Naperville Sun HealthAware column:
Tough headaches meet their match at Edward Clinic
December 26, 2012
A Headache Clinic now available at the Edward Neurosciences Institute in Naperville brings new hope to headache sufferers – even many who have battled excruciating headaches for years.
Tony Elder of Romeoville began having headaches in 2005 when he was 31. Once or twice a week he was hit with searing pain behind and around his eye, which also would become red and watery. This pattern accelerated in 2010 when the attacks, which usually last about 45 minutes, starting coming two or three times a day.
"It was debilitating,” says Elder. “I couldn't see or think clearly."
He tried acupuncture, massage therapy, physical therapy and traditional medicine, but nothing helped. That changed when he was referred to Mohammad Sajed, MD, Director of Neurocritical Care at the Edward Neurosciences Institute, who also directs the Headache Clinic.
Dr. Sajed diagnosed Elder with a relatively rare type of head pain know as a cluster headache.
"The pain is so severe, it's compared to the pain of multiple fractures, and sometimes leads to thoughts of suicide," says Dr. Sajed.
When he saw Dr. Sajed at the Headache Clinic in May 2012, Elder says, "He could see I was at the end of my rope and he began treatments immediately."
Dr. Sajed gave him nerve block injections and a prescription for a preventive medicine, Verapamil. A nerve block is an injection of medicine onto or near a nerve to decrease or stop the passage of nerve impulses. Elder hasn't had a cluster headache since the treatment.
"I now have my life back," says Elder. “I'm so glad I found Dr. Sajed. He's not only a great doctor, but a very caring person."
Romeoville resident Jennifer Cooper, 40, is another Headache Clinic patient with a new lease on life. Toward the end of her 2011-2012 school year as an instructional aide, Cooper began getting headaches, first thought to be hypertension related.
"By May these attacks were coming at least twice a day and I had trouble sleeping," says Cooper.
She had throbbing pain on one side of her head, nausea, vomiting and sensitivity to light and noise. One episode was so bad that she went to the Edward Emergency Department.
Because Cooper had the symptoms of recurring migraine headaches she was referred to the Edward Neurosciences Institute, specifically to Dr. Sajed. He’s able to give her nerve block injections for her migraines, if needed. Not all neurologists or even all headache clinics have this capability.
Dr. Sajed administered eight shots of a steroid/anesthetic mix into Cooper's scalp, and prescribed Topamax pills for prevention.
“By later that afternoon the pain eased up,” she says. “And, compared to before the shots, there are no words to describe how much better I felt by the next day."
She's had no migraines since the treatment in May.
Edward's Headache Clinic provides state-of-the art diagnosis and care for sufferers of all types of headaches, from the simplest to the most complex. Among treatments recently added is Botox injection for certain migraines. The Headache Clinic is open Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. For more information or to make an appointment, call (630) 527-7730.
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