doctor if I need special treatments, but if there's something I can do for myself to help, then why not?" Dr. Kramarich feels that Christina's story is fairly representative of many of Riverside Spine's successes with cervicogenic headache sufferers. "We are so happy to be able to diagnose and treat something that usually goes unrecognized by other doctors who don't look at things from the anesthesiology spine physician's perspective." Christina says "I'm just glad I finally found someone who listened to me, put it all together with an accurate diagnosis and treatment plan, and got my headaches improved and my life back on track!"
To read a 2009 interview with Dr. Kramarich and other professionals who treat headache, click here.