All,

I haven't read everything here so I apologize if some suggestions are
here already. Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I signed up with this group to try to find more about the headache(s)
I have been having since late April of this year and get some
suggestions on where I can get help. I have so far been diagnosed with
"Chronic daily headache / Migraine", had an CAT scan, MRI (without
gadolinium contrast), EEG, and a spinal tap/lumbar puncture done. With
the exception of the first three showing a previous infarct (from a
car accident 18 years ago) no "cause" has yet been found. I've tried
everything from aspirin/Tylenol/ibuprofen/naproxen/allergy medicine
(and most every other over the counter pain relievers including
putting salon pas on my forehead) as well as Imitrex, Maxalt, Midrin,
and Zomig to no avail. For varying amounts of time I have been on
topamax, neurontin (primarily for anxiety), Inderal, Cymbalta
(primarily for major depressive disorder and anxiety), Elavil,
vitamins (B12, folate, fish oil, and one-a-day.) The only medicines
that helped were toridal (given in injection form [once] at an urgent
care facility) which provided a small amount of relief but made me
feel weird, and Fiorocet w/codeine but it did not abort it completely
- They took me off of that because it appears the doctors did not want
me in less pain. I am currently on short term disability from work
trying to learn to cope with my depression -- I am terrified about
going back as my performance over the last few months has been
declining due to my inability to concentrate well on one thing much
less the usual five or six things going on at once at work. I was
hoping to get down to the "root cause" of my headaches or at least
some relief for during the day but at this point it does not appear
that is going to happen.

I have seen my family doctor, a psychologist (thinking the headaches
might have been kicked off by my depression/anxiety), two
neurologists, a psychiatrist that also specializes in headaches, a
neuro-opthamologist to see if it was caused by eye strain (I have
Strabismus which has returned - I had it as a child and had surgery
for it around age 7), my dentist (to check for Temporomandibular joint
disorder aka TMD or some other dental problem), an ear nose and throat
doctor (to check for Sinusitis), the Diamond head clinic in downtown
Chicago (they offered me one option - to go inpatient for at least a
week; at the time I was unwilling as I would not be paid for that time
off. I am reconsidering this now.)

As I mentioned briefly above, I also have major depressive disorder
and generalized anxiety disorder that started around the same time as
the headaches. The psychiatrist I am currently seeing said believes
the depression is causing the headaches. I was originally on Lexapro
(starting in July) and that did not effectively treat the headaches or
the depression/GAD. I am currently on Cymbalta for depression/GAD and
that seemed to help with the headaches (reducing pain intensity, not
stopping) from about 10/7/2007 - 10/14/2007, but now they are back to
the old severity.

Any thoughts? I am in the Chicago land area - I got yet another
referral to a different headache clinic up in Racine, Wisconsin but
that is not until December.

Karl