Brief Answer:
Sounds like this will self resolve with tincture of time if isolated event

Detailed Answer:
Good morning and Happy Holidays to you though I know you're under the weather. I am a neurologist and headache specialist and happy to give some advice. In fact, you will frequently find me at the Annual XXXXXXX Headache Society's Headache Symposium in XXXXXXX AZ at the Camelback Inn.

It doesn't sound as if you are a person that suffers from or has ever suffered from major headaches in the past from your history........OR....have you? The only reason I put that statement in that way is because in women especially we see a phenomenon of recrudescence of migraine headaches starting around ages 65-70 which had previously disappeared around age 50. You are 71 and you have a SHARP eye pain which would not be an unusual place for a migraine type of headache to strike a person.

You say that the headache is a definite side effect of the medication. I would be more likely to agree with that statement if you would also add that you have no headache history of importance to register. If on the other hand, you do have a remote history of bad or even migraine headaches that since disappeared or burned out....this headache may be a recrudescence or an exacerbation of a previous baseline condition depending upon the antibiotic.

I see you are also reporting taking Extra Strength Tylenol. My fear is that for the last 10 days that you've had the headaches you've been also chewing on those....and while intermittent and episodic treatment of headaches with something like Tylenol is no harmful or significant there is a line we tend to draw in the sand that prohibits the use of MORE THAN 15 DOSES of agents such as Tylenol, Motrin, Naprosyn, essentially ALL OTC drugs for headaches in order to avoid something referred to as a MEDICATION OVERUSE HEADACHE (MOH). Sometimes MOH's can start out feeling like parts of a bad headache and even progress to migraine status. Therefore, be alert to how much Tylenol you may be taking.....the fact that you've had the headache for 10 days and the Tylenol hasn't really gotten rid of it tells us that there is a chance MOH could be at play.

On the other hand if we dispense with all the doom and gloom and just do the old fashioned remedy of drinking lots of WATER, eating good square meals so as not to be hypoglycemic, and not being too overly stressed out then, this headache (along with the fact that you are no longer taking the antibiotic) may very well disappear in 1-2 days.

If, however, this should not be the case and not only does pain in or around the eye continue or worse there happens to be some blurriness of vision....or you break out with a red dimply like rash on the side of the head which is painful to the touch then, you must get to a doctor immediately and preferably a neurologist in order to rule out 2 things......1st would be a herpetic zoster infection and the 2nd would be something called Temporal Arteritis. I think of those 2 possibilities and based on VERY LIMITED information on your part my index of suspicion for the latter is very very very small at this point.....but it must be thought of and discussed with patients such as yourself...especially since I'm not able to examine you....of course, XXXXXXX OH is not too terribly bad on Christmas Holiday....we do have some snow outside....for the sake of mood that's all! LOL...

If your headache does not resolve or complicates as I've described or in any other way such as with nausea, vomiting, photo or phonophobia (sensitivity to light or sound), seeing stars, flashes of flickering lights, etc......then, you need to march yourself off to an Urgent Care Center or if necessary an ER and be examined.

Doctors of preference would be NEUROLOGIST, HEADACHE SPECIALIST (I know they some excellent ones there at the Mayo Clinic in XXXXXXX as a matter of fact....there is a Dr. XXXXXXX Dodick who is extremely well known in the Headache world. He may not recall me because it's been years since we've spoken at any of the meetings but I'm sure he's used to that sort of thing since he probably gets tons of area and even national referrals.

If the pain in the eye doesn't get better or worsens and you get any sort of rash or burning sensation on the skin another very good specialist to see would be an OPHTHALMOLOGIST or a DERMATOLOGIST...both of whom could recognize an ocular/orbital herpetic lesion easily.

But my money's on the self resolution only because of the limited information and the fact that I'm assuming you've never had anything like this before.

If I've provided useful and helpful information to your questions could you do me a huge favor by CLOSING THE QUERY and be sure to include some fine words of feedback along with a 5 STAR rating? Again, many thanks for posing your question and please let me know how things turn out.

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This query has utilized a total of 44 minutes of professional time in research, review, and synthesis for the purpose of formulating a return statement.

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