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PATIENT STORY: "I now have my life back,"
says Tony Elder after treatment for
cluster headaches at Edward. |
A Headache Clinic 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 Mohammed 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."
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.
Edward Headache Clinic Hours and Location
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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