Eating dinner and sudden pain in lower back of head. Hurt so much I had to get up and start moving, pressing down where the pain is with my hands. Start looking for the curved massage stick, thinking pressure might help. Walked around, "Owww, owwww." Behind left eye starts hurting, hard to keep open. Thinking eye strain headache? Raise both arms and stick out tongue, good, not stroke. Lie down on white pressure pont thing and put cold pad on forehead. Its cold. Tuck into blankets, pain not as intense now but still there. Fall asleep for about an hour. Wake up, pain still there but milder. Start looking up symptoms and find Occipital Neuralgia. Earlier in day, around midday, neck starts hurting around the atlas. Hurt my head trying to stretch it out and also pull up. At work develop mild headache. Again, thinking possible eye strain as I was on computer today. Also start thinking maybe Chip tweaked something yesterday, had chiro adjustment yesterday morning. As I type this, a bit hard keeping my left eye open. Brightness bothers it.
Occipital neuralgia symptoms and causes
If you have occipital neuralgia, you may experience one or more of these symptoms:
- Throbbing, aching pain or sharp, electric-like pain that typically starts where the back of your head meets your neck.
- Pain that radiates to one side of your head, down your neck and/or back.
- Pain behind your eye.
- Increased sensitivity of your scalp.
These symptoms can be caused by irritation of the occipital nerves along their path, which may occur:
- Spontaneously, as a result of a pinched nerve root in your neck due to an injury or surgery. Commonly the roots of C2 and/or C3 at the top of your cervical spine are affected.
- Due to irritation/compression from tight neck muscles. This muscle tightness may be associated with physical or emotional stress.
https://www.spine-health.com/blog/occipital-neuralgia-what-it-and-how-treat-it
Most Common Reasons Adults Get Occipital Neuralgia
Many adults suffering with occipital neuralgia have a history of whiplash in the previous 10-15 years. This is often the “first domino” in a series of events that displaced the alignment of the upper neck. The reflexive muscle spasm in the upper neck can compress and irritate the greater and lesser occipital nerves producing the symptoms of occipital neuralgia.
UPDATE 3/25/21 (next day): Saw Chip Schelly today, C2 and C3 were "jammed" and when he cracked it, he said it moved quite a bit. And yes, it was occipital neuralgia. According to him, it usually happens when people are painting a ceiling or bird watching, doing something that has you looking up for a while which would pinch that nerve. If anything, I usually look down at the computer/phone. I've found some sources say that bad posture could cause this, or muscle tightness in neck. Felt about 80% better after seeing him, then about 90% as the day went on. It's 9pm now and the pain is starting to creep in. My neck has cracked a few time today and clicked off and on. I hope it doesn't come back. It was really painful. Probably something similar to text neck.
UPDATE 2 Headache still there though it was better each day, especially in the morning but got worse as the day went on. Didn't quite feel "right" so I went back on Monday, 3/29/21 and got another adjustment. This one helped me over the nagging hump and by Thursday the headache was gone, although there was still tightness in my neck. I just wanted the pain gone before heading down to see Baba on 4/2/21.
