I have had headaches for several years, and over the last two years they have gotten more frequent and intense along with developing some more odd accompanying symptoms. The pain starts in the base a my skull at the top of my neck and most times follows a straight line through my skull to my eyes. My eyes swell at times, and my face becomes flushed. Due to some intermittent post nasal drip I have been treated for various sinus conditions several times over the years (to no avail.) They almost always begin when I wake up in the morning and persist sometimes for several days. I'll go sometimes a week without one, and then a months passes where I have 3-5 a week cycling through pain and extreme pressure behind the eyes, and then dizziness afterwards, and sometimes there is vomiting. Recently there have been visual disturbances as well as some numbness and/or burning in my face. Aside from the typical "screen door" effect, I sometimes see movement where there is none, long straight objects appear to be swaying back and forth, or vibrating at about a 45 degree angle out of my vision. When I look a flat surfaces straight on they appear to breath, or sometimes move towards me and then away again. I have had MRI w/ and w/o contrast as well as and MRA that revealed nothing. I have taken 200mg of amitriptyline for several months and found a small amount of relief. I am currently under the care of a neurologist who has perscribed all of the tests and meds, (which also include flexeril, soma and high dose ibuprofen) Along with the mri and such he has had me run a course of physical therapy which gave me some more mobility in my neck, but was otherwise useless. He has cycled me through numerous triptans, none of which have worked more than one or two times, and I have now started topamax which seems to have intensified the visual disturbances (although this could be a coincidence.) After my last visit with my neurologist I am quite frustrated as he looked at my headache log (which showed headaches mostly 5 days a week averaging around 4-6 on a scale of 10 and peaking at about an 8 or 9 once a week or so) and said "Well, this isn't too bad..." He has obviously never experienced chronic pain...
I'm just wondering if anyone has any similar experiences, or perhaps some idea of what is going on, I'm nearing my wits end with this junk, and though I don't expect to be pain free 100% of the time, I would at least like to see SOME improvement.

Thanks in advance for your time and effort.


J.D.