Occipital Neuralgia Surgery

Hello Friends!!!!  I'm back with another blog post and forgive my delay in my writings.  I've been recuperating from occipital nerve decompression surgery.  So today, I want to spend some time sharing what I've learned about the trauma to my occipital region that significantly impacted my overall functioning, what treatment options I've tried, and why surgery was my last and best option for relief.

Nervous about my initial consult

I was a front seat passenger riding with my friend when we were rear ended.  It was a quick, loud, but very powerful force that sifted through my whole body.  As my body rocked forward, it slammed back with even more force and unfortunately for me, my head took a serious blow onto the headrest.  My occipital region was impacted as well as my frontal region and some of the areas that affect motor and speech.  You could say my entire brain just shifted back and forth.  At that time, I didn't know what would be the result of such a blow, but I knew enough to wait it out and monitor my symptoms.

Having headaches with this type of injury is normal and expected.  The brain is inflamed and trying to settle down.  The brain is very jelly-like and delicate so nerves were excited and I still needed to use this injured brain to somewhat function.  In my case, I had even more excruciating pain from the inflammation to the upper cervical nerves in my neck radiating over the scalp.  There were times I'd feel pain behind my left eye that would not respond to any medication even Vicodin.  Sometimes all I could do was rest and wait for it to pass in about 2 days.  Talk about agony!!!!!

Frequency of my headaches:  I would have at least 3-4 headaches a week.  Sometimes the headaches would be on my left side and often it would be on both sides.  The duration could be anywhere from 4-12 hours and sometimes 24 hours.  It's amazing how you learn to cope with that kind of gnawing pain.  I also noticed they would intensify from dull to sharp and pressure type headaches when the barometric pressure would be high.  So you know rainy, stormy days were a complete blast; literally!!! LOL! Seemingly, a  blast to my brain.  I would sometimes sit and ask myself how am I ever going to function again and get on with my life?  How can I go back to work with such a chronic debilitating issue plaguing my life almost every day?  On top of the headaches, I had severe sensitivity to light and sound.  This made me such a horrible person to socialize with.  I just wanted to get away from people like an Autistic person.  All types of stimuli got on my nerves.  Don't even get me started about going to the grocery store.  That was literal hell.  I still want to abolish fluorescent lights for all mankind.

Treatments prior to surgery: I was under the care of a physiatrist for about a year.  She is a doctor who specializes in pain and rehabilitation.  I took Motrin 800 mg as needed every 6 hours for many months. It worked sometimes and other times not so much.  It also led to gastritis (inflammation of stomach lining).  So now I cannot take that drug at all.  My doctor also tried trigger point injections into the base of my neck and shoulder region where pain would also radiate into.  I experienced some relief, but the nerves were still inflamed because they were under pressure.

Chiropractor:  I found chiropractic care minimally helped my condition.  I felt more relief with my lower back issues than I did for the neuralgia.  I also felt really weird about anyone adjusting my neck.  I would always feel a tingling sensation with each adjustment and I eventually stopped him from doing them.  I was afraid of being further injured.  Never proceed with a treatment you are uncomfortable with no matter how much the doctor or therapist tells you to relax and be ok with.  It's your right to decide what's right for you.

Steroids/lidocaine Nerve blocks: Throughout my injury, I have been on steroids at least 3 times for my pain and inflammation.  I've taken them orally and had them injected into my occipital regions.  The injections were no fun but it was amazing to be in pain and then feel it go away almost immediately, thanks to the numbing effects of the lidocaine.  After these treatments, I would then be told to ice the sites at least 4 times a day for about 20 minutes.  It helped a lot, but not enough to rid me of the neuralgia.  So that brings me to my last treatment option:  surgery.  Per my neurologist, after three nerve blocks, I had to have a surgical consult if I didn't feel better because they couldn't inject me any longer.

Surgery: Due to insurance denial or out of network issues, I had to travel from Maryland to New York for my nerve decompression surgery.  I received such great care with the Columbia University Medical staff and I'm so grateful for them relieving the pressure off of two nerve branches on the left side of my head.  I'll share some pics below of my incision and how it healed.

Don't judge me!!!! They are about to cut my head open, LOL!!!!!

The incision sites-1/12/17

When I woke up, I felt so much relief.  My surgery was about an hour and a half and in the recovery room, I could notice the lights didn't bother me so much.  That's when I knew I had made the right decision to have the surgery.  When Dr. Winfree came over and talked to me I asked him how bad was the compression of my nerves.  I was told one group was compressed by an artery and vein, and another group was compressed by muscle tissue or fascia.  So he said, "your nerves were indeed compressed, but I freed up a lot of space for them."  Ummmm, "thanks, doc!!!"

I do have neuralgia on the right side as well but it was not as bad as the left.  My neurologist in Baltimore wanted me to have both sides done at once, but my surgeon wanted to be a little conservative and see if decompressing one side will give me enough relief to hold off on additional surgery.  Well, it's been 4 months now and I am still holding steady.  If I do get a headache, it's nowhere nearly as bad as the ones I used to get before and a lot of times its atmospheric pressure changes, my sinuses, or allergies.  I'm just grateful I can tell the difference in the types of headaches I get now.  That alone is a blessing because it helps me know what to do to relieve them which most of the time, its rest and getting away from a lot of overstimulation.

Bus ride home the next day after surgery.  Percocet wasted!!!!!

Incision site the day after surgery 1/13/17

Incision site on 1/23/17 after staples removed

Having surgery may not be the ideal or best route for everyone, but I will tell you, it has been a life changer for me.  When nerves are irritated and compressed your whole body just cannot function as it would like to.  It's like that little annoying kid sitting behind you in church always tapping you on your shoulder or kicking his feet beneath your seat.  It is maddening guys.  My scars have healed very nicely and the swelling has gone down much more.  I wasn't even concerned about the scars, to be honest.  I wanted relief and I have long hair to cover the scars.  When you're in pain you get over your vanity really quickly.

I'm still taking my time to heal and have had some other health flare ups that are autoimmune related but at least one aspect of my injury has been managed well.  I'm grateful to God for his hand in all of this.  I'm grateful for health insurance, something that could be a fleeting commodity in our times if the government can't address the real issues impacting health care needs and those with pre-existing conditions.  OK, I'm not going to even get started on that.  We'll need a whole new blog post to contain my sentiments on healthcare in America.  God bless you all and stay strong.