sudden, infrequent shooting pain in my head

I went through the window of a car when I was 14 years old, but luckily was not hurt badly. I didn't see a doctor as I was doing stupid things at the time and was scared to death my parents and coaches would find out. Long story short, I began having these sharp shooting pains in my head shortly afterwards. As I became older, I worried more and more about the consequences of what had happened. I had various tests performed including a CT and MRI...nothing. I was honest at this time with my doc and told him what had happened to me at an early age. He told me the pain was probably coming from damaged nerve endings, and that it was not serious, just something I'd have to deal with. I am 45 now, and still have the pains from time to time and it is very frustrating. As like a lot of you though, I have learned to accept it and usually don't stress over it. You really do pay for things later in life by the decisions you make early in your life.

Just today for the past couple of hours I have been experiencing a sharp pain in my right ear. Like someone takes a sharp object and stabs it in my ear, quick and painful and then it's gone, but then it seems to strike again without warning and is rather painful! I'm also having tenderness to touch on the back top part of my head, don't know if it's related to the pain, but kinda hurts a little when I rub my head there. I had the same ear symptoms last year sometime. Don't remember if I had the head tenderness at the same time, but I have had the head tenderness before. Guess I should document it for my own personal health and wellness and for the doc. I haven't taken anything for the pain. Perhaps drinking water would help if the sinuses are drying out from what I've read in this forum. If it continues, I will probably call the doctor to make an appointment for it. If I learn any resolve on it I will certainly revisit this forum and let you know!

Suffered exactly the same headache in exactly the same place and felt like I was being hit with a toothpick/pickaxe and some felt like they were travelling down to my toes. Had to go to the doctors as it was affecting my work and he gave me diclofenac and said to continue taking pain killers. They have eased off some, thankfully

Well to add to the long list, I have experienced shooting pains as well. Mine are across the top of my head and always go from right to left, lasting one second, and are infrequent as well.
last night I experienced a great deal of anxiety about the pain. Another i suppose related incident, was last Wednesday, early evening I experienced a massive non-stop headache. Unfortunately, drugs, hot packs and relaxation did not diminish the pain at all, and the more I tried to ignore the pain and rest the stronger the pain appeared. Eventually I managed to get to sleep, and the next day it was if nothing had happened.

Hello all,

I am 23 years old.Today i experienced a sudden shooting and stabbing pain on the left side of my head.It felt like that pain had something to do with some nerve.For around 5 minutes that pain kept flowing to and fro between left eye and left side of head.This is the first time i experienced such pain.

I have low BP most of the time.Upper reading keeps varying from 90-105 and lower 60-80.Some days back i fainted while visited one of my relative in ICU.I fell down and came to consciousness after 4-5 seconds with heavy sweating.I recently lost around 10 Kgs in 3-4 months due to heavy cut in dietary intake.Still, i am 2 kg overweight according to my height.

Now i have started eating properly but then also these things keep happening.I am really confused and worried.

I have had "brain pain" for a few years now after a three week illness that put me in bed unable to walk for around the first few days but I could not get warm to save my life and no matter how many blankets I had, I just shivered. My aunt died of a brain tumour, could this be early signs of the same?

I have been reading hundreds of posts trying to figure out what my problem is but I'm still clueless.

Over the past 4 or 5 days, I've had a pain that pulsates in the left side of my head. It comes and goes, it's not a constant pain. But when it does come, it hurts terribly for a second. Sometimes it happens repeatedly. It's enough pain that it makes me stop whatever I'm doing for an instant. It makes me cringe and wince and then it's gone.

I palpitated my scalp and on the back/left side of my skull there is a slightly swollen spongy area that when I touch it, it is very tender.

I have not hit my head or been in any kind of accident. I'm a 38 y/o female with only minor health issues. Underactive thyroid, Endometriosis, and Depression/Anxiety.

If someone can make a helpful suggestion, I would appreciate it immensely!!

I'm having the exact same thing.

Its been going on for about a week now. Off an on throughout the day I'll get these sharp stabbing pains in the side/back of my head.

In the same spot each time. It happens randomly through the day, maybe a few times an hour.



I'm super healthy besides that and not on any medication or anything. Just these crazy head pains that came out of no where.



Anyone have any clue what it is or if it will stop?

I've just been having these shooting pains these past 5 days. I can only describe it as a shooting pain. It's on the right side of my head. Between the top of my head and my right ear. There is no pattern to the pain. I had a good day yesterday where the pain only came a few times. Today is a bad day. The shooting pains have been coming and going all day. The pains last for about 1 to 2 seconds. And, can happen as frequently as every 15 seconds to just a few times a day. The pain is not as painful as a knife like others have described. But, its jarring enough to move my head physically from the pain. As if I'm trying to avoid the pain. Sometimes the pain does seem to be triggered by my movements. For example, raising my right eyebrow, looking to my left, yawning, burping, etc. Or, even brushing my fingers through my hair on the right side of my head. Sometimes it feels like my hair is connected to the pain. I was quite worried and still am. BUT, I read this post on another site that gave me some ease. They said that this could be caused from a pinched nerve in your shoulders or neck. The post said to put all your fingers on the top part of your shoulders. I took this to be the muscles near my neck. And, push them towards each other. They said this should make the pain stop. I tried this and it worked for me. But, the pain returns as soon as I release the muscles. But, it helped me feel a little better knowing that it might be a pinched nerve rather than something worse. ALSO, they said to try putting your fingers on the back of your neck. Not crossed. Not even finger tip to finger tip. Just as though you were about to message your neck. Put some pressure on your neck. That should also take away the pain. This one doesn't work for me. But, its something else you can try. I haven't gone to the doctors yet. But, if the pain continues for another week, I plan to go get checked up. I can function (I am typing this post), but its just annoying as hell. Please, let me know if anyone else has come across the pinched nerve scenario.

