Hello,
Does anyone get really bad headaches post gamma knife surgery.
I have been to my PCP and the Dr. that did the surgery, they say it is not from the surgery or the AVM, but I never got them before.
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Yes I hade gama knife in Nov 2016 and my pcp says the same thing. They dont think they are linked to my avm… Not sure what else to think or say.
I think @amcoffey has had a pretty tough time post gamma. Alyssa, how does your experience compare with Chuck or Rob?
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Yes I have had a lot of trouble post cyber knife radiation. My radiologist has told me all of my headaches/ disorientation, loss of some sight, and muscle spasms are from brain swelling. The brain swelling comes from the radiation treatment due to your brain being irritated from the treatment and trying to heal itself. Actually, i recently have been having more problems with the headaches and I am a little over a year post radiation treatment. I have been on and off steroids for this amount of time and the steroids help but they are not good to be on for that amount of time so they are trying to find other ways. I take Tylenol arthritis or Tylenol extra strength every 8 hours and use an ice pack. The other thing that was suggested was a drug called Avastin to reduce the brain swelling which will in turn get rid of the headaches etc. They said my swelling has been this bad and lasted this long because they had to treat a larger area, about a 4cm large AVM.
If they give you an MRI with and without contrast they will be able to tell if there is brains swelling from the radiation.
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When I had my unrelated stroke and had swelling on my brain I was prescribed something. The first day home my pharm did not have the meds but my husband was able to get something from REI that he put in my water. Both the REI and drugs tasted terrible. I am sorry I cant recall what either was called but I am sure a neuro would know and can prescribe it
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I too did cyberknife on this June but my headache was from last 9 months and was diagnosed recently.after surgery I too had severe headache for week followed by chronic hiccups. Now headache is less severe .but once a time in a day I get chronic headache aggravated by thoughts continously running in mind