In my perusing around Facebook and the forums dedicated to headaches and occipital neuralgia, I see so many who find comfort that they are not alone, and in fact one of my previous posts highlighted that even NBA basketball stars get migraines. Patients who have suffered long and felt alone should find comfort in the fact that migraine headaches affect about 20% of humans, and while incompletely understood, there are many therapies out there and many different kinds of doctors who help migraine patients.
That said, I have also been fielding a lot of questions from patients who are looking for a straightforward answer to a complex of individualized issues, and this is also the norm. By that I mean that many of the 20% of folks with migraines have relatively complex histories rather than just simple headaches. Each migraine headache patient has had an individualized development of this condition, and many will have different associated conditions which may or may not play into the course of their migraine headaches. Disc disease, aneurysm history, previous trauma, Chiari Malformations…. many questions that I’ve seen relate variable histories and other medical issues that can muddy the waters.
The most frequent question that I get is if migraine headache surgery can help. As each patient is an individual, each patient needs to be evaluated and worked up in a fashion tailored to their particular history. A quick question on the internet is not the best, or even a good way to get an evaluation as to the best way to alleviate your migraine headache pain. If you have persistent migraine pain or occipital neuralgia despite other measures prescribed by other doctors, migraine headache surgery for nerve decompression and treatment of occipital neuralgia may very well be a great option for you. But the thing to do in this case is to make an appointment with a qualified migraine surgery specialist to discuss your individualized situation. While it is true that you are not alone, it is also true that you are not exactly like any other person in the world, and you should be treated as such.