Uhh yeah I just had the same pain. That's how I ended up on this page in fact. I'm not sure why I get it. Could someone explain it? %-)

I have been getting these sharp shooting pains up the back of my skull. There could be a break of a few months but tonight I got two within the space of 10 minutes. It is like a nerve that quickly stops me in my tracks but then the pain disappears after a few minutes and i'm fine again. I have seen a few posts here but does anyone have been told any answers????

I also had something like this

hi ive been having the same kind of problem to and i just dont know what to do any more! its been going on for about a few years where it just comes and go at any given time and it would last about 2 to 3 min... but the only thing with my pain is its all over or some time it could just be in one spot and when it do show up it just makes me want to pull all my hair out. can someone please tell me what to do? i would like to go see a doctor but im scared of what might come of the visit...

Well, I'm no doctor, but I can sympathize with everyone here ... For most of my life I've been experiencing migraines, abnormally long 'normal' headaches, and the random shooting pain through my head. Most of my life has been spent being very anxious, depressed, etc, growing up poor, in the ghetto, moving around at least once a year, etc, etc .... Finally at the beginning of this year, exactly on January 2nd 2009, I started getting heart palpitations, extreme nausea, extreme diziness and vertigo, trouble concentrating, sometimes I'd get blurred and/or tunnel vision, etc. I ended up going to the ER some 9 times in the last 7 months just trying to figure out what is going on because sometimes the symptoms hit so hard and so fast, I become immeasurably terrified that I am going to keel over and die.

Throughout all of these visits to the ER I was told I was having everything from side effects of missing a cup of coffee and thus having some caffeine withdrawal, to what they call Absence Seizures, side effects of the Oxycodone I take for my back (which I knew wasn't the cause as I've been on it for years without these symptoms), and so forth. The thing is, 99% of the time they were just educated guesses, no scans where done, very few blood tests were run, etc.

This past Monday I finally went back to my new PCP and explained to her that something has to be done about this, I cannot continue living like this, especially with the random pains running through my head and since January, even my body would start to hurt for seemingly no reason; I'd just be sitting there watching TV and all of a sudden my shoulders hurt as if I spent the entire day lifting weights or something.

He ran some tests, checked me for infections, etc, and determined that I have what she strongly believed to be GAD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder. She says it is extremely common and is easily treatable. She put me on Lexapro and told me that within a month I should be feeling far better, not be experiencing a lot of the symptoms I have, and should progress from there; that is if her diagnosis is correct. I've only been on the Lexapro for two days now, but so far I've had fewer shooting pains through my head, but a slight increase in breathing issues (sometimes it seems like I didn't get enough air, but it's only just bad enough for me to barely notice it) and an increase in vertigo. About 10 minutes ago, which prompted me to look this up and led to finding this forum, I had a pain hit me that I've never felt before ... It literally felt like someone took a nail and drove it into the inside of my forehead, then pulled it out real quick. This pain was so intense it made my vision stutter, and send a cold feeling throughout my entire body. Naturally, having never felt this before, I was frightened, started worrying about a aneurysm or something along those lines, started to get panicky, etc (which is exactly the type of things I've been dwelling over since January and what led to my doctor diagnosing me with GAD, she says the more I worry about it and think about all the bad things it could me, the worse it gets and the more my body exaggerates all the symptoms, which she is attributing to abnormal levels of Serotonin in my systems, hence the Lexapro) ... So I called her and explained to her what I had felt and how frightening it was and she assures me these types of things are common when first getting on Lexapro, sometimes it exaggerates the symptoms itself before it starts to work it's magic.

I know this is all a big long winded and all but it seemed like a lot of people were having the same kind of issues here, but not a lot of suggestions and comments about what it would be, existing diagnosis of other members, etc, were being posted, so I thought I'd explain my situation in hopes that maybe someone else going through all this sees this and may discover they are having the same problems.

I thought i would inquire about this as i get a dull pain that intensifies to a sharp pain, on the left side of the brain its usually toward the top and side. It usually lasts about 10-20 seconds seconds and happens once every couple of weeks.
However i find myself how do i say this hallucinating uhm not visually but... by smell... like just before it will happen my sense of smell amps up and then its suddenly like i smelled a chocolate cake, watermelon, or a really strong perfume (the overwhelming type you would smell from department stores) Its the same 3 smells... ; then about 30 seconds later ill get the pain... is this normal?